At my church we are moving through a sermon series on the Seven Deadly Sins. This coming week is on greed, or avarice. The image is Punishment of the Avaricious and the Prodigal, a woodcut by Gustave Doré (1890). Doré has a series of images that were done to accompany Dante's Inferno, which can be viewed here if you're interested. The scene depicted by Doré caught my attention for several reasons. First, all of the men look like they are in a great deal of pain, or at the very least exerting most of their energy. Second, the destination is not in the frame, which suggests to me that there is a possibility that there isn't one. Third, I thought they were pushing boulders, until I saw the central figure's burden has a rip in it that is dropping coins. And finally, none of their faces are fully visible. Their hidden countenances made it a lot easier for me to see my own on their weary and burdened bodies.
In a time when the economy is at the worst it has been in my lifetime, and occurring when I am fresh out of college and supposed to be entering the "real world," it has been quite easy for me to spend most of my days worrying about storing up treasures for my future on this planet. I openly admit, and feel that I am in good company, that I have a very real fear of the future and not having money. When we live in a world where we are told constantly by every form of media possible that money can buy happiness, it's hard not to notice the thinness of your wallet. So my solution is to try and accumulate as much as possible, and to hoard and make it last as long as possible. Part of me knows I have enough for essentials and the means to survive, but the other part of me wants to be certain that I will not be empty. But judging by the look of Doré's nine men, not even money will provide happiness and fullness of life. Perhaps Doré wanted to suggest in his depiction of greed that money can easily be mistaken for mere stone, and in the end will be worth just as much. Perhaps Doré wanted the viewer to notice that these men have no faces because their identity is more accurately displayed by their possessions. Where is our identity found? Where is our security found? What are we laboring for, and for whose glory?
22Then Jesus said to his disciples: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. 23Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! 25Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 26Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? --Luke 12:22-26
This passage is quite easy to read, and fairly simple to comprehend, yet I have the hardest time living it. My anxiety and fear of the future gets out of control easily, and I put my full weight on my own strength and understanding, leaving me face down on the floor. The Lord truly is the provider, sustainer, and fulfiller of all things. Luke 12 is a great place to be reminded of that. Just as Doré's men provide each other with company in their pursuit of storing up riches, so too do we need each other to support us in the pursuit of His face, all the while seeking to store up treasure in the Eternal Places. "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Luke 12:34).
This story has both humbled and encouraged me. As I leave you with this, I hope it does the same.
Around the end of the nineteenth century, a tourist from the United States visited the famous Polish rabbi Hafez Hayyim. He was astonished to see that the rabbi's home was just a simple room filled with books. The only furniture was a table and a bench.
"Rabbi, where is your furniture?" asked the tourist.
"Where is yours?" replied Hafez.
"Mine? But I'm only a visitor here."
"So am I," said the rabbi.
(Taken from The Spirituality of Imperfection by Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketcham, New York: Bantam Books, 1992, p. 34)
Good insight on Dore's woodcut. This is good stuff to think about - I hope the Lord gives us the grace to live out these truths. Can you imagine what would happen if The Church lived in such a reality? HA! It would change EVERYTHING! Good post - on a similar note (or at least on the same keyboard) I stumbled on some video tonight of John Piper and Tim Keller - a point of discussion being the poor and the role and pitfalls of embracing a social gospel. Pretty interesting. I placed them all on my blog for easy reference www.terwilligerbuntsone.blogspot.com.
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