Under the Sun

The scriptures referred to are Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14, 2:18-23, Colossians 3:1-11, and Luke 12:13-21.

The most famous line from Shakespeare is the beginning of Hamlet's soliloquy: “To be or not to be, that is the question.” What most people don't realize is that Hamlet is contemplating suicide. Basically he is asking whether it is better to live or to die. “Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them. To die—to sleep, no more; and by a sleep to say we end the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.” In other words, by dying you end all the pain and suffering of life, just like a good deep sleep does. But then he realizes something. “To die, to sleep; to sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there's the rub: for in that sleep of death what dreams may come...” Hamlet realizes that “the dread of something after death, the undiscovere'd country, from whose bourn no traveler returns, puzzles the will, and makes us rather bear those ills we have than fly to others we know not of...” In other words, most of us would rather deal with the problems and pains of life than risk having to deal with whatever we might experience after death.

Long before Shakespeare penned his plays, the writer of Ecclesiastes wrestled with the problems of life. But he was not dealing with the problems most of us have—trying to make a living, dealing with difficult people who have power over us—the stuff 99% of the world's population throughout history have suffered. No, our passage says, “I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem,” which would indicate that he was Solomon. So he had it better than most people. And what does he conclude? All is vanity. The Hebrew word here literally means “air, breath, vapor.” It expresses something that has no substance. So the Jewish Publication Society's version of the Tanakh translates it “utter futility.” The International Standard Version renders it “absolutely pointless.” The Good News Translation gives it as “useless.” The NIV uses the word “meaningless.” The Contemporary English Version translates the first verse of our passage this way: “Nothing makes sense! Everything is nonsense. I have seen it all—nothing makes sense.” It's a pretty bleak assessment of life and a surprising one to find in the Bible.

But the Teacher's perspective is limited. He says “I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun.” Under the sun” is repeated 29 times in this short book. So he is looking at what happens between birth and death. He concludes that everything is temporary and therefore meaningless. Pleasures are meaningless, work is meaningless, advancement is meaningless, riches are meaningless. In other words, if this life is the only one we get, then nothing we do means anything in the long run. Add to that the problems that Hamlet later lists—the wrongs of oppressors, arrogant people in high office, “the law's delay,” seeing the unworthy succeed—and there is no justice in life.

My wife and I love to watch British mysteries or as my son calls it, “murder porn.” We don't like them too dark, however. We like clever puzzles. But of course, when the bad guy is revealed and caught, it is hard to see how the murder victim gets justice. Even Sherlock Holmes realized this. At the end of one of his more tragic cases, he says, “What is the meaning of it, Watson?...What object is served by this circle of misery and violence and fear? It must tend to some end, or else our universe is ruled by chance,which is unthinkable. But what end? There is the great standing perennial problem to which human reason is as far from an answer as ever.”

I said it was surprising to find the idea that life is meaningless expressed in the Bible but you know who would agree? Atheists. Indeed there is a Youtuber who used to be a Mormon and is now an atheist who paints an even bleaker picture of life without God. Brittney Hartley says that along with the death of God comes the death of not only ultimate justice but objective morality, objective truth, tradition and culture, assurance of an afterlife, and progression towards an ultimate ideal. What Hartley doesn't list is the death of hope. There is no reason to believe that anything will ever get better.

If this is the only life there is, then everything is futile. And just as we see with the Teacher, even being rich and powerful can't make your life meaningful. It's not hard to think of rich and powerful people who had sad lives. They are not immune to broken relationships, losing loved ones, suffering disease, undergoing disasters, being murdered or committing suicide. They know better than anyone that he who dies with the most toys wins nothing of lasting value. If there is no afterlife and no loving and just God to make things right, then there is no justice or meaning to this life.

Nevertheless the writer of Ecclesiastes concludes his book by seeing some value in obtaining wisdom and obeying God's commandments. It can make this bleak life better. The real problem, though, is that he is only looking at life under the sun. And humans find this perspective intolerable. As we noted last week, religion goes back to the beginning of our species. And as evidence in belief in an afterlife, anthropologists point to intentional human burials with grave goods, like one found in central Israel that dates back 100,000 years. Anthropologist Robin Dunbar asked why did our ancestors give things useful to living people, like pots and tools and weapons and food and drink, to a dead person if they were not intended to be used in the next life?

We have an advantage that the Teacher did not. We have the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Within 3 days his discouraged followers went from mourners cowering in a locked room from the authorities to people who were not afraid of death because they saw and touched and ate with the risen Jesus. They defied the same authorities that had Jesus killed because they knew that death, like the other things in this life, was also temporary. The only thing that isn't temporary is people.

Which means that what you do in this life is not meaningless. As C.S. Lewis pointed out that if you are just going to live for 70 or 80 years and then cease to exist, it doesn't matter what kind of person you are. But if you are going to live forever, it does.

When I was in a college ministry where we went to a nursing home, I noticed that some elderly people were very bitter at the end of their lives. They couldn't forget and move past old slights and injustices and feuds and disappointments and regrets but just kept going on about them. But some elderly people were happy, despite the circumstances that put them into the nursing home. One lady was a brittle diabetic who had lost her sight to the disease and eventually both legs. But she was always joyful. She sang the loudest at our church services and loved to talk with us students. Our time at the nursing home each Sunday often ended with all of us in her room, fortified by her strong faith. And if I was going to live forever I would choose to become like her rather than like the narrow bitter souls in the same place though they might be physically better off than her. She was like a ray of sunshine. And I could see some of those people becoming like spiritual black holes, sucking in everything around them, including light, and giving nothing back.

That's why what we are becoming in this short life is so important. It sets our trajectory into the next life. And that's why Paul says, “Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly.” And by that he doesn't mean things like family and friends and the things essential to a physical life. No, he lists stuff like sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, greed (which is idolatry), anger, rage, malice, slander, and abusive language. As we read last week, if we are in Christ, Jesus has nailed such things to the cross. (Colossians 2:14) Sins are like cancer: they grow and grow in us until they kill us spiritually. We know that one way to prevent lung cancer is to quit smoking. In the same way, we must stop feeding the things that harm our relationship with God, our relationships with each other and our relationship with ourselves.

And you may have noticed that a lot of the things Jesus tells us to do make no sense if this is the only life we get. Things like not resisting an evil person, turning the other cheek, loving your enemies, and not worrying about things like food and drink and clothing, do not make sense if you only live once. Those are the very things that got Jesus killed. As Paul says, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to those who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18) From God's perspective it is the world's wisdom that is foolish. Paul continues “But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:24)

There is a famous psychological experiment that was done with marshmallows. Kids were shown a marshmallow on a plate. The adult told them that they could eat the marshmallow while he was gone but if they waited until he came back, they could have 2 marshmallows. They watched what the kids did and then followed up on them throughout their lives. They found that those kids who resisted eating the first marshmallow, who were able to hold off on getting an immediate reward in order to gain a greater reward later on, did better in school and in life. God is saying that that same principle applies to this life and the next. You can, like the man in Jesus' parable, just think about building up wealth so you can live this life eating, drinking and being merry, or you can look at life from God's perspective: eternity. And eternal life beats this temporary life in every way.

Jesus said, “And whoever has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.” (Matthew 19:29) Jesus is not talking about abandoning these things unnecessarily but being forced to by persecution, as the parallel passage in Mark makes clear. (Mark 10:30) Jesus is saying we should take the long view; see life through the lens of eternity.

Ultimately the Teacher saw that you can't find meaning through things. He does see value in having other people in your life. He says that one person working alone is meaningless but “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work. If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who has no one to help him up! Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12) As God says in the beginning “It is not good for the man to be alone.” (Genesis 2:18) For us it is even better. Jesus said, “For where two or three are assembled in my name, I am there among them.” (Matthew 18:20) Whenever we gather in Jesus' name, however few in number, we are the body of Christ and his Spirit is with us, in us and among us. (1 Corinthians 12:13-14)

But what if we are wrong and there is no God and no afterlife? The mathematician Blaise Pascal looked at this question logically. If we Christians are wrong, and death is the end, we will never know that we were wrong. However, if we are right, we will receive a great reward. On the other hand, if an atheist is right that there is no God and no afterlife, he will never know that he was right. If he is wrong, however, he will be in the same situation as the man in the parable and that is not good. Betting on God's promise of eternal life for those who put their trust in him has a great return and no downside; betting against God has no return and a huge downside.

The Bible shows both perspectives on life. Looked at from a purely material point of view, life is meaningless. Looked at from a spiritual perspective, life is full of meaning. Everything we do can move us along one of two trajectories: closer to God or farther from him. Because every person you meet has the immense potential to grow into a wonderful, giving, larger-than-life person who will bedazzle you when they enter glory or they can shrink into an infinitely tiny ball of rage and regret and empty and unfulfilled desires. As someone said, a person wrapped up in themselves makes for a very small package.

Or look at it this way: everyone you meet is either a brother or sister in Christ or a potential brother or sister in Christ. So you can help them discover and develop this by what you say and do. And by giving of yourself to help them, you will also become more Christlike. So, with apologies to Shakespeare, to be a follower of Jesus or not to be—that is the question.