
The Gospel is the good news that God loves you so much that He would send his only begotten son down to Earth to die on a wooden blood stained cross for all people, so that they would be able to live in eternity with thier father in heaven. Mark Russel and Shannon Wheeler had an idea. What if people could read the whole entire Bible in a two-hundred-page book in order to make it more accessible to people. They argued that all people, not just the Christians who believe in the Bible should be able to be familiar with it in order to understand more about the American culture which has had great influence from the Bible. The Last Call was drawn by Shannon wheeler in order to make the scene of Jesus explaining his death easier to comprehend to the normal person. The Last Call is a layman’s term image of the gospel and is much easier to comprehend to the normal person whether Christian or non-Christian than that of similar pictures. 

The Last Supper was completed by Leonardo De Vinci in 1498. It is an image of the last meal that Jesus had with his disciples before he was to betrayed, on trial, and ultimately to die. In this scene in the Bible, Jesus being the center of attention is explaining to his disciples that one of them was about to betray him, another will deny him, and exclaiming his final words to his closest followers. This is an incredible scene and if it means anything spiritually to you, then it is obviously very important to your faith. But the goal of Jesus was the great commission. “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20). That is the Gospel and what Jesus intended on when he said this at The Last supper. Now that was over two thousand years ago and times have changed a bit since. When viewing The Last Supper, it appears to be old, religious, and nothing like the world we live in now. There is not much of a way to compare today’s life to how it was in Jesus’s time, let alone De Vinci’s. The way The Last Call is set up is far more relatable than The Last Supper. 

The gaze of both images are very similar. Jesus is the center of both of them. But in The Last Supper, there is a lot more going on. Your gaze is immediately drawn to the other characters in this image. Jesus’s hands and body language is the same in both however, according to “God is Disappointed in You”, the simplicity of the number of people and the fact that Jesus is the main point in this image makes The Last Call a better image for this text. 

What is actually going on in this picture? Looking at The Last Supper, we have a bit going on in the background. There are three windows with a few mountains and villages in the far background. Rather in The Last Call, these same three windows are there but, there is only white space in the view. The mid-ground of The Last Supper has a whole lot going on. The disciples just heard that Jesus is about to die. Instead of feeling all bad at the moment, they all want to know what’s next. The disciples are speaking with Jesus and asking him who will be in charge when he’s gone, what to do next, and then caring for his wellbeing. In The Last Call, the basic drawings of the disciples also show their concern, only in a more basic way. The foreground of The Last Supper is this long table with table cloth covered in bread and plates. In The Last Call the foreground is very interesting. Relating very well to the title, there is a bar table in front of the disciples. There is even draft beer on the right side of the table indicating how modernized this picture is in relation to the text. To make matters worse, Jesus himself has a drink in front of him. 

The modernized bar versus the dining room setting shows how this image only does well with the text. The disciples are drinking just like they were in The Last Supper. The two settings play a huge role in who the audience is. The Last Supper is an image for the Sunday school class learning about Jesus on Easter in a religious environment. Rather the bar setting is far less religious, more welcoming to all people, and what the Gospel was actually meant to be. A come as you are type of faith. Which is what The Last Call has over The Last Supper. 

Some people may feel angered by the fact that Russel and Wheeler would take a holy image of the last time Jesus spoke to his disciples prior to his death and make it a bar setting. But this event was a huge deal and only a prideful fool would reject the goals of Russel and Wheeler. The Gospel is meant for all people and for the longest time, The Last Supper may have appealed to only a certain type of people. The Last call being in a bar, a place where nobody cares about your past, mistakes, and problems, is far more relatable to the normal person than that of the nice dining room where everyone has their Sunday best on. 

Imagine that “God is Disappointed in You” actually was a text surrounding The Last Supper. How confused would you be hearing the layman’s term of the Gospel where there is even cussing supporting the holy image of Jesus in his final free moments. It just doesn’t make sense to add The Last Supper in at that time. The Last Call is appealing to far more people in comparison with “God is Disappointed in You” than The Last Supper could ever be. Which was the goal that Russel and Wheeler wanted to accomplish in the first place. The Last Call is more appealing, relatable, and better for people to understand than The Last Supper. 