Michael Phelps’ record-making 8 gold medal haul in the pool.

Usain Bolt’s blistering two world records in the 100m and 200m.

I was there.

To see the glory of man.

It has been one astounding ride through the Olympic city in the last five days.

At the soap-bubbles-inspired Water Cube.

At the uhh…birds-nest-inspired Birds Nest.

The glory of man has also been on show in the way a nation-state seeks to demonstrate its greatness to all the world - the airport is a futuristic spaceship marvel, the mind-boggling logistics required to put on something of the scope and scale of the Olympic Games, the architecture of various buildings is meant to impress and intimidate, the removal of beggars and hawkers and much of the oft-reported pollution has been taken care of.

The atheistic humanism of the modern Olympic movement’s founder Pierre de Coubertin was stridently on display.

The Olympics

We rebuild our Tower of Babel.

We construct our Mount Olympus and replace the gods of Greek mythology with the heroes of flesh and bone who sit as the new gods.

The symbolism was palpable, from the videos on the giant screens between events that catalogued the achievements of former Olympic “heroes” ending with the question “Who will be the heroes of these Olympic Games?”, through to the change in terminology from “medal presentation” to “victory ceremony”.

But where was the glory of the One who is truly man?

Hebrews 4:6-9 reminds us:

“What is man, that you are mindful of him,
  or the son of man, that you care for him?
You made him for a little while lower than the angels;
  you have crowned him with glory and honor,
putting everything in subjection under his feet.
  Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.”

How was He glorified?

More on Christian (non)-activism during the Olympics, a secret house church meeting, and interviews with local missionaries in Bejing in Part 2…

Andrew travelled to Beijing as a guest of Australian Olympic sponsor Uncle Toby’s.