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Idylle (Sheep and their Shepherds),
Image by Henri Martin (1860-1943),
Oil on canvas,
Painted circa 1925
© Sold Christie’s London, 25 June 2008, lot 498, for £540,000 |
Jesus said: ‘I tell you most solemnly, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold through the gate, but gets in some other way is a thief and a brigand. The one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the flock; the gatekeeper lets him in, the sheep hear his voice, one by one he calls his own sheep and leads them out. When he has brought out his flock, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow because they know his voice. They never follow a stranger but run away from him: they do not recognise the voice of strangers.’
Jesus told them this parable but they failed to understand what he meant by telling it to them.
So Jesus spoke to them again: ‘I tell you most solemnly, I am the gate of the sheepfold. All others who have come are thieves and brigands; but the sheep took no notice of them. I am the gate. Anyone who enters through me will be safe: he will go freely in and out and be sure of finding pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full.’ |
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| | Reflection on the Painting
Jesus often spoke deliberately in cryptic language, leaving His followers and audience wondering about what He meant. Today’s reading is a prime example of that. John even writes ‘Jesus told them this parable but they failed to understand what he meant by telling it to them’. Like any parable, the parable of today reveals the truth to those who seek it, but it also conceals the truth from those who are half-hearted about it. Jesus draws a sharp contrast between the blindness of the Pharisees and Himself; He compares them to false shepherds (whom He calls ‘thieves and brigands’ at the start of our passage); Jesus Himself is the true shepherd.
Sheep are mentioned in the Bible over 500 times, more than any other animal. All throughout Scripture, the close relationship between shepherds and their flocks is praised. The sheep recognise the voice of the shepherd and follow him. The shepherd protects and provides for his flock and even gives his life for them. And so we come to this lovely painting of sheep by Henri Martin, painted in the Pointillist style. Pointillism is a painting technique using tiny paint dots of various colours, which become blended in the viewer's eye, and create an overall soft, gentle, textured feel to the artwork. This is in contrast to the traditional methods of blending pigments on the painter’s palette. Here the colours get created on the canvas by juxtaposing dots. Looking up close to the canvas, one wouldn’t be able to make out what is painted; only at a distance do we as a viewer see the overall composition. It's the same with some of these more cryptic parables: when reading it up close the message isn’t always clear, but when placed and contemplated in its wider context of the whole of Jesus’ ministry, the beauty of the parable reveals itself.
by Patrick van der Vorst |  | |
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