This is the Day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Amen.
Ecclesiastes 2:17-26
So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun? All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless.
A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
Dear friends in Christ,
I was caught off-guard. I wasn’t ready for such a thought-provoking question.
A few years ago I attended a family reunion, held nearly every year at the home of my cousin. It was great to see so many of my aunts, uncles, cousins and all their families.
My cousin’s home was beautiful, decorated for Christmas. There was plenty of laughter, food, fun and conversation.
As I made my way through the kitchen, the owner of the home approached me and we started to converse. He is a very educated man, a former professor of neurology at a well-known university. He holds two doctorates. He taught anatomy at a major university and neurology at another. He had spent years in research, but for the last several years he taught while also holding a private practice. He is, no doubt, one of the smartest men I have ever met. He was also a very gracious host.
As we stood in his kitchen he asked the question I wasn’t expecting. He asked, “What is the meaning of life?”
This man had spent over 40 years studying, teaching and researching the human body. He was well versed in how this incredible machine, we call a body, works. He could explain in great detail how the human brain works. He had earned accolades, and the respect of both the science and intellectual community. He had a beautiful home, a wonderful wife, he was very blessed – and he knew it. But for all his knowledge, for all his research, there was still that one question he couldn’t answer. “What is the meaning of life?”
There are a lot of people in this world who are looking for the answer to that very question. The question itself reminds me of another very wise man, the wisest of them all, who struggled to find the answer to that same question. This book, Ecclesiastes, records this man’s search to find the answer to one of the greatest questions ever asked.
The author of Ecclesiastes had tasted just about everything life has to offer. Wealth? No one could exceed him in luxurious lifestyle (2:4-9). Wisdom? His was world-renowned (1:13-18). Fame? He was king, the most famous man of his time (1:12). Systematically, he sampled all of life’s powers and pleasures, yet all ultimately disappointed him. Everything proved meaningless.
What is the point of life? he asked. You work hard, and someone else gets all the credit. You struggle to be good, and evil people take advantage of you. You accumulate money, and it just goes to spoiled heirs. You seek pleasure, and it turns sour on you. And everyone – rich or poor, good or evil – meets the same end. We all die. There is only one word to describe this life: meaningless.
But is that really true? Is there no meaning in life? As we study this portion of God’s word today, may God the Holy Spirit help us to see:
Meaning In A Meaningless World
1. Worldly aspirations are meaningless
2. Only Christ can give meaning to our lives
Do you ever find yourself running and striving for something that seems out of your reach, only to realize that all you need to do is stop and take a good, hard look at what you have? Do you ever feel like a hamster on a wheel, running and running and going round and round, never getting where you want to go? Well, now is the time to hop off the wheel and celebrate the blessings you have been given.
Back in the Old Testament there was a man named Solomon, king over Israel. He was a man who, by human standards, had everything the human heart could desire, certainly everything the carnal heart could desire. He had wealth; he had power; he had prestige; he had women; he had success; he even had wisdom and insight. He had it all. Solomon lived life in the fast lane—so much so that he placed his faith in the Lord on the back burner. Fortunately at the end of his life he seems to have come around, and we believe that he was the author of this book of Ecclesiastes. What was his assessment of all that he had accumulated and accomplished? “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless” (1:2).
The Hebrew word used for “meaningless” in our text is the word הֲבֵל. Hevel is like the breath that you can see on a cold morning as you exhale. It is visible for a little while, then it disappears. That’s an accurate description of all that we have on this earth, and everything that we accomplish as mortal human beings. It’s all like that puff of air that appears for an instant and then is gone. The Apostle James observed the same thing. In his New Testament epistle, speaking to people who have big plans for investing and doing business and making money, James says, “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (James 4:14).
We have a name for what King Solomon experienced. We call it a “mid-life crisis” or a “late-life crisis,” and we see it all over today. Successful, wealthy Americans stand out in front of their domain and say, “I’ve got the house, the cars, the boat, the vacation time off to travel. . . is this all there is? Is there nothing more to life than all the stuff and entertainment that I can accumulate?” “Meaningless! Meaningless! Utterly meaningless!” How true it is—and yet, how often you and I struggle and strive and sweat trying to get our hands around the hevel, trying to grasp that empty puff of vapor that eludes us and vanishes into thin air.
Thankfully, as Christians we know that there is another dimension to our lives that goes far beyond the few, short years that we spend on this ball of earthly dust. We have been given the gift of a Savior to rescue us from this empty, meaningless existence, and to give us the promise that has meaning right now and that continues into eternity.
Our precious Savior came into this empty world of meaningless aspirations to rescue us and to restore our good fortune in a right relationship with God. Jesus’ innocent life stands in place as our righteousness. The blood Jesus shed on the cross has cleansed us from all our sins—even the sins of greed and striving for empty ambitions.
Without Christ, all that this life has to offer—whether trouble and trial or earthly joy and worldly success—is only a prelude to damnation. Without Christ one is born; one lives; one goes for all he can get; reaches with all his might. Then a person dies and leaves it all behind. He is judged before the God whom he has offended with his selfish, greedy ambitions and self-indulgent lifestyle. And apart from Christ he spends eternity separated from God in righteous condemnation for his sins. That’s what life is like without Jesus: You live, you die, you are judged and you perish. “Meaningless! Meaningless! Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless!” (1:2).
With Jesus, however, our lives take on a completely different perspective. St. Paul captured it well in our lesson today from Colossians, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” (Colossians 3:23,24).
Our purpose as redeemed children of God gives dimension to this life, as we love our Lord, serve our neighbor, and live for eternity. The real meaning of our life is found in the fact that, because of Jesus, we don’t live out our days on this earth in meaningless pursuit of material wealth, but we have been given a treasure that will be ours for all eternity.
I hate to be the one to tell you this…but when you die, all your worldly possessions stay behind. The saying, “The one who dies with the most toys wins!” is not true. But when you die, you will still possess the greatest treasure that could ever be given to a human being: the riches of Christ, the gift of eternal life, a mansion in heaven, and the right to praise and glorify the living God before his throne for all eternity.
These are the riches that we’re privileged to celebrate with others in our lives: our families and our fellow Christians. God has placed people into our lives who are very dear and special to us, and they are more precious than any material “thing” that we might acquire. And yet, some still don’t get it.
The story is told of an American executive who was walking along the beach in Mexico, when he saw a fisherman coming in with his catch of the day. “What have you got there?” the American asked. “I have my catch of fish,” replied the fisherman.
“You mean you’re all done fishing?” responded the American. “It’s only 10:30 in the morning. What are you going to do for the rest of the day?” “Well, I will go up to my house on the beach, have lunch with my wife, spend the afternoon playing with my children, and I will watch the beautiful sunset over the ocean.”
“Why don’t you fish some more today?” wondered the American. “It’s still early. You could catch a whole lot more fish.” “What am I going to do with the extra fish?” asked the fisherman. “You could sell them to your neighbors. You could provide fish for the whole community. You could make a whole lot of money,” responded the American.
“What am I going to do with all that money?” asked the fisherman.
“Then you could open a processing plant. You could can and pack fish here and sell it all over Mexico—in Mexico City, Guadalajara, Cancún. You could make even more money.”
“What do I need all that money for?” asked the humble fisherman. “Then you go international. You could be selling fish in Moscow, in Tokyo, in Paris. You could be a very wealthy man,” prodded the executive. “What do I do when I’m wealthy?” wondered the fisherman.
The American was exasperated, because the poor fisherman obviously wasn’t seeing the potential. “You can retire and buy a house on the beach, have lunch with your wife, play with your kids and watch beautiful sunsets over the ocean!”
So often we fail to see the blessings we have right in front of us. The problem is that we still keep trying to get our hands around the hevel, and as we age we become too old too soon and wise too late. At the end of our lives, looking back at time gone by and opportunities missed, I doubt that many people are going to say, “I wish I would have spent more time in front of my computer.” Or, “I wish I had spent more time watching television.” Or, “I wish I had spent more time away from church and family working long hours to make more money.”
King Solomon observes in our text, “A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?” (v.24,25).
What’s Solomon saying there: eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die? No, he’s simply telling us to get off the hamster wheel. Quit spinning and running and dreaming and scheming for the future and just stop! Stop and smell the coffee. Stop and look at your blessings that you’ve been given. Stop and celebrate the treasure that you’ve been given in Jesus Christ.
Unfortunately, I never got the chance to answer the question posed to me that day in the kitchen. There were several interruptions that took place – you can imagine in a house filled with people.
A week or so later I emailed my cousin’s husband and offered my answer to the question, “What is the meaning of life?”
To me – we’ve been put here on earth to look for God. And once we’ve been found by him, once we’ve been brought to faith, the meaning of life is to worship, thank and praise our God who has won our salvation. And then we have the privilege of spending the rest of our days sharing that news with others.
Life is found in Christ. The rest is just details.
Amen
And now may the peace of God which surpasses all earthly wisdom, keep our hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus. Amen.