Every other year, as the Olympics roll around, my mind gravitates back to one great scene in Chariots of Fire. Eric Liddell has abstained from competing in the Olympics on Sunday, to honor the Christian Sabbath. As the pomp and pageantry of the Olympics plays out on the screen, Liddell stands in a pulpit, reading from Isaiah 40.
The stadium is full, and Liddell reads, ‘the nations are as a drop in the bucket, and are accounted as small dust in the balance.’
The race goes on, the crowds cheer on, and Liddell reads on, ‘He bringeth the princes to nothing, he maketh the judges of the earth as a vanity.’
A runner strides with all his might, biting the dust in defeat. He reads on, ‘Hast thou not known?’
Another runner crosses the finish line, giving his last great burst of energy to break the tape, and still he reads on, ‘Has thou not heard…that the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth fainteth not? Neither is he weary.’
He ends the reading of Isaiah 43: ‘He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no strength, He increaseth might…They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary…’
I witnessed the pomp and pageantry again tonight. I saw Russia’s spectacle – a sordid history in digital technicolor. And so did God. He saw it all when it happened, and what he saw was another drop in the bucket. Babel, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, Britain, Germany, the United States, Russia, et al – all drops in a bucket, all dust on the scales. We enjoy our 15 minutes of fame and flame, and we fizzle out. And God races on, as powerful as ever, never growing faint or weary.
Jesus Christ is our true and greater Olympia. He is greater than Zeus, the greatest of the olympians (Acts 17:28), for his power is the power of life. He takes on the flesh of man, and with joy runs the race before Him (Heb. 12:2), being crowned with the wreath – the crown of thorns – on the cross, before saying, ‘It is finished.’ And because it is finished – because he lived the life we couldn’t live and died the death we deserve, taking the very last drop of the wrath of God- we do not need the accolades of the earth. We do not need to run fast to prove that we are worthy of our existence. We do not need the affirmation of judges and nations. It is finished.
The true Judge of the earth stood on that great scale of God and was found wanting – not an 8 from the Russians, but the perfect judgment of God, not because of anything lacking in him, but as a substitute, standing in our place, receiving our own judgement. And now we, who are dust on the scales, are exalted to heaven by him. You don’t have to run that race. It is finished. He takes dust and he makes them stars. He takes less than nothing and makes exalts it to the heavens. He takes the weak and makes them mighty. He takes the weary and makes them soar like eagles.
All the nations together are a drop in a bucket. But a drop of the blood of Christ makes insects into eagles, beggars into princes, dust on the scales into jewels in a crown.
