Day 77 - A World That Is Broken

The Ambassadors | Hans Holbein the Younger 1497/8-1543 | Date painted 1533 | Oil on wood | The National Gallery

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5: 20)

I wonder how may trips diplomats and ambassadors are making right now as wars continue to rage and cease-fires barely live up to the name. The men and women who represent national powers but also seek peace and stability. It is a skilled role and one that requires integrity and yes, certain individuals have not lived up to the trust placed in them.

The two men in this painting were also on a delicate mission. The one on the left is Jean Dinteville and the man on the right is George de Selve, the bishop of Lavaur. They are representing the King of France, Francis I but also the Pope. The Pope had refused to annul Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon, but Henry had divorced her and married Anne Boleyn. A year after the painting was completed Henry made himself the Head of the Church in England.

The table between them is full of instruments that show human endeavour and success. It is heaving with the technology and art of the Tudor age. There is a pattern to their arrangement. The top shelf which contains a celestial globe and sundial relates to the heavenly realm. The lower shelf relates to the earthly realm. However, everything is a bit ‘off’. The instruments on the upper shelf are misaligned for the Northern hemisphere. If you look closely at the lute it has a broken string. It hints at discord rather than harmony. The music book is open at a Lutheran hymn, a sign of the growing Reformation. The maths book illustrates a division sum. The terrestrial globe shows Dinteville’s home town of Polisy, perhaps suggesting that however far you travel you still belong to home. The two ambassadors, despite their finery and confident poses, have a futile task. Indeed, Dinteville writes that ‘I am the most melancholy, weary and wearisome ambassador in the world’. The world is broken.

But ... but there is something bigger at play. They stand on a floor that is a copy of the ceremonial floor in Westminster Abbey that represents the universe. There is a weird shape on the floor which only reveals itself if you stand to one side of the painting and look at it from an angle. It is a skull. Probably one of the most famous memento mori’s in the world. Despite all our achievements, all our successes and failures, we will all one day die. It is a sobering thought that should bring a little humility to politics. One last thing that often gets missed is the crucifix in the top left corner. It is Christ who saves. It is Christ who brings reconciliation. It is Christ who redeems and renews. We need to check any efforts on our part whether it is diplomacy in our families, our Churches or in the civic sphere. Who are we serving? Our own agenda, someone’s else’s agenda, a national agenda? Or are we Christ’s Ambassadors seeking peace on every level? Are we part of that bigger, deeper story?

Lord, make me an Ambassador for You,

Give me the skills to know when to speak and when to listen.

Help me step forward with courage or work in the background.

Give me integrity and humility,

And not so much dignity that I am not willing to plead if necessary.

Lord, this broken world needs You.

Amen.

Suzanne Nockels