Ecclesiastes - The Vanity of Work (Week 5)
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In Greek Philosophy, there a man named Sisyphus, who angered the gods and was then punished, being forced to roll a rock up hill for all of eternity. .
However, right before he reached the top, the bolder would roll back down to the bottom of the hill, thus forcing Sisyphus to begin his work all over again.
And in light of Sisyphus’s fate, the philosophical question is: “Can Sisyphus’s life have any meaning in light of his meaningless task.”
And the resounding philosophical answer to this question, is: “No it can’t.
The story of Sisyphus is a remarkable story that shows us the futility of human work in light of our death.
Because the truth is, we are all Sisyphus, endeavoring to roll a rock up a hill, that will eventually roll right back down to the bottom.
And the reason is, no matter how much you strive,
No matter how hard you work,
No matter what you accomplish,
Sooner or later that builder of accomplishment is going to roll back down
For the truth is, every person’s accomplishments are eventually wiped out through death.
And so death is the great force that pulls the boulder back down to the bottom of the hill, where another person - another Sisyphus - takes and begins pushing the boulder in futility,
for the futile results are inevitable.
And yet, as the writer of Ecclesiastes tells us, we don’t get a choice in the matter!
For we are all Sisyphus, doomed to push a boulder up the hill that is inevitably going to roll right back down.
And what is this boulder?
Well that depends on the Sisyphus!
For some, its the pursuit of knowledge as we saw in week 2.
For some, it’s the pursuit of pleasure, which we saw in week 3,
And for some, as we’ll see today, it’s the pursuit of WORK.
BUT - as we saw last week,
ALL of these pursuits are doomed by the vanity of time,
which eventually causes all of our accomplishments to come rolling right back down to the bottom of the hill.
And yet, over and over again, humanity continues to try do find meaning in the meaningless!
Don’t believe me?
Let me show you a few examples:
For example: The American president, Theadore Roosevelt once said:
Bob Dylan said:
“What's money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.”
Steve Jobs said:
“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.”
The 13th century Persian poet, Rumi once put it quite bluntly, saying:
“Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.”
Do you see that?
Rumi is saying that our existence - or we might say - our identity is directly related to our work!
It is “what you are made for!”
And since it’s what you are made for, it’s how you can find meaning in your life!
And boy have we tried this!
For example, here are some statistics I read:
According to Business Insider:
Americans work 110,000 hours in their life, just working!
Most people have held 7/8 jobs by age 30,
And, get this, one pastor I read pointed out that since 1970, Americans now spend 200 more hours a year at work!
57% of vacation days are never used
25% of people check on their work HOURLY via phone or email while on vacation
And, in Japan, 10,000 people die a year while at work at their desk!
And why?
Because we are a nation of work-a-holics.
How do you you know if you’re a work-a-holic?
One pastor I listened gave his congregants a test, asking:
Do you take work home with you on the weekends or with you on vacation?
Is work the activity you like to do best and talk about the most?
Has your family given up expecting you to be home on time? “oops”
Do you regularly get impatient and frustrated with people at work, who don’t take work as seriously as you do?
Have your long hours damaged your relationships with friends or family?
Do you think about your work while driving, falling asleep, or even while talking to others?
Or, now that you’re retired, do you find yourself restless and needing something to do?
Why do we do this?
Why do we worship our work?
3 Reason:
Why do we worship our work?
The search for significance.
As Rumi pointed out, we believe it’s what we are made for.
We believe that if we do something significant in our work, we too then will be significant ourselves!
In my 20’s, when I was a security, I remember people asking me what I did for a living, and I always answered with a little bit of hesitation, and made sure they knew it wasn’t my career, as I was eventually looking to pastor a church.
But… when I became a director of security for a corporate Fortune 500 company, I didn’t hesitant to answer that question!
And why?
Because I was believing the lie that my work determined my significance!
Why do we worship our work?
The search for significance.
The search for Satisfaction.
Now, maybe you don’t love your job.
But, you love the satisfaction that your job gives you!
Like that amazing boat that drives you to what satisfies you in life!
I.E. Fishing!
Or for you, maybe it’s hunting, golfing, that place on the lake!
Whatever!
Why do we worship our work?
The search for Significance.
The search for Satisfaction.
The search for Security.
With this, you love you job because it provides a secure way to not have to worry about your bills.
No not have to worry about car payments, house payments, or medical bills.
And so you look to job to provide you with comfort and security in a discomforting and VERY INSECURE LIFE!
Either way, whatever your reason, we easily can throw ourselves into our work in order to try and find meaning and satisfaction in life.
And yet, as the writer of Ecclesiastes tells us, this is completely impossible.
Why does Qoheleth say that work can’t satisfy?
First off, cuz we all die:
For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind. I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me,
Qoheleth’s first point here is that even if you build your company,
Even if you’re super successful
Even if you make a lot of cash
Eventually the bolder of success comes rolling right back down, canceling out whatever accomplishments you may have made.
Do remember the quote from Leo Tolstoy we looked at a couple of weeks ago?
In light of this true, Tolstoy wrote:
My question—that which at the age of fifty brought me to the verge of suicide—was the simplest of questions, lying in the soul of every man from the foolish child to the wisest elder: it was a question without an answer to which one cannot live, as I had found by experience. It was: . . . "Is there any meaning in my life that the inevitable death awaiting me does not destroy?"
Now, some people will read a question like that, and they think:
“Why be so negative Tolstoy!”
“Lighten up man!”
“Enjoy life a little and don’t overthink things!”
But the reality is, Tolstoy isn’t overthinking things,
It’s that everyone else is UNDERTHINKING THINGS!
And in fact, they are using some sort of narcotic to prevent themselves from thinking like Tolstoy and facing the cold, harsh, fact that life under the sun is ENTIRELY MEANINGLESS
“VANITY, VANITY, ALL IS VANITY” says Qoheleth!
One quote I really like says this:
It says:
“None of us know how long our lives will be, but we know it has a bad ending, and if the end is truly the end, this harsh truth overshadows whatever joy or meaning we might find.”
So go ahead,
Pick your narcotic,
Whether that be the pursuit of knowledge, pleasure, money, or career,
but just know, that the boulder is coming to roll back over you and wipe it all out sooner than you expect.
And to make matters worse, that boulder your spent your whole life pushing, goes to someone else,
And that someone else, might be, as Qoheleth says: a complete idiot.
Look at verses 18-19
I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity.
In Highschool, I was a huge Dallas Cowboys fan, back when Jimmy Johnson was their coach, who is considered by many to be one of the greatest coaches of all time.
However, the Cowboys owner, Jerry Jones, wanted to control the team and have his fingers all over everything in a way that didn’t work well with Jimmy Johnson’s coaching strategy.
And so Jimmy Johnson left, at the peak of the Cowboys success, and Jerry Jones handed the team over to a no-name coach named Barry Switszer.
Who was, bless his heart, basically, a moron when it came to coaching.
And so I had to sit there as a fan and watch all the success Jimmy and I had made (through my cheering and fandomry) being ruined by a guy who didn’t built what Jimmy and I had built together!
Which led me to conclude it was all vanity, and I hung up my Cowboys Jersey and haven’t been a fan of the NFL since.
But that’s the way it so often works in this life under sun, isn’t it?
Even if we manage to create something marvelous,
Even if it last past our death,
Eventually, some moron is going to come along and squander it all away!
Can you say Toys R Us?
Can you say K-Mart?
How about Blockbuster Video?
and when it comes to nations and countries, it’s not much better, as the average lifespan of a great empire is, historically, 250 years!
And the reason is because of the cycle of greatest!
Maybe you’ve heard it:
“Hard times create strong men.
Strong men create good times.
Good times create weak men.
And, weak men create hard times.”
And so even if we are strong men who work hard to produce something great, some chump is gonna inherit and not value it as they should, and inevitably waste it!
Look at verses 20-21
So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.
Not only are we unable to ensure our work will last, but we ourselves cannot find satisfaction in it!
Look at verses 22-23
What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.
Anyone here ever lost a job before?
What was it like?
IT’S STRESSFUL - RIGHT?
Another question for you:
How else can our jobs lead to stress in our lives?
boss, co-worderks, how much you’re paid, if your company will last
Rude customers, selfish employees, changing technology, competing brands, stressful deadlines (like a Sunday morning sermon), and difficult co-workers.
The point is, our jobs are often one of our primary sources of stress, and for many, we still look to them as being our primary source of satisfaction and meaning!
It’s ridiculous!
Let’s read verses 24-26
So I decided there is nothing better than to enjoy food and drink and to find satisfaction in work. Then I realized that these pleasures are from the hand of God. For who can eat or enjoy anything apart from him? God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy to those who please him. But if a sinner becomes wealthy, God takes the wealth away and gives it to those who please him. This, too, is meaningless—like chasing the wind.
Now, a lot of people take these verses out of context and they say:
“See! We should just enjoy work rightly knowing it comes from God, and not overthink it all!”
“that’s what Qoheleth is saying!”
But is that what Qoheleth is saying?
no!
Because think back to week one
What is the thesis of the book according to Qoheleth:
Life is vanity, and you can’t fix it, God made it that way, so #dealwithit.
And so enjoy the benefits of life while you can, because (as we saw last week) TIME, IS, TICKING AWAY!
And if you miss your chance, you won’t be able to even joy anything at all in this vain and meaningless existence called life!
WELL AMEN
HALLEJAH!
Let’s pray, shall we?
No!
Look, yes, that’s Qoheleth’s point, but that’s not THE point of the book of Ecclesiastes!
Not at all!
And this drives me nuts, cuz I’ve heard so many people say: “Oh I don’t like Ecclesiastes, that books depressing!”
In and response, I say: Depressing how?
Because the truth is, it’s only depressing if you do one of 2 things with it:
First, if your life is built upon STUFF: Knowledge, career, family, your job, your pleasures, or your passions and hobbies, then yeah, Ecclesiastes is going to be a 3:00am wake up call for you!
You’re not going to like it!
The second way you won’t like the book of Ecclesiastes, is if you understand Qoheleth (THE PREACHER) rightly, but you don’t understand the narrator rightly!
Because Qoheleth’s thesis is NOT the same as the narrators!
Not at all!
So if you listen to Qoheleth’s voice, you’ll rightly understand the vanity of EVERYTHING, which includes, the vanity of pursuit of knowledge,
the vanity of the pursuit of pleasure and work!
Because the vanity of time and death cancels it out!
BUT!
Is there something that un-cancels the great canceller?
And for this answer, may I remind us what we looked at this past Sunday in Matthew chapter 22?
And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.”
If the scribes are right, and there is no resurrection, then Qoheleth is right!
But if Jesus is right, and our God is the God of the living and not the dead,
then Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did not live a meaningless life,
but a meaningful one that has overcome the vanity of life under this sun!
In 1 Cor 15:14-19, the apostle Paul speaks of this saying:
And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
And Paul is absolutely right!
If Christ is not raised, you spend your entire life pouring it into work, career, love, family, money, success, - whatever!
And guess what.
You’re Sisyphus, and no matter how far you got that boulder up the hill, it’s going to roll back down anyways.
BUT… as Paul says in verse 20, If… in fact,
1 Corinthians 15:20 (NLT)
But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.
And if Christ is the first fruits of all who have died, then our death is not vain and our vanity has been turned into victory!
and why?
Because Christ alone was able to roll the stone that we never could up that great hill where His death powerfully broke the curse of death!
And 3 days later, when He rolled the stone back from the entrance of His grave, He powerfully turned our vanity into victory!
Which is why Pul could write a few verses later in that chapter:
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
And so as followers of Christ, we work - not to find meaning in our work - but we work in order serve the one who did the perfect work for us upon the cross.
Discussion Questions:
How should Christians approach their career where we are neither lazy nor treating it as an idol?
Any verses come to mind?
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,
Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people,
Discussion Question:
How can a Christian determine if their work is an idol or an act of worship?
Matthew 22:34–40 (ESV)
But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Discussion Questions:
Can a Christian turn their Christian service or disciplines into an idolatry of labor?
How can we tell if we are?
“So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Discussion Question:
All Christians are commanded to put their sin to death, which is done by Ephesian’s 4’s Put on/Put off approach (stealing/giving, lying/telling the truth, etc. How can a work-a-holic put their sin to death? What must they put on?
Satisfaction & Thankfulness
Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Love of God and serving Him over self and things of this world
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
As Christians, our focus on life is to be less on our vocation and more on how our vocation fits into God’s plan for our life. Certainly, work is a blessed activity. The first man was given work to do by God (Genesis 2:15). Paul was a tentmaker, “laboring and toiling” so as not to burden the church (2 Thessalonians 3:8). Luke was a physician (Colossians 4:14). And, of course, there is much work to do in “full-time ministry” jobs, as well. Jesus told us to pray for “workers” to serve in God’s harvest (Luke 10:2). But both in the ministry and in secular work, we need a balance. Rest and recreation are also God’s design (Genesis 2:2). One good test to know whether we are too focused on our jobs is to ask ourselves how much time we spend thinking about our jobs when we are not actually at work. If our thoughts center more on our jobs than on God or family or other beneficial subjects, we may be in danger.
Even when involved in the seemingly mundane tasks of a job, we should glorify God. We should maintain a good work ethic in our employment by doing things as Christ would, with honor and to the best of our ability. As Paul reminded the Colossians, “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:17). And, as Christ did, we should intentionally take breaks, spend time with loved ones, and seek times alone to pray and meditate on the Word of God (see Mark 6:31 and Luke 5:16).
Being a workaholic isn’t directly comparable to worshipping idols; however, workaholism is often linked to sinful self-reliance, discontent, and misplaced priorities. And, if a job takes up so much energy that it distracts from one’s relationship with Jesus Christ, then it could be considered idolatry. We should view our employment as an opportunity to advance the kingdom of God through our talents and finances. We should be strategic in our approach and seek to lead a balanced life.
Discussion Question:
What is the solution for a Christian is struggling to love God and their love neighbor as themselves? How can we a church facilitate a culture that reflects this?
Discussion Question:
The most difficult sins are the ones we can’t see. While we can easily see everyone else’s sin, we often fail to see our own. Sadly, we can often be deluded into thinking we are strong in an area we are weak. What are some of the ways God opened your eyes to your own weaknesses in the past, and how can we learn from this as a church?
Next week - the vanity of justice in an unjust world.
Then the following week is the women’s ministry even,
And then we are off until after Christmas, and will meet January 5th.