Kicking and Screaming?

How do you get someone to go where they need to go but are reluctant to go? Doctor? Dentist? School? Church? "I know I need to (fill in the blank), but...." Life is filled with disconnects between what we need to do and what we would rather do. Jesus said, "No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him." (John 6:44) Jesus said something similar: "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself." (John 12:32) The word "draw" is used of Peter dragging the net onto shore in John 21:6,11. It is used to describe Paul and Silas being dragged into the marketplace (Acts 16:19), Paul dragged out of the temple (Acts 21:30), and the poor dragged into court by the rich (James 2:6). The net had no will. Paul, Silas, and the poor do, but a force stronger than they acted on them and forced their movement. Aren't we all being dragged somewhere by something or someone where do not wish to go?

It is so important to have a power locked onto us stronger than all other forces, a power than can draw us upward and away from the gravitational pull of this world. God and Jesus provide this pull. The question is not whether God and Jesus draw people to themselves, but how they do it. Is their drawing power coercive, violent, manipulative, or exploitative? The answer is in the text. Jesus says, "It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught of God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me." (John 6:45) This is the hallmark of the New Covenant. "I will put My laws into their minds, and I will write them upon their hearts." (Hebrews 8:10, see context) God's object lesson, his main slide in the PowerPoint presentation is Jesus lifted up from the earth. This is how God seeks to draw people out of the stench of this world upward where the air is clear and clean. Jesus was lifted up so we would look up and see the glory of God in His face, being drawn to a loving Father who would send his only Son to die for us.

This is not the way of many others. Muslims try to force "conversions" with threats of death. Cults force compliance and silence with threats of exposure and slander. Some are more subtle in their control. They might persuade by painting a picture that if one does not stay and comply there is no where else to go but hell. Getting someone to do what we need them to do as opposed to getting someone to do what they need to do, according to God, are two very different things. God does not want people coming kicking and screaming into the kingdom. He wants to draw them in through teaching them about His darling Son. There is no other way in. Do you feel the pull of Jesus on your life?