Our life's work (Part 1: Two kinds of work)

The Cranberry Harvest, East of Nantucket, Eastman Johnson, 1880

One of the things I enjoy about proofreading/editing is learning about a variety of interesting topics.

One paper I came across recently was about the Peach Blossom Spring, a poem written by the Chinese poet Tao Yuanming in 421 CE. In the tale, a fisherman accidentally discovers a village surrounded by a forest of blossoming peach trees, where people co-exist in utopian harmony. Some paintings inspired by the fable depict farmers peacefully working in their fields.

A more recent western manifestation of harmonious labour might be The Cranberry Harvest, East of Nantucket (shown above), displayed in the Timken Art Gallery in Balboa Park (San Diego, California). In this oil painting, Eastman Johnson depicts cranberry pickers of all ages revelling in their work, enjoying the rural setting and each other's company.

And thus the subject of this blog post

This has prompted me to think about the nature of work; specifically, two kinds of work described in the book of Genesis. 

After God creates the world, he plants a garden where all kinds of trees grow, including the tree of life (Gen. 2:8-9). God puts the man he has formed in the Garden of Eden 'to work it and take care of it' (v. 15), telling Adam he can enjoy and eat of every tree except for one (vv.16-17). God then makes Eve to help him in this work (v. 18). 

This is the first kind of work, which I will call Life-work: caring for God's garden, enjoying its provision and being able to eat of the tree of life. 

However, as we know, Adam and Eve eat from the forbidden tree, which results in their expulsion from the garden; this also results in their eventual death, since they no longer have access to the tree of life (vv. 22-24). God curses the ground from which Adam came and from which he must now work for food, rather than depending on the trees of the garden:

'Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,

and you will eat the plants of the field.

By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food

until you return to the ground,

since from it you were taken;

for dust you are and to dust you will return' (vv. 17-19). 

This is the second kind of work, which I will call dust-work: struggling to survive until we return to the dust.

Adam and Eve expelled from paradise

Life-work is enjoyable and fulfilling compared to dust-work, which is cursed to be challenging and tiresome. Both kinds of work result in nourishment, but in Life-work the food (fruit from the garden, especially the tree of life) comes with joy, while in dust-work the food (field plants) comes with strain. 

Because humanity is exiled from the garden, we are also barred from participating in Life-work. Our work, even the most fulfilling or enjoyable, is still only dust-work because it remains under the curse.

I don't think I need to provide an example of dust-work. Most of us have had jobs that are physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually challenging, whether paid or unpaid. Any job comes with stress, some more than others; if not, then we don't usually consider it 'work'. 

Or maybe Life-work is possible for us

These two kinds of work are picked up centuries later by Jesus when he tells a crowd, 'Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you' (John 6:27). 

By working for 'food that spoils,' he is referring to dust-working for material food; by working for 'food that endures to eternal life,' he is referring to Life-working for eternal food.

Thus, Jesus says that it is possible to do Life-work. But how?

This is similar to the question the crowd asks Jesus: 'What must we do to do the works God requires?' (v. 28).

Jesus answers, 'The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent' (v. 29). In other words, Life-work is believing in Jesus, which nourishes us not with food that perishes but with the food that is Jesus himself, the bread of God that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world (v. 33). 

Jesus develops this later when he says, 'Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him' (John 7:38). The streams of living water are the Holy Spirit, given to those who believe in Jesus (v. 39).

In other words, when we do the Life-work of believing in Jesus, we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit, who then empowers us to do more Life-works that God requires (see John 14:12). 

Thus, whereas the curse had prevented humans from entering the Garden of Eden and so eating from the tree of life, Christ has opened a new way for us into paradise through believing in him, restoring to us our calling to do Life-work.

Then what does it mean to believe in Jesus?

Believing in Jesus is illustrated clearly at the end of the Gospel of John, when St Thomas encounters the risen Christ and says, 'My Lord and my God!' (John 20:28). 

For St Thomas, Jesus is not simply a Lord and a God, or even the Lord and the God, but 'My Lord and my God!' (italics added). St Thomas' knowledge of Jesus' authority and divinity, as important as that knowledge is, does not alone give him life. Even the demons believe that there is one God (James 2:19), but this does not result in their salvation.

Rather, St Thomas declares that Jesus is his Lord and his God. St Thomas enters a relationship with Christ in which he knows that his service and worship belong to Christ.

In response, Jesus tells him that he has believed because he has seen Jesus, but 'blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed' (John 20:29).

Thus, believing in Jesus means knowing him: both intellectually knowing that he is Lord and God, but especially relationally knowing that we belong to him (see also John 17:3).

When we know Jesus as our Lord and our God, we receive life in his name (see John 20:31) and begin the journey into paradise. We open ourselves for the Holy Spirit to live in us so that we may perform the Life-works God has for us to do.

St Thomas witnessing the risen Christ

Living to work or working to live?: Some final thoughts

As seen in the example of the Peach Blossom Spring, the art it has inspired and other similar works, it seems to be in humanity's DNA to seek paradise, not so much for relaxation as for purposeful work, minus the stress and decay that usually accompany it.

As meaningful as our work may be in this life (and I know some people fortunate enough to have had deeply meaningful jobs), I believe it never crosses over from dust-work to Life-work until we believe in Jesus. That is, only through believing in Jesus--knowing him as our Lord and our God--does our work, indeed everything we do, take on the deepest meaning by connecting it with Christ, who is the fruit of the tree of life. 

When we know him in this way, abiding in him as he abides in us (John 15:4) through eating his body and drinking his blood (6:53-56), we begin living as Adam and Eve were meant to live in the Garden of Eden, stepping into our roles as caretakers of God's world and tasting in advance the feast of the heavenly kingdom.

An example of someone who did both dust-work and Life-work is St Paul, whom I will look at in more detail in my next post. For now, I will close by saying that through believing in Jesus, St Paul not only supported himself through the dust-work of tentmaking, but he Life-worked as a witness of Christ to live eternally.