God's Restoration Project

A couple of years ago my wife and I had the privilege of visiting Athens, Greece.  On our first night in Athens I was able to capture this picture of the Parthenon from the top of our hotel.  The next day we visited the Parthenon and our guide told us that it was built and dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena.  Athena was the goddess of victory in warfare along with being the goddess of wisdom and civilization.  She was worshipped as the protector of Athens.  As you can see the temple dedicated to her now lies in ruins, and you can also see the scaffolding in place as a part of the restoration effort to repair the Parthenon.  In the 5th century, the Parthenon was converted into a Christian church and then after the Ottoman Turk conquest, it was turned into a mosque in the early 1460s, before later falling into ruins. 

Palm Sunday begins Holy Week and on Good Friday we remember that Christ defeated sin and death, not by the power of force like an Athena, a goddess of warfare, but by the power of self-giving love, laying down his life for his enemies.  Christ freely laid down his life for you and me, indeed the whole world.  And in the process God confounds the wisdom of this world by showing us that God’s strength is best made known through weakness.  The apostle Paul saw this and declared that he would boast in his weakness so that the strength of Christ might rest upon him.  As Christians we have something in common with the Parthenon, we’re under construction and restoration as well……so when we feel weak, let’s not despair, but let us look to a strength that is greater than ours, for Christ who has begun the good work in us will be faithful to complete it….after all he was a carpenter!