John 6:44
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.
This is a part of this Sunday Gospel lesson. The word translated as draw also has the sense of dragging like when Paul and Silas were grabbed and dragged to the market-place, Acts 16:19. Twice it is used to denote the drawing of a net, John 21:6, John 21:11. Once to the drawing of a sword John 18:10; and once in a sense similar to its use here John 12:32; “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” I had a professor who said in some literature the word pictured pulling an empfy boat to shore. If you have ever done that you know it is a chore.
I like the image dragging a recalcitrant human being to mercy and love. “While we were still his enemies Christ died for us”.
Luther says on this passage: “The drawing is not like that of the executioner, who draws the thief up the ladder to the gallows; but it is a gracious allurement, such as that of the man whom everybody loves, and to whom everybody willingly goes.”
