[Darris McNeely] You might sometimes wonder if you and your life and all that you do ever makes a difference. We all probably have that basis, at times. Behind me is the Flavian Coliseum. We’ve all seen this picture. You’ve probably seen Gladiator, the movie. And you know that within the Coliseum in the ancient Roman Empire, this was a coliseum of death in many different ways. Gladiators fought often to the death, animals were slaughtered, great spectacles were held for the benefit of the citizens. It was quite a coliseum and quite a place for several hundred years. Built in the mid to late first century and over, at that time, a lot of activity, a lot of death.

Fast forward, early 4th century. The Empire has been in slow decline. Things have changed a great deal. Christianity has grown and developed and morphed into something beyond what we have in the book of Acts, but every once in a while we pick up little stories of individuals who kind of rise to the fore and who are doing their best to live by the simple teachings of Jesus Christ.

There came to this place, in the early 4th century, a man by the name of Telemachus, a monk, who, as the story was told, was somehow moved to come here. He didn’t really want to necessarily, but he was motivated to come here and he found himself in the coliseum, not really having knowing what it was, what it was all about, and he saw these gladiators fighting down there and killing one another, and he was moved to stop and to try to grab people’s attention that what was taking place was not godly, was not imitating Jesus Christ. Likely, in the crowd that day were many who did profess to be Christians, and yet they were amusing themselves with a spectacle of death before them, of men fighting to the death.

On that afternoon, circumstances led Telemachus to find himself going down into the arena to try to stop these two men, these two gladiators who didn’t know who he was or what was taking place, and as the story goes, one of the gladiators thought that he was a part of the act, and he drew his sword and he slashed Telemachus’ stomach open. And as Telemachus fell and was dying, he kept saying the words, “In the name of Christ, stop.” And he died. The crowd was stunned. There was a prefect, one of the government officials, in the audience that day, and he got up out of the official area and he walked out. Slowly, others began to walk out. And eventually everyone left and the killing stopped. The games ended. No more was this an arena of death.

One person, on one day, with one effort, made a difference. It’s a good story. It’s a very tragic story, and yet it has application for us today. Something to remember – we can make a difference. We never want to lose that possibility that we can, by our actions, if we follow God.

That’s BT Daily. Join us next time.