The voices around Valentine’s Day say that ‘love is everywhere’. It’s a wonderful thought but is it true? Where there is disagreement today, we find hostility, bitterness and anger. Rarely is genuine, thoughtful conversation exploring points of difference welcome. If someone disagrees, they are considered an enemy.

It is not without significance that Jesus taught in his Sermon on the Plain: “But I say to you that hear, love your enemies” (Luke 6:27).

Moses had commanded, love your neighbor (Leviticus 19:18). In Jesus’ day the Jewish leaders had narrowed the application of neighbor to refer to people with similar religious views; it did not include enemies. But Jesus went further and said that his followers cannot be selective about whom they love.

To love one’s enemies means loving those who oppose, mock or persecute us. It’s a call not to retaliate in kind for that only exacerbates the issue. Rather, we are to pray and do good. This was a real challenge for Jesus’ hearers in Roman occupied Judea; it’s a challenge for us today.

Love distils the essence of Jesus’ ethic. Significantly this love is not simply brotherly love, romantic love, or even natural affection, but rather the kind of love that God practises: a love that chooses to love those unworthy of love – even enemies. The original language uses a rare Greek word, agape.

Jesus explains what agape love looks like: “Pray for those who abuse you; do good to those who hate you; bless those who curse you”, he says (6:28).  Love calls for practical action. The kind of love of which Jesus speaks means praying for the persecutors – even the unjust and violent.

Doing good means being willing to forego personal ‘rights’ – being prepared to be vulnerable and ‘go the extra mile’. “If anyone strikes you on the cheek,” Jesus continues, “offer the other cheek as well” (6:29). The image is of a slap across the face with the back of the hand, a humiliating action. It’s an abuse of power (such as we find in Luke 12:45f; 18:3-5; 23:36f). But, Jesus is saying, true neighbor love is the willingness to forgive and not retaliate, to offer support and even minister to the persecutors. Such love may mean understanding what may lie behind someone’s aggressive anger – it may be a genuine personal injury. Revenge is not on.

A similar point is made with Jesus’ references to cloak or coat (6:29). The illustration here carries the idea of theft. But the response is the same: again, revenge is excluded. Forgiveness and vulnerability are called for when dealing with personal injustice and religious persecution.

Now we need to understand that Jesus is not referring here to governments. One of the tasks of good governments is to protect its people – which may, in extreme circumstances, involve taking up arms. But this is not what Jesus is speaking about here. Luke tells us in 6:20 that while vast crowds are present, Jesus’ words are carefully and deliberately directed to his followers – his people in their personal relationships.

So in verse 30 he tells us that the self-giving nature of the love he is talking about also demands a response of assisting the destitute. The reference to begging is not so much to beggars on the street but to people who are genuinely in need. Love requires unexpected generosity. And he tells us, such love doesn’t expect anything in return.

Now I need to stress that Jesus expects us to act with godly wisdom in the way we express our love in practice. Such are the needs of the world that if we gave to every needy person around us, we ourselves would become destitute and homeless, needing others to provide for us. It’s important we understand that Jesus is laying out principles to frame the attitudes and actions for anyone who says they are a follower of his.

With that he sets out what has become known as ‘the golden rule’: “Do to others as you would have them do to you…”  That is, ‘Treat others as you would want them to treat you’ (6:31). Jesus’ words here are positive and pro-active.

They are based on the principle of the Old Testament command in Leviticus 19:18: You must love your neighbor as yourself. In Luke chapter 10 we learn through Jesus’ parable of ‘The Good Samaritan’ what the practice of neighbor love looks like. It means caring for anyone we come across who is in need and whom we have the power to help. Jesus doesn’t expect us to act if we don’t have the resources to do so.

He was laying then the foundation for a new social order that over time has provided a framework for justice tempered by mercy and forgiveness, in marriage and family, in constitutions and laws, protecting the rights of citizens and reversing many evils in society.

Jesus’ definition and practice of the law of love radically reverses the way we relate to one another. And this reversal is grounded in the character of God and his nature of love: “Love your enemies, do good and lend, expect nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (6:35).

In John Stott’s last book, The Radical Disciple (IVP: 2010, p.40), he referenced a Hindu professor who, ‘identifying one of his students as a Christian, once said, ‘If you Christians lived like Jesus Christ, India would be at your feet tomorrow’’.

A Prayer: Grant us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always such things as are right, so that we who cannot do anything that is good without you, may in your strength be able to live according to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

© John G. Mason

For the past two years it seems that all the news has been bad news: international tensions, leaders constantly verbally attacking one another – especially during a pandemic when unity would seem to be a better way for countries to address the crisis – bitterness and anger, blame and vitriol being spewed in the media and social media, together with divisions in the western world. We can feel overwhelmed, swamped and beaten down by what appear to be unsolvable situations.

Over these weeks we are touching on various scenes in the Gospel of Luke. And as we do it’s important to keep in mind Luke’s claim that his narrative is an accurate record about Jesus: it had been delivered by eyewitnesses and ministers of the word… (Luke 1:2). Many respected ancient historians are agreed that Jesus not only lived but that the Gospel records are reliable.

Luke 6:17-19 tells us that huge crowds came to Jesus to hear him teach and to be healed. What follows is a sermon specifically addressed to his group of close followers as well as to a huge crowd. It begins: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (6:20).

These are searching words, challenging us to ask, ‘Whose blessing do I want most of all – the blessing of my family and friends, the world, or the blessing of God?

When Jesus says, “Blessed are you who are poor”, he is not only speaking of the materially destitute. At least four of his disciples there that day weren’t materially poor. Peter and his brother had a fishing business, as did James and John. Yes, Jesus does have compassion for the materially poor and the powerless, but he has in mind a wider meaning of the poor – people who are aware that life is meaningless without God.

In the 16th century, Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, understood the spiritual poverty of our human hearts. Ashley Null has summarized Cranmer’s understanding of our human nature: ‘What the heart loves, the will chooses, and the mind justifies’. In our natural state we have no true love for God and his ways. Blessed, Jesus says, are those who are aware of their spiritual need, for yours is the kingdom of heaven. Such people are members of God’s kingdom now and can already taste the joys of experiencing God in their lives.

“Blessed are you who are hungry now for you will be filled”, Jesus continues (6:21). In saying the hungry will be filled, he is speaking of God’s plan to provide everything good in all its fullness for his people – spiritually and materially. The hungry now long for the day when God’s purposes and promises are fulfilled.

“Blessed are you who weep now” describes each of us who grieve over our own personal sin. These words also refer to those of us who weep because we grieve for a world where evil and its outcomes abound.

Dr. Luke records examples of these kinds of grief elsewhere: the woman who poured expensive perfume over Jesus’ feet at a dinner, wept because of her former lifestyle (7:38); Peter wept when he heard the rooster crow, expressing his grief over denying Jesus three times (22:62); and, not long before his crucifixion, Jesus wept over Jerusalem because its people were rejecting him (19:41).

But weeping is not the final outcome for those who grieve. Jesus promises a day that will fulfil the words of Psalm 30:5: Weeping may last for the night, but joy comes in the morning – supremely, the dawning of the day of Christ’s return.

The fourth blessing is the climax to the blessings. It is both a statement and an exhortation. Jesus is saying that his followers will experience suffering and persecution in various ways – hatred, exclusion, denunciation, the blackening of their name, because of their association with him, the Son of man (6:22). Indeed, in 2012 Dr. Angela Merkel, the then German Chancellor stated that Christians were the most persecuted group in the world. And nothing has changed.

But Jesus exhorts us, “Rejoice in that day. Leap for joy, for behold your reward is great in heaven” (6:23). ‘Be glad on that day,’ he says, ‘not because you have earned a reward in heaven but because the opposition you experience signifies your genuine commitment to me’.

He now continues with some very tough words: “Woe”, or “Alas”, he says. Woe conveys regret or sadness. It is the very opposite of blessing.

‘People who live for riches and prosperity, the power and pleasures that riches can bring,’ he says, ‘will only experience these benefits in this present world’ (6:24). ‘They will be your only consolation for you won’t have them in the life to come’.

Linked with the rich are those who are full now: people who live simply to satisfy the desires of the flesh will one day experience emptiness.

Woe to you who laugh now (6:25b). Jesus is not suggesting that his followers are miserable and never laugh or smile. Rather he is speaking against people who are filled with their own interests and delights, and who mock the things of God. Like the rich man in the parable he later told (12:15-21), they have no regard for God at all. They give no thought to the fact that all the good things that make for fun, laughter and success, ultimately come from God.

Woe to you when all speak well of you (6:26). Jesus now has tough words for people who live for the plaudits of the crowd. He is speaking of people who win popular adulation at the price of leaving God out of their lives (see 6:22). The self-serving path of popularity is the road to nowhere.

It is easy to look for solutions to our fears and anxieties in wealth, clothes, popularity, and the good life. Someone who valued his lifestyle on the Sydney Harbour foreshore, once told me I shouldn’t bother him about God: he had heaven now. To which I responded: ‘But for how long?’

The mix of present and future tenses associated with Jesus’ blessings reveal that all who turn to him can look forward to joy in the morning when he returns; already we can taste what this will mean.

A prayer. God our Father, you have promised to remain for ever with those who do what is just and right; help us to live in your presence. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

© John G. Mason

You may want to listen to Christ Our Hope in Life and Death from Keith & Kristyn Getty and Matt Papa.

Back in 1995 Joan Osborne’s ‘What If God Was One of Us?’ was an instant hit. It was asking the question how we would react if God was identifiably walking amongst us as just one of us. It’s a good question to ask in every generation, for it awakens us to a time when it is claimed that divinity did walk amongst us – not as one of the elite but as one of us.

In the opening lines of chapter 5 of Luke’s Gospel we read of a scene on the foreshores of Lake Gennesaret on Lake Galilee: … The crowd was pressing in on Jesus to hear the word of God; he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat…

In his book, The Holy Trinity Dr. Robert Letham comments that the world at the beginning of the 21st century replaced ‘reliance on reason’ with ‘a preference for emotion’. Successful athletes are more often asked ‘how they feel’ rather than for their analysis of the game. ‘The cardinal fault in interpersonal relations is to hurt someone’s feelings,’ he observes …

‘While emotions are not to be shunned, for God created them…,’ Letham continues, ‘there are peculiar and sinister dangers in a world shaped not by considered thoughts, but by image and gut feelings. These dangers relate to civil society and the rule of law, and also to the church and its faithfulness to Christ’ (pp.449f).

How often we fail to understand what is happening around us. And with this failure we’re not equipped to live wisely as God’s people in the wider community, let alone to defend our faith.

The drama that unfolds in Luke chapter 5 takes us back in time to Jesus’ teaching and actions, to the way he not only instructed minds, but also stirred emotions and touched hearts.

The scene Luke describes in the opening lines of chapter 5 would have been a familiar sight: fishing boats hauled up at the water’s edge after a night’s work and fishermen washing nets. The nets, probably made of linen, were most effective at night for in daylight fish could see them and avoid them. This detail highlights the drama of the unfolding scene.

Pressed by the crowds, Jesus asked Simon, one of the fishermen, to pull his boat a little offshore. Not one to stand on dignity, unexpectedly Jesus sat in the boat to teach the crowds: he came amongst them as one of them.

Luke’s narrative now focuses on Jesus and Simon (Peter). ‘You (singular) put out into the deep,’ Jesus said to Peter, and ‘you (plural) let down your nets for a catch’ (5:4). The command is specifically to Simon, but also to the others who were there. All of them would be needed to haul in the catch.

Thus, in a moment we are introduced to Simon Peter. For him Jesus’ command is ridiculous: he had fished all night and had caught nothing. Nevertheless, what he had seen and no doubt heard of Jesus (4:37; 38-39) impressed him. Significantly Peter didn’t address Jesus, as ‘Teacher’ or ‘Lord’, but rather as Master (5:5). ‘You’re the boss,’ his words implied. ‘I think you’re mad, but because it is you who has told me to do it, I’ll do it. Don’t blame me if we don’t catch anything.’

Clearly Jesus was someone who impressed Peter – perhaps the nature of his teaching, and even ‘the cut of his jib’.

The haul of fish that day was astonishing. It was so great that a second boat was required for the nets were at breaking point and the two boats were almost swamped (5:6-7). Such was the size of the catch everyone recognized something abnormal had happened.

Astounded, Peter fell on his knees in front of Jesus. Acknowledging his lack of faith and the gulf that he perceived existed between them, he exclaimed, “Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man” (5:8). Peter knew he was in the presence of divinity.

James and John, Peter’s business partners were also astonished (5:10). We can imagine an interviewer today asking, ‘How did you feel?’ By his words and actions Jesus touched minds and hearts. And, although he was clearly one of them, he awakened their awareness that divinity was walking amongst them. A miracle happened that day.

Yet today miracles are dismissed because ‘we now know the laws of nature’. To which the philosopher and mathematician, Dr. John Lennox replies, “From a theistic perspective, the laws of nature predict what is bound to happen if God does not intervene… To argue that the laws of nature make it impossible for us to believe in the existence of God and the likelihood of his intervention in the universe is plainly false” (God and Stephen Hawking, Lion, p.87).

The laws of nature that science observes are the observable regularities that God the creator has built into the universe. However, such ‘laws’ don’t prevent God from intervening if he chooses. When he does, we are able to identify the irregularity and speak of it as ‘a miracle’.

Luke’s record of Peter, James and John’s response to Jesus’ command and action that day (5:6-7), points to the One of whom it can be truly said: he is the man from heaven.

But the scene is not yet complete: Jesus says to Peter, “Don’t be afraid; henceforth you will be catching men and women” (5:10). The scene concludes with Luke’s comment: And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him (5:11). The three men, recognising divinity in their midst, left their business and followed Jesus.

In Luke 5:1-11 we have significant clues to the answer of Joan Osborne’s question: What if God was one of us?

A prayer: Almighty God, we thank you for the gift of your holy word. May it be a lantern to our feet, a light to our paths, and strength to our lives. Take us and use us to love and serve all people in the power of the Holy Spirit and in the name of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

© John G. Mason

You may like to listen to the song Across the Lands from Keith & Kristyn Getty.

This week a friend sent me a copy of That Was The Church That Was – How the Church of England Lost the English People. Written by Andrew Brown, an English journalist, and Linda Woodhead, Professor of Politics, Philosophy and Religion at Lancaster University, England, it was published in 2016. Providing a harsh critique of the state of the Church of England over the last thirty years or so, it suggests that only a ‘Broad’ Church will slow the decline.

While my purpose here is not to review the book, I was surprised that little attention is given to the biblical and theological issues that lie at the heart of the nature and meaning of the Church of England.

With that in mind, come with me to a section of the Gospel of Luke 4 beginning at verse 16.

Luke, the Gospel writer wants us to feel the rhetorical impact of his narrative about Jesus. He slows down the pace of his writing through a cluster of verbs: Jesus stood up to read; there was given to him…; He opened the book and found…(4:16-17). Our sense of anticipation that something significant was about to happen, is sparked with Luke’s comment: And Jesus closed the book, and gave it to the attendant, and sat down (4:20). We are drawn into the synagogue scene and the congregation who were listening attentively to Jesus.

The reading from Isaiah chapter 61 would have touched a chord with Jesus’ hearers. It had been some four hundred years since God’s prophets had last spoken. But now Jesus is saying that Isaiah’s words are fulfilled in him. His hearers that day were positive and astonished, but then they asked, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” (4:22)

Conscious that they expected him to use his miraculous powers to authenticate his messianic claim, he responded, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’” (4:23). Just because he had performed miracles in Capernaum didn’t mean he would do the same in Nazareth. It depended on how they received him.

Jesus continued with illustrations from Elijah (1 Kings 17:8-24) and Elisha (2 Kings 5:1-19). Both prophets spoke of God’s goodness. However, because the Jewish people at that time refused to acknowledge God, it was only outsiders (non-Jewish) who benefitted from their divinely inspired ministry – a widow in Zarephath, and Naaman the Syrian, a leper (Luke 4:25-27).

Jesus’ listeners in the synagogue also rejected him (4:28-29). They weren’t prepared to acknowledge him as the one who fulfilled the promise of Isaiah 61. They were so angry they even tried to kill him by throwing him over a cliff. Ironically, there was a miracle that day: Jesus walked through them and away from danger (4:30).

Significantly, he didn’t give up on his mission even though he was rejected in his hometown.

The heart of the gospel of which Jesus spoke is the rule of God’s king – his kingdom. We can begin to see why the preaching of the first Christians would have rankled with the Jewish leadership as well as imperial Rome – as it often does with rulers today. The Christian gospel says that human authorities in every age are themselves not the final authority. As Deuteronomy 6:4 says: ‘There is only one God who is Lord of all’.

The good news of Christianity is not simply an abstract announcement, nor is it simply care and compassion. Christianity is grounded in the recorded, historical events of Jesus’ life – from his miraculous birth through his death, resurrection and ascension.

Paul the Apostle summarizes the substance of the faith in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8. He speaks of Jesus as the Christ: God’s anointed king. He explains that God’s king came to rescue us: he died for us. This picks up a theme in Genesis 1:28-31: God not only made us in his image but committed himself to serve our best interests.

Paul affirms that Jesus was truly dead when he was taken from the cross and buried. He also tells us Jesus was raised from the dead: God reversed the decision of human courts that sentenced Jesus to death, by raising him to life. Furthermore, he assures us that more than 500 had seen Jesus physically alive (1 Corinthians 15:6).

In other words, out of the silence God has not only spoken, but come amongst us in person. Christianity didn’t start because a group of fanatics had invented a story about their hero, or because a group of philosophers had come to the same conclusions about life. It began with eye-witnesses – very ordinary men and women who testified to the life of a man whose nature and powers were demonstrably far beyond human imagination. But such is the nature of this man, that unlike anyone else who has died, he is now alive again.

What then lies at the heart of Christianity that the Church espouses? It is the good news that God has appointed Jesus Christ as the Lord who came to rescue us and who calls on us to turn to him in repentance and faith.

Where then is the hope for the future? In church as an institution or its structures? A key to the growth of the church is all its people, clerical and lay – people who know the Lord and whose lives are being changed for the better; people who care for the needy and the lost; people whose joyful faith spills over in a way that others want to learn more.

Speaking of which have you checked out The Word One-to-One an annotated version of John’s Gospel to share with family and friends? You can find it at www.TheWord121.com.

A prayer. Lord Christ, eternal Word and Light of the Father’s glory: send your light and your truth so that we may both know and proclaim your word of life, to the glory of God the Father; for you now live and reign, God for all eternity. Amen.

© John G. Mason

If you have not checked out the Word on Wednesday podcast this week you may want to listen to the Getty Music, May the Peoples Praise You.

Catastrophic events such as we have seen over this last year, give us pause and challenge us to see life with new eyes. While Covid has dominated the news, volcanoes and earthquakes, wild-fires and devastating tornadoes have also wrought havoc. Nations have looked to their leaders to chart a course to preserve life and secure livelihoods. Leaders who worked at this won our respect.

Good and upright leaders are rare. That said, because no leader is perfect, most people – as every election shows – long for someone who will use their position to provide for the security and welfare of the nation. In a fallen world the freedom to elect leaders is important and very precious.

When we read the history of Israel in the Old Testament we learn that the prophets spoke of a special leader whom God would send. Isaiah 1 – 39 reveal God’s condemnation of his people for their self-worship and their disregard of him. Isaiah had warned of God’s judgement and in 586BC the Babylonians demolished Jerusalem and took its people captive. But Isaiah is not all negative, for he opens a window on something new and lasting that God planned to do through a very special king.

In Isaiah 61 we read: The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me;… Isaiah 61 continues by telling us what this Spirit-led figure will do: He has come to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; And the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn… (61:1b-2).

It is not until we come to the New Testament that we see the real significance of these words.

For Luke 4:17-19 tells us that Jesus, as guest speaker in the synagogue in Nazareth, opened the scroll of the book of Isaiah at chapter 61. He read: The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me,… to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Period. Full stop.

Jesus didn’t complete Isaiah’s words: …and the day of vengeance of our God, but went on to comment: “Today these words are being fulfilled in your midst”.

By putting a period/full stop to Isaiah’s words, Jesus reveals that there are two stages to the ‘Day of the Lord’ – the day of favor, and the day of justice. His first coming inaugurates the time of God’s favor, or mercy – the era of God’s rescue operation. His return will be the time of God’s judgment and the establishment of Jesus’ rule in all its perfection and glory. Everyone will see it and feel it.

It’s important that we notice how Jesus applies Isaiah’s words in his public ministry: he says he has come to the aid of the poor, the captives, the blind, and the oppressed.

When did he do this? After all he didn’t provide food and clothing for all the needy around him; he didn’t release any prisoners, not even John the Baptist. Why? He has a bigger plan.

Words such as poor, blind, captive and mourn in Isaiah and the Old Testament as a whole, are often used as metaphors. The poor is often a reference to the spiritually poor, the blind, to the spiritually blind, and the captives, to those who are captive to self, sin and death. Those who mourn are aware of their own broken relationship with God as well as the brokenness of the world in its relationship with God.

That said, there were times when Jesus literally fulfilled Isaiah’s words. He did feed people who were hungry; he did give sight to some who were blind; and he did release people who were captive to the powers of evil. In each instance the miracle is a picture of God’s compassion and his ultimate purpose to provide life in all its fullness and freedom for his people. The events pointed to the beauty and perfection of the rule of God’s king.

By reading from Isaiah 61 in the synagogue in Nazareth that day, Jesus assumed the mantle of the anointed servant-king of Isaiah’s vision. He was announcing that the final great era of God’s mercy had dawned.

Yes, he introduced a tension between the is and the yet to be of God’s rule, but it is a tension we need to work with, for it is God’s plan. It’s important for us to see this for we need to live with this tension in our lives.

Many around us have thrown God out of life and view political power and their own world-view as the solution to the world’s ills – of which there are many. But the reality is that the day will come when Jesus Christ will return in all his kingly glory.

Before he departed from his followers, Jesus commissioned them with the primary task of proclamation – announcing God’s good news of release to all nations. What’s more, he continues to raise up men and women to carry on this task, to give people everywhere the chance to turn to God. Isaiah tells us and Jesus repeats: ‘Now is the time of God’s favor – the era of God’s grace’. The opportunity to respond to God’s good news won’t last forever.

Now is the time to listen up and to respond. In Jesus we find the leader we long for: God’s king who will come in all might, majesty, dominion and power.

Do you believe this? Are you prepared? And are you keen to help others to be ready for the Advent, the return of the King? It’s a key reason we are encouraging everyone to check out The Word One-to-One an annotated version of John’s Gospel to share with family and friends. You can find it at www.TheWord121.com.

A prayer. Almighty God, we thank you for the gift of your holy word. May it be a lantern to our feet, a light to our paths, and strength to our lives. Take us and use us to love and serve all people in the power of the Holy Spirit and in the name of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

© John G. Mason

If you have not checked out the Word on Wednesday podcast this week you may want to listen to the Getty Music, In Christ Alone.

In this transition from one year to the next, we’re looking at Ecclesiastes, one of the wisdom books of the Bible.

The wisdom books stand apart from the main narrative of the Bible, asking questions about our experiences of life. Job asks how do we make sense of suffering, especially the suffering of the seemingly innocent? The Song of Songs explores God’s gift of the joys of love and sex. Proverbs provides a framework for street-smart and successful godly living. Ecclesiastes asks, ‘What’s the purpose of life?’

Having touched on Ecclesiastes chapters 1 and 3 we turn to the concluding chapters of Ecclesiastes where we can identify two themes: ‘What’s the Point?’ and ‘What’s the Answer?’

What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun? is a question that bubbles through Ecclesiastes. We work hard, put in long hours, and give up things we’d prefer to be doing. What’s the value of it all?’

The phrase, under the sun is used twenty-seven times in the Book. It’s asking what is life all about if God doesn’t reveal himself? The writer isn’t asking this as an atheist: he believes God exists. He’s asking, ‘What do we make of life if we don’t have a special word from God?’

And there’s another layer to life’s conundrum: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all (9:11). Life doesn’t always reward the swift or the strong, the wise or the brilliant. So much is a matter of timing or chance. If you’re the wrong age when the position of CEO arises, no matter how successful, how smart or wise you are, you’ll be passed over. ‘What’s the gain?’

In chapter 11 the Teacher exhorts us to try to be positive about life. If time and chance rule, there’s nothing we can do. So, if farmers watch the wind, they’ll never sow seed. Take a chance, give it a go!

Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun, he continues in verses 7ff. Even those who live many years should rejoice in them all;…

It’s good to see the sun, especially after long, wintry days. Enjoy life if you can. But as verse 8 says: … Remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity. Everything is meaningless. ‘When you’re dead, you’re dead’.

So, rejoice, young man, while you are young, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Follow the inclination of your heart … (11:9). Enjoy your youth while you can. You’ve got energy and an ability to learn quickly, so run, swim, learn, pump iron. Enjoy being young and strong, but realize there’s a sobering conclusion: But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

Chapter 12, verses 1 through 8 are a poem: Remember your creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come, and the years draw near when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”;  before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return with the rain;…

A picture of old age emerges. Our world is afraid of aging. Indeed, there’s a vast industry devoted to anti-aging – creams and botox, diet and exercise programs.

Ecclesiastes tells us life can be fun: enjoy it while you can, but it won’t last. If you try to hold on to it, you’ll find it’s like sand: it slips through the fingers and is gone. What’s the point?

Is there an answer? In chapter 12, verses 9ff we read: Besides being wise, the Teacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs. The Teacher sought to find pleasing words, and he wrote words of truth plainly.  The sayings of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings that are given by one shepherd….

Ecclesiastes is composed of the collected sayings given by one shepherd – an Old Testament way of referring to God. It speaks of its sayings as goads, pointed sticks, challenging us to consider the meaning of life. It likens the words of the wise to firmly embedded nails, something to anchor us.

In verse13 we read: The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments; for that is the whole duty of everyone.

This is the first time Ecclesiastes says that God has spoken. It’s the first time the Teacher has said that we don’t just live under the sun: we have a word from God. God has given us commandments to live out. We’re not living in the dark.

The Book of Proverbs says the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Ecclesiastes gives us the flipside: to ignore God and his Word is ultimate foolishness. Honoring and serving God gives us meaning.

Ecclesiastes concludes, not just with reference to the creator God who has revealed his good purposes for us in his commandments, but also as judge. God will bring every deed into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil (12:14). We live in a moral universe, a key that makes sense of our lives.

The New Testament gives us a clearer picture. In Second Corinthians, chapter 5 we read: all of us must appear before the judgment seat of God to receive his just judgment for things done in the body whether good or bad (5:10).

Do you believe these things will come to pass? Prophesies that spoke of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, his life, death and resurrection, all came true. In the same way the words of Ecclesiastes and of Jesus himself about the coming judgement, will also come true. Such judgement makes sense of our existence. Are you and your family and friends prepared?

A prayer. Lord Christ, eternal Word and Light of the Father’s glory: send your light and your truth so that we may both know and proclaim your word of life, to the glory of God the Father; for you now live and reign, God for all eternity. Amen.

© John G. Mason

If you have not checked out the Word on Wednesday podcast this week you may want to listen to Christ Our Hope in Life and Death from Keith & Kristyn Getty and Matt Papa.