CHRIST the EMPIRE BUILDER: “Indeed a greater than Solomon is here” (Lk 11:31). Harold St. John tells a story from the days of the persecuting emperor Diocletian. A Christian was brought before him, and the Caesar mockingly quipped, “Tell me, what is your carpenter doing now?” The soon-to-be-martyred saint replied, “He is busy making a coffin for your Majesty and his empire.” So it is today. Everything that men build is destined for the fire, when “the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up” (2 Pet 3:10). Only what the Carpenter of Nazareth is constructing—and those who work with Him—will survive the collapse of the universe. He is building a new world, in which the building materials are people, living stones blasted out of the bedrock of this doomed world, and fashioned by grace to reflect the glories of the Carpenter willing to be Himself nailed to wood in order to everlastingly save them.