And now a word from Fanny Crosby . . .

This afternoon as I took a walk, the words to the old hymn "Draw Me Nearer" kept running through my head. I thought I'd look them up and share them with you. Here they are:

I am thine, O Lord, I have heard Thy voice,
And it told Thy love to me;
But I long to rise in the arms of faith
And be closer drawn to Thee.

Chorus:

Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer blessed Lord,
To the cross where Thou hast died;
Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,
To Thy precious bleeding side.

Consecrate me now to Thy service, Lord,
By the power of grace divine;
Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope,
And my will be lost in Thine.
(Chorus)

Oh, the pure delight of a single hour
That before Thy throne I spend
When I kneel in prayer, and with Thee, my God,
I commune as friend with friend!
(chorus)

There are depths of love that I cannot know
Till I cross the narrow sea;
There are heights of joy that I may not reach
Till I rest in peace with Thee.
(chorus)

I like the images here--clear and concise.

But there is a problem with this song, one that many of us don't notice right away.

When we think of communion with God, or drawing "nearer" to Jesus, we tend to think of some pastoral or sweet scene. You know what I mean, a place where little lambs romp and play, a scene of little children being helped across a bridge by the kind and gracious Jesus, the joyful scene of a type of lovers' rapture as beloved stares deeply into the eyes of the lover.

But that isn't the picture in Crosby's song . . . not even close.

The nearness she longs for is the nearness of Christ's suffering and death.

Yeah, you read that right--go back a reread the song if you don't believe me. Go on, I'll wait.

Done? Okay, did you see it? Crosby is more concerned with Colossians 1:24-26 or Philippians 3:8-11. The latter passage finds Paul longing for the knowledge of Christ in three areas--the power of Christ's resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings, and being like him in death.

Doesn't that seem backwards to you? Don't we tend to present those events in the other direction? You know--first Jesus died, then he rose again, then he gave his church the Spirit of God.

Yet Paul actually lists them backwards, and Fanny Crosby follows his lead.

For Paul there is some kind of joy or great reward in working backwards in this event. We receive the wonderful gift of new life, the resurrection power of our God. Then we get to become like Jesus in our sufferings, to share his fellowship in that awful and yet joyful area (cf. Hebrews 12).

There is something to be said for suffering, for drawing close to the wounded Healer, to the slain Lamb, to the One who became poor so that we may be rich. We must not forget that intimacy with this crucified Jewish rabbi, with this martyred Messiah, involves the possibility of blood on our clothes. It is messy. In fact, friendship with this suffering Servant may well entail suffering for us.

Paul understood that, Fanny Crosby understood it. Do we?

Will we embrace it?

Do we really want to draw nearer to God by means of the bleeding side of his Son?

That's heavier than I expected. I'm going to leave it there.

Thanks for reading!