The Colosseum Cross

         Standing before the ruins of the mighty Romans in their capital city has been an amazing experience.  Our guide tells us about the huge temples, the beautiful porticos, the graceful basilicas of the Forum, and you stare in wonder at these places you've heard and read about...and here they are.  Real places, real people.
         You see part of the steps where Mark Anthony eulogized Caesar.  You hear of the remarkable engineering brilliance of this culture, their power over nearly all of the known world...and yet everywhere you look in Rome, you see crosses.
         The mighty, seemingly omnipotent Roman empire...yet towering over all the ruins, magnificence, and opulence is a symbol of seeming shame, defeat, and despair: the cross of crucifixion.  No Roman citizen could be crucified--too shameful and ignominious a death for a true Roman.
         But not for the Creator, Sustainer, and Savior of the world.
        He suffered the lowest, most despicable, most painful of deaths for us.  And now, the mighty, unconquerable Roman empire stands in ruins...and His cross still stands.  A symbol of His conquering love...His powerful grace...His infinite forgiveness...His awesome goodness, righteousness, and mercy.
         Later in the day, we rounded a corner, and there it was--the Colosseum.

        Truly staggering in it's size, stunning in it's construction, and moving in it's sorrowful and tragic loss of so much innocent blood--both man and beast.
        As we stood staring out over the ruins of the Colosseum, my eye was drawn to the cross that now stands in the very place where the emperor's box was located.  

           As we stood staring out over the ruins of the Colosseum, my eye was drawn to the cross that now stands in the very place where the emperor's box was located.  (It's a dark, metal one in the center of the picture.)

          The cross--the terrible, beautiful, shameful, glorious cross.

         As we stood staring at the colosseum, our guide explained that the emperor who completed the construction of this incredible structure was a man named Augustus.  "Augustus?  As in Caesar Augustus?" I asked her.  Yes, the very same.

           I gasped as suddenly my mind went straight to the words we've all heard countless times, at countless Christmases: "In those days, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman Roman world." (Luke 2:1)  And so a poor, powerless, unknown little carpenter and his wife set out from the tiny, dusty village of Nazareth to register in his hometown of Bethlehem...all because of a decree of a mighty Roman emperor.
            Little did Augustus imagine sitting in his opulent palace, surrounded by his unconquerable army, enjoying unprecedented luxury and adulation, that an awesome God he could not see was the One who was really controlling, superintending, and ordering all things--ALL things--for God's purposes, for our good, for His glory.  The Lord was sovereignly ordaining and using a pagan Roman emperor's decree so that Scripture would be fulfilled that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.
             Despite every possible appearance to the contrary, mighty Augustus was not the one in charge.  God was.  And is.  And always will be.  A cross would conquer not only a king and a kingdom...but sin and death for you, for me, for all of mankind.  
             And so at the center of the awe-inspiring Colosseum stands a simple, but infinitely more powerful, beautiful, and eternal cross.  Oh thank You, thank You, thank You, Father.
            No matter what is going on in your life, there is One who is fully in control and is sovereignly working all, all, all things out for your good and His glory.  
            To God be the glory.