During Lent, and during this week especially, we have been following the national Church of England daily reflections “Draw Near”. It was several weeks ago that there were reflections on Sharing the Word, and it is the theme again for today for these notes.
The book we call The Bible is a collection of at least 66 pieces of writing, varying widely in length, and date, and who wrote them and why. I’ve known people who have sat down to read through the Bible and become hopelessly bogged down in page after page of irrelevant rules and laws that crop up not far into the Old Testament if you work through it like this.
I was also told by evangelical missionaries back as a teenager that the Bible is the infallible word of God. But it dawned on me that even they picked and chose what bits of the Word of God they actually wanted to follow and live out. I did ask one once why as Leviticus bans us from wearing clothes woven of more than one material he wore a polycotton shirt and was told off for being irreverent.
And yet for two thousand years the Bible as we know it as Christians has enabled us to hear of God, his love, his challenge, his call to each of us, to all of us. And of course in the Gospels especially to hear how God has met us in Jesus, the living Word of God.
And God does indeed “Draw Near” through the words of the scriptures.
So maybe as today is the day on which we remember and relive the Last Supper, when Jesus met with the disciples in the upper room and celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples in the crowded town of Jerusalem, you might like to draw near to the events of that evening again, and read and reflect on one of the four Gospel accounts.
You have a wide choice. Matthew 26: 17 – 30 is perhaps the most familiar short record of that momentous evening. Mark 14: 12 – 26 is, as often, quite close to Matthew. But if you want a different angle try reading Luke 22: 7 – 30 and spot the differences between how he records the events and the other two, as well as a big difference as to how we remember the last supper in our worship.
Of course if you want a challenge, as usual there is John and his Gospel. A large part of his Gospel is structured as being spoken at the Last Supper – it runs from John 13:1 right through to John 17:26. John makes clear that Jesus was using the final evening together to draw his teaching, his ministry, his example to a close. And perhaps because John assumed his readers already knew about the bread and the wine, John famously doesn’t actually record Jesus sharing the bread and wine as such at all.
So Draw Near to God this day and he will draw near to you.
Alastair Wheeler
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