Christian missions has always involved sacrifice. From the call of Abraham to leave his country and kindred, to the call of Christ for His disciples to follow Him, the missionary life often requires leaving behind the comfort of family, friends, culture, and familiarity. This sacrifice is not small. To leave one’s mother and father, children and grandchildren, church family and lifelong friends, is to feel deeply the cost of obedience. Yet Christian missions is rooted in the greater sacrifice of Christ Himself, who left the glory of heaven to accomplish the Father’s redemptive mission on earth.
The supreme example of missionary sacrifice is Jesus Christ. Though eternally one with the Father, the Son of God humbled Himself by taking on human flesh and entering a broken world. Philippians 2:6–8 teaches that Christ, though existing in the form of God, “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant” and became obedient even to death on a cross. In a real sense, Jesus left the glory of His heavenly home and the immediate experience of the Father’s presence to do the work He had been sent to accomplish. His incarnation was the greatest missionary journey in history. He came from heaven to earth, from glory to humiliation, from worship to rejection, and ultimately from life to death.
Because Jesus left home for the sake of redemption, Christians should not be surprised when following Him requires leaving home as well. Jesus said, “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life” (Matthew 19:29, English Standard Version Bible, 2001). This does not minimize the pain of departure. Rather, it places that pain within the larger promise of the kingdom. The sacrifices made for Christ are never wasted. Every tearful goodbye, every missed birthday, every empty chair at a family gathering, and every lonely season in another culture is seen by the Lord.
The missionary also lives with the hope of eternal reward. Hebrews 12:2 says that Jesus endured the cross “for the joy that was set before him.” Isaiah 53:11 declares that the suffering servant would see the fruit of His suffering and be satisfied. Jesus saw the result of His work and was glad. In a similar way, those who go for the sake of the gospel labor in hope. The reward is not merely personal blessing, but the joy of seeing people reconciled to God, churches planted, disciples made, and worship offered to Christ among peoples who once did not know His name. The missionary’s reward is both future and present: future in the promise of eternal life, and present in the joy of participating in God’s redemptive work.
At the same time, missionaries today experience a blessing that many previous generations did not have: the ability to remain connected with loved ones through technology. Earlier missionaries often left home knowing that communication would be rare, slow, and uncertain. Letters could take months to arrive by ship. News of births, deaths, illness, or family milestones might reach the missionary long after the event had passed. Some missionaries left for the field with the realistic understanding that they might never see their families again. The sacrifice of distance was intensified by silence.
Today, while the sacrifice remains real, technology has softened some of the pain of separation. Missionaries can video call parents, children, and grandchildren across oceans. They can share photos instantly, participate in family conversations through messaging apps, send voice notes, join church services online, and receive prayer updates in real time. A missionary grandmother can see her grandchild’s first steps by video. A son serving overseas can pray with his aging father over FaceTime. A missionary family can remain emotionally and spiritually connected to their sending church through livestreams, newsletters, group chats, and digital prayer meetings. These gifts do not erase the cost of going, but they are genuine mercies from God in this era of missions.
Still, technology cannot remove the deeper reality that obedience often requires sacrifice. No matter where one goes, following Jesus costs something. Staying may require sacrifice. Going certainly requires sacrifice. But Christian missions is possible because Jesus is worth it. He is worth more than comfort, more than geography, more than personal convenience, and more than earthly security. The missionary does not leave family and friends because they matter little, but because Christ matters most. The love of Christ does not diminish love for family; it orders it under the greater love of God and His kingdom.
Therefore, leaving family and friends for missions should not be viewed merely as loss. It is a holy offering. It is a participation in the pattern of Christ, who left heaven to seek and save the lost. It is sustained by the promise of reward, strengthened by the blessings of modern communication, and made meaningful by the surpassing worth of Jesus. The missionary can go because Christ first came. The missionary can endure because Christ endured. The missionary can rejoice because the labor of the gospel is never in vain.
