What’s the Point When the End Is Certain?
Ecclesiastes 2:12-16; 3:18-21; 9:1-3
The only possible answer to the suffering and injustice that fills our world is that there is life beyond this life.
That is a note I made in a journal back in October, 1992 -- after a memorial service for my only brother who had been run down and killed by a drunk driver in Laredo, TX. The same drunk driver had been convicted for three DUIs previous to running down my brother. After the third, he had been let out of prison prematurely and had gotten drunk again – and had gotten into his truck again. The result was that my brother was slain at age 43 while getting directions from a Texas State Policeman. He died while standing in a rest area far from the highway, hit by a drunk man driving well over 100 MPH. My brother never had a chance.
I was a pastor at the time. I had often been forced to bring comfort to families dealing with things that seemed as senseless as my brother’s death. I had dealt with it in my own family before as most of you here at LAC know. Several years before, Chris and I had lost our second child in infancy. Just three years before my brother’s death, Chris had lost her Mom unexpectedly while she was receiving a routine valve replacement.
After my brother’s service, I remember doing what I do so often, i.e., I sat down and asked myself what I truly believe about senseless and unjust things that happen in this world “under the sun”. That’s when I wrote, “The only possible answer to the suffering and injustice that fills our world is that there is life after this life.”
This brings us into a subject that Solomon takes up over and over in his Book of Ecclesiastes. As we have throughout this series, Solomon is forcing us to consider what is worth living for if there is nothing else in existence other than what is, using his oft-repeated phrase, “under the sun.” The reality that he most often forces us to come to grips with is that, if there is no reality beyond this material world, then death is the end of things. And, if death is the end of things, then it’s also the end of all those material things and temporary pleasures or accomplishments that many people are living for. So, today, we look at just three of many passages in Ecclesiastes where Solomon speaks about death. His words are direct and candid:
Lesson 1: Please know it’s coming. Don’t ignore it. It’s coming to you! I saw that it’s better to be a wise person than a fool… but I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both. (2:12-14a).
Solomon knew that people in general don’t like to talk about death. That’s still true in our world. We find ways to ignore the subject call it “morbid”. Listen to what Nobel Prize winner, George Wald wrote:
"Just realize, I am 69 and I have never seen a person die. I have never even been in the same house while a person died… The greatest events of life have been taken out of our experience in our generation. We somehow hope to live full emotional lives when we have carefully expunged the sources of the deepest human emotions. When you have no experience of pain, it is rather hard to experience joy…”
George Wald's testimony is not unique. I imagine that most people in our society have never seen a person die. I’ve found that to be especially true here in Southern California. We usually try to have that glow of youth and vitality. Just think about how many times you’ve ever been in a meaningful discussion about death and the impact that its reality should have upon the way people live today. I doubt that it takes place often. It used to be that people experienced birth and death in the same house, even in the same bed. But, no more.
My life as a pastor has been very different from George Wald’s because death is a normal part of ministry. I will not soon forget conducting my first funeral services, five in my first week on the job. I was a 26-year-old full-time seminarian and part-time pastor at the time. I hardly knew what to say to the families who were suddenly coming face-to-face with a reality that they knew comes to us all – but had ignored all their lives.
And, I have been with people when they have died. The most painful memory for me was the death of my second daughter, Brittany Anne, in 1984. I was holding her in my arms on a Sunday evening in Fresno, CA when death came. I still remember the room – the smells – the sounds.
So, this topic of dealing with people who are struggling with potential death is very personal to me. And it’s just as personal to you. This may not be the subject you most want to think about right now – but you need your church to open up the door of discussion about death and dying so that you can begin to nail down what you believe about it – and how that should affect the life you live this side of heaven. Death is a certainty -- unless Christ returns soon. Death will come to each one I love. And it will come to me – and to you. That’s one thing that Solomon wanted us to face. And, I want us to face it too.
Lesson 2: You’ll have a diminishing motivation to live a good and moral life if this life is all there is.
I said to myself, “The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise? This is meaningless… Like the fool, the wise too must die (from 2:14-16).”
Solomon speaks in these verses to those who might think they can figure out how to live well “under the sun”, i.e., without thinking about whether this life is all that is. He knows that many people want to live well and not just to waste their lives by being lazy, by just partying and drinking all the time, etc. etc. Solomon says in v.13, “Wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness.” But, at best, there is limited benefit to trying to live a good and moral life if this life “under the sun” is all there is.
My Dad used to talk about how some people became crankier, more selfish and demanding as they got near the end of their life. He reflected on seeing many men who had tried to live a moral life as younger men become the proverbial “dirty old me” as they aged. He said, “As people get old, they don’t think they’ll have to give account to God if they don’t believe in him. They have no fear of God so, as they age and lose their filters, they live more and more for themselves.”
If Solomon were writing these verses to us today, he might speak directly to parents who urge their kids to work hard in school, to practice for sports or music, or to stay away from drugs and gangs. All those things are good things. But, if there is no life after this life, all our wise-doing and do-gooding will still end in death.
Lesson 3: You’ll find that what you build and accomplish will soon be gone if this life is all there is. The fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath… (from 3:19-21).
As he often does, Solomon here is drawing on Genesis 1-2. Those chapters teach that when people were specially made in the image of God, God breathed his breath into them. That didn’t happen with other living things. But, if what is “under the sun” is all there is, then Solomon says there is no real difference between human beings and other creatures. Both are from the dust and go back there at death.
In Gen. 1:26ff, one of the main differences between human beings and animals is that we have been given the ability to rule over things, to care for the world God made and to plan for how our lives can be involved in creating things and making a difference in this world. We still have those abilities even when we don’t know God. But, Solomon lets us know, that all we are able to accomplish and do in this world will come to an end if there is no life after this life. We begin to see this as we age, don’t we? We invest our lives in our company or school or community only to see that someone else comes in and takes over what once was ours.
When I was a child, after my parents came to faith in Jesus, they put a plaque on our wall: Only one life – ‘twill soon be past.
Only what’s done for Christ will last (C.T. Studd). To me to live is Christ (Phil 1:21).
When you live each day for Christ and with a desire to show the love of God and give witness to Jesus, then your life can make a lasting difference in this world. But, without the relationship to God that faith in Jesus makes, Solomon is right when he says, “Under the sun”, humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return (3:19-20).
And, if we’ve missed his point, Solomon drives it all home in 9:2-3: All share a common destiny -- the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who do religious things and those who do not. This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of people are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead.
I cannot say this message more clearly that Solomon did. All I can do is ask you to respond to it. How?
First, be sure that you personally have found hope in the midst of this dying world.
The Apostle Peter gave a very similar message to a group of Christians located in what is now Turkey. He said, “God has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade… (Through Christ) you are receiving the end result of your faith, the eternal salvation of your souls (from 1 Peter 1:3,9).”
I believe that it is when we deal with death, we have the opportunity to see more clearly than at any other time the difference that placing our faith in the resurrected Jesus makes in life. Sometimes people call those who follow Jesus escapists. They say that “people who trust in a personal and powerful God when death is near are afraid to face the dark realities of the world without the crutch of religion as a support.” But that’s not true! As one who is called to come into contact with death and dying repeatedly, I have found that faced with the grim reality of the grave, the genuine Jesus-follower is the one who does not run away from death.
My experience is this: I have always found that many people who never set foot in church, when facing death, often go to church to find someone who believes there is something beyond the grave. At such times, we who belong to Jesus have an opportunity to point to the hope in Jesus. But, for you to offer hope in the face of death, then you must have it yourself. And, of course, the only possible hope in such times is a Person who has experienced and defeated death. Only that kind of person could ever provide rescue from such an awful enemy.
That person is Jesus. Since Jesus rose from the dead, we can say to all people that this enemy called death no longer has to remain a complete mystery to us. We who follow Jesus no longer have to speculate about what happens after death. Something tremendous happened in our world that has taken life after death out of the realm of guesswork or superstition and moved it into the realm of fact. Jesus Christ lived, raised people from the dead (like a man named Lazarus in Jn 11). Then Jesus, died personally on a cross and was raised triumphantly from his own grave. More than that, Jesus promised that all who trust in Him are guaranteed our own resurrection. This is the heart of the good news that you have to offer to a dying world. Eternal life has become available to all in this dying world. Whoever believes in Jesus has eternal life (Jn 3:16).
Second, be sensitive to the pain of those wrestling with death – whether they are Christians or not.
Make note of this: Christians and non-Christians alike experience sorrow in the face of death.
I have never felt as much sorrow and pain as when our daughter, my brother, or my father died. I remember, after my daughter's death, when people said to Chris and me, "Aren't you rejoicing that your little one is now in the hands of God?" No, I wasn't. I wanted her to be alive. I wanted to hear her, see her, touch her.
Death is still a great enemy. The difference that Christ makes at a time of death is not that we have no sorrow but that our sorrow is a sorrow with hope. We who follow Jesus long to be with the person we have lost even while we are confident that the separation is only temporary. I appreciate how Paul wrote about it in 1 Thess 4:13. He said that at times of death, we do not "grieve like the rest who have no hope."
So, Christians still grieve, but it is a grief that is hope-filled. This sounds like a platitude, I know. It sounds “messy” to think that we can be filled with grief and hope at the same time. I can only say that this is the nature of a life that still must be conducted, in the Bible’s words, “by faith and not yet by sight.” My point is that we who minister to others in their times of their grief must be sensitive to their struggles as they seek to come to grips with their loss. This often requires patience, and empathy, and compassion, and time – a lot of time.
Third, bring those who are struggling with death and dying to Jesus.
We all live in a dying world. From the moment we come into the world, we begin a journey that will end in physical death. I join Solomon in saying that we dare not ignore this reality. But, the good news is that eternal life comes to all who trust in Jesus. This is what we who are believers have to offer when God brings people across our paths who are dying – or whose loved ones are dying. We have found lasting hope in Jesus. And we know that the hope we have found can be theirs too.
Even though we must be empathetic with those who are grieving during their times of loss, we must not forget that the only lasting help we can provide in such times is to introduce them to Jesus. In an increasingly secularized world, it will take both wisdom and courage to speak of Jesus to people. Still, the opportunity to point someone to Jesus when death is in their life-situation may be the very reason God brings a person into your life. Again, I say that there is only one thing that can make a lasting difference in the face of death, i.e., if there is a life after this life in which the Creator judges evil and oppression and rewards faith. We know that person. With his resurrection, the power of death died. As Jesus said at the grace of his friend Lazarus: “I am the resurrection and life. He who believes in me, even if he be dead physically, will never die!”
So, as we now prepare for communion, I remind you of these words about Jesus’ death and resurrection:
We testify about God that he raised Christ from the dead… If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive…
Death has been swallowed up in victory!
Where, O death is your victory?
Where, O grave, is your sting?
Thanks be to God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is never meaningless.
1 Corinthians 15:15-22,54-58