During Holy Week our thoughts naturally turn toward the Cross of Christ. It’s a good time for us to think about the world, too.
The wooden cross above is a World Mission Souvenir purchased at Grande Chartreuse, a Carthusian monastery near Grenoble, France. The monks there live mostly in silence and solitude. Withdrawing from society, limiting social exposure even among their fellow members, these monks devote themselves to praying for the world, but in isolation from the world, unaffected by its allure.
World Missionaries don’t hide from the world. We support evangelists and pray for their work as they daily interact with non-Christians on street level. They share Christ’s story amid the noise of crowded city life, in high mountain towns and hot jungle villages. Those who serve in foreign mission fields on our behalf face the world, challenge it, and bring it the only true comfort it needs, the Gospel.
As we approach Good Friday, this Souvenir cross conveys an appropriate message. A common symbol of the Church’s mission, the cross stands above the world, reminding us that, as True God, Christ is our world’s creator, owner, landlord. It also stands above the world because, as True God-Man, Christ lived a sinless life as the whole world’s innocent representative before God and he died at Calvary as substitute in punishment for a worldful of sin. He won forgiveness for all.
John the Baptist was right when he said of him, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1).”
(Support for mission work world-wide is provided by the ELS Board for World Outreach.)
Bible study material based on World Mission Souvenirs (“Let’s talk about . . .”) will be available on-line mid-summer!