As the 2024 Olympics began in Paris in late July, more than 100 conflicts were festering around the world. The Middle East was teetering on the brink of a regional war. In Ukraine, Russia was advancing slowly but steadily in the east, reducing towns to rubble. Conflicts in Sudan, Haiti and Myanmar were grinding on with no end in sight.

Clearly, the “Olympic Truce” was not being heeded.

In the run-up to every Olympics over the past 30 years, the United Nations has passed a resolution upholding the Olympic Truce, which in theory halts hostilities in the name of granting athletes safe passage and promoting world peace. It is supposed to last from seven days before the Olympic Games begin until seven days after the Paralympic Games end.

In theory.

“Stepping into the Olympic Village, you realize like generations of Olympians before: ‘Now I am part of something bigger than myself. Now we are part of an event that unites the world in peace,’” International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said to athletes at the opening ceremony. He did temper his usual robust optimism with an acknowledgment that they lived in “a world torn apart by wars and conflicts.”

This is a pitch the IOC has made often enough that it has become part of the brand that the Games project: the Olympics as the great uniter, one that has the potential to transcend all divides. Yet reality can interrupt even the tightest messaging.

Not even two weeks in, the news of missile strikes, annexations and heightened tensions became omnipresent. By July 31, in the wake of the assassination in Iran of Hamas’ top leader, the international body had scaled down and adopted a more dejected tone.

“A culture of peace is what we try to create in a very modest way,” IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said at a news conference. “We’re unable to bring peace. We can call for peace, but we probably won’t achieve it.”

For an organization that has often waded into geopolitics—the normally stoic Mr. Bach choked up while remembering his late friend Henry Kissinger’s “invaluable advice”—Mr. Adams’ remarks seemed to signal a retreat in the IOC’s ambitions, at least in the moment. “We can only do what we can do. We’re a sports organization,” he said. “Our job is to let the politicians, unfortunately, get on with what they want to get on with.”

The Olympics highlights man’s dilemma—striving for peace and unity, but failing to achieve lasting global solutions.

Good Intentions

The Olympic Truce was revived in the immediate post-Cold War era, with roots in ancient Greece. But then and now, it has never quite worked. Russia alone has broken the Truce three times, most recently in 2022 with the invasion of Ukraine—a handful of months after the country voted for the UN resolution. This time, it abstained.

“We live in a divided world where conflicts are proliferating in a dramatic way. The horrendous suffering in Gaza, the seemingly endless war in Ukraine, terrible suffering from Sudan to the DRC, from the Sahel to Myanmar,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said after meeting with Mr. Bach before the opening ceremony. “In a moment like this, it is important to say that the first recording in history [of a] real peace initiative was the Olympic Truce.”

In November, 118 countries voted to adopt the resolution. No country voted against it, although Syria joined Russia in abstaining. In past years, the resolution received more full-throated support—the UN has 193 member-states, after all—but among those who voted for “building a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic ideal” were Iran, Israel and Lebanon, all embroiled in the latest flare-up.

“When we talk about sports, uniting people and bringing people together, yes, that is an aspirational ideal,” said Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff, a sports diplomacy expert who lectures at New York University’s Tisch Institute for Global Sport. “And a lot of that is reality. When you look at, typically speaking, sport does have that power.”

The Olympics, she said, are an implement in the toolbox of striving for peace. “I don’t think the Games themselves can transcend the world’s wars, conflicts, and complex, complicated problems,” she stated. “But I think what they can do is provide pockets of space for people to have these conversations.”

The Truce is well-intentioned but ultimately toothless. There are no consequences to breaking it, aside from possible condemnation in the court of global public opinion.

For example, ahead of the Games, French President Emmanuel Macron publicly suggested a cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine during the days of competition. Not unexpectedly, both sides refused, and the war continued with the same intensity.

Russia and Belarus were barred from the Paris Games after a lengthy campaign from Ukraine’s Olympic committee, which argued that Russian athletes should not compete even under a neutral flag while Moscow’s troops persist with their deadly invasion. Some Russian and Belarusian athletes still competed as neutrals, approval contingent on not supporting the war. That allowance has not endeared the Games to its erstwhile host country.

Ukrainian athletes are under no illusion about Olympic idealism. For them, the Olympics are no longer about their achievements but rather proof that their country is still alive despite the war that began while the last Olympic flame was still lit. They do not see the Games as a respite from the war—it is a way to shout loudly about it so the world does not forget.

Zoriana Nevmerzhytska, 31, attended a flash mob in view of the Eiffel Tower to highlight the hundreds of Ukrainian athletes and coaches, both amateur and professional, who have been killed. Participants bore posters that read “world champions in raping,” depicting Russian soldiers, and “unmarked troops,” referring to the neutral athletes.

“For me, it’s not about something that promotes peace,” she said of the Olympics. “It can be about unity, but not this time.”

There will be a next time, though. When asked why the world keeps returning to the Truce for Olympics after Olympics, despite incessant conflict, Ms. Krasnoff noted that “we all like the idea that sport in and of itself can be omnipotent, even though we know in reality it is not.”

“I mean, that’s kind of the whole thing about sports,” she said, drawing an analogy. “You don’t dwell on what you haven’t been able to achieve in a given performance. You say, ‘OK, well, that was that game. On to the next.’”

Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony illustrated just what an uphill battle the Olympics had to inspire the unity desired by its organizers. The wacky and rule-breaking display on July 26 at the French capital astounded, bemused and, at times, poked a finger in the eye of global audiences.

That Paris put on the most flamboyant, diversity-celebrating, LGBTQ+-visible of opening ceremonies should not have been a surprise, knowing the reputation of the French people. But Paris did not just push the envelope—it did away with it entirely.

A practically naked singer painted blue made thinly veiled references to his body parts. A blonde-bearded drag queen crawled on all fours to the thumping beat of “Freed From Desire” by singer-songwriter Gala. There were the beginnings of a menage a trois—the door was slammed on the camera before things got really steamy—and the tail end of an intimate embrace between two men who danced away, hugging and holding hands.

“In France, we have the right to love each other, as we want and with who we want. In France, we have the right to believe or to not believe. In France, we have a lot of rights. Voila,” said the show’s artistic director, who is openly homosexual.

While some viewers appreciated the amorous vibe and impudence, others were repulsed by it. They felt the ceremony’s content detracted from the spirit of the Games. Some even chose not to watch the remainder of the event because of the opening ceremony.

A DJ, producer and LGBTQ+ icon who calls herself a “love activist” wore a silver headdress that looked like a halo as she got a party going on a footbridge across the Seine, above parading athletes—including those from countries that criminalize LGBTQ+. Drag artists, dancers and others flanked the woman on both sides.

The tableau brought to mind Leonardo da Vinci’s famous “Last Supper” painting, which many associate with the moment in the New Testament when Jesus Christ declared that an apostle would betray Him. For others, the work is a nod to Dionysus, the Greek god of festivity.

The artistic director saw the moment as a celebration of diversity, and the table on which the DJ spun her tunes as a tribute to feasting and French gastronomy.

“My wish isn’t to be subversive, nor to mock or to shock,” he said. “Most of all, I wanted to send a message of love, a message of inclusion and not at all to divide.”

Still, critics could not unsee what they saw.

“One of the main performances of the Olympics was an LGBT mockery of a sacred Christian story—the Last Supper—the last supper of Christ. The apostles were portrayed by transvestites,” the spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, posted on Telegram. The French Catholic Church’s conference of bishops deplored what it described as “scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity” and said, “Our thoughts are with all the Christians from all continents who were hurt by the outrage and provocation of certain scenes.”

Good and Bad

As the Olympics progressed, its massive audience witnessed tremendous displays of athleticism throughout the various events. But the world outside Paris saw no end of bad news.

Basketball, water polo, swimming, soccer, pole vaulting, tennis and other sports captivated millions and brought national pride to the countries that achieved victory. Meanwhile, a new leader of Hamas was selected, cease-fire talks with Israel deteriorated and fears swelled of a larger Middle East war between Israel and Hezbollah. Ukraine added F-16s to its military arsenal and mounted an incursion into Russia, the two enemies remaining locked in war. The U.S. said famine in Sudan could be the worst the world has seen in decades. This is only a brief thumbnail.

As the Games wrapped up, the contest for most gold medals ended in a 40-40 tie between China and the United States. But the U.S. topped the medals table with a whopping 126 overall, compared to 91 for China. The elation Americans felt was contrasted by the heating up of the U.S. presidential election back home, bitter attacks flying back and forth among Democrats and Republicans.

Any temporary peace or unity felt at the Olympics could not transcend the divided state of the world at large. But that does not dampen our enduring desire for lasting harmony to one day come.

“Even though the Games cannot solve every problem, even though discrimination and conflicts are not about to disappear, tonight you have reminded us how beautiful humanity is when we come together,” Tony Estanguet, the head of the organizing committee, had said at the Opening Ceremony. “And when you return to the Olympic Village, you will be sending a message of hope to the whole world: that there is a place where people of every nationality, every culture and every religion can live together. You’ll be reminding us of what’s possible.”

Each of us has a certain idea of what is possible. At times, we may feel more optimistic, and at other times pessimistic. The Olympics cannot unite the world. Will it ever be unified? And if so, how will this happen?

Think back to one of the most infamous moments of the opening ceremony: The scene many associated with the biblical Last Supper. While this famous work of art has roots in paganism and does not accurately depict what Jesus looked like, it is what most people think of if they consider Christ’s last moments with His disciples. But many may not know that during that momentous evening, Jesus also addressed the subject of unity.

During a prayer to His Father, Jesus said: “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in Me through their message. I pray that they will all be one, just as You and I are one—as You are in Me, Father, and I am in You” (John 17:20-21, New Living Translation).

The apostle Paul wrote, “I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose” (I Cor. 1:10, NLT).

Yet, as we saw, man’s efforts to achieve unity are flawed at best. They could be likened to a “tree of knowledge of good and evil” (Gen. 2:9). Remember the Opening Ceremony. Actions that some may find unifying, others find divisive, and vice-versa. And as inspiring as the high points of the Olympics were, they did nothing to discourage warring nations from continuing to do battle. The prophet Jeremiah summarized the dilemma this way: “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walks to direct his steps” (10:23).

Jesus established a very high level of unity for people to attain: Being just as unified as are He and God the Father. This is a far cry from what we see in the world today.

A Unified World

To achieve the kind of peace and unity God wants people and nations to have, foundational changes must take place in the world. Biblical unity cannot be achieved by the efforts of human beings, including those who organized the Olympics, despite the vast millions of dollars at their disposal. Yet societal change is coming, and sooner than you might think.

Real Truth Editor-in-Chief David C. Pack explained this in his book Tomorrow’s Wonderful World – An Inside View! He wrote: “Everything on Earth begins with government. The governments of men do not and have never worked.”

“But a better, perfect government—one not left to the devices, machinations, and confusion of men—is coming. It will usher in peace, happiness, unity, abundance, and prosperity for every human being and every country on Earth. While such a vision may seem impossible, it will happen—and in your lifetime!

“It was always the Creator’s Plan that a whole new and infinitely better world would come—one built from the beginning on the right foundation. One full third of the Bible is prophecy—history recorded in advance. Large sections of this describe the establishment of another world, one completely different from anything ever before seen on planet Earth. The coming utopian age that God planned long ago will be absolutely marvelous—breathtaking to behold!—and it appears scripturally in vivid colors, with sharp outlines, and in exquisite detail, as a stunning, beautiful, panoramic, and previously unimagined future worldscape.”

“There will be absolute unity in every aspect of God’s government. And it will not be based on compromise. All leaders—at every level—will seek and find agreement, because all will be in agreement with Christ, who agrees with God. Government, education, religion, and social functions will all be unified, because everyone will be working toward the same end.”

During the Kingdom of God (Mark 1:15), the world will be totally unified—finally measuring up to the high standard in Jesus’ prayer to the Father. To learn much more about how it will come and what it means for you, read Tomorrow’s Wonderful World – An Inside View!

This article contains information from The Associated Press.