No Satisfaction (Ecclesiastes 5:8-17)

You and a friend order a large pizza. Then two other hungry friends show up. Eh, I think we can all manage to eat a couple slices. Then four other friends come over. Now you’ve got 8 friends and one pizza. How do you go about solving this problem?

What are our options here?

You can say, forget these losers who showed up late…didn’t have a pizza…and now expect to eat some of my pizza. We’re going to eat four slices each and you jokers can go hungry. That’s an option.

You could also just buy another pizza, right? Pool your money together, look through the couch…get at least one more pizza and that’ll give everybody at least two slices…that should be enough. Or if you have enough money, get four pizzas.

You could also just have everybody eat one slice and everybody goes just a little hungry…

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Did you know that 733 million people (that is 1 in 11) throughout the world will go hungry today? I think how we lean toward answering that pizza question will impact how we position ourselves when we think about an issue like world hunger.

Now why am I talking about world hunger? Well…I think there is something similar which has caught the eye of the Quester. You see he is going to come from a system where there is supposed to be enough land for everyone…God has allotted each family their portion. And there should be enough produce on each plot. And if for some reason there isn’t there are stipulations for that…ways to help one another. And they’ve got laws about gleaning the fields…ways to give the poor dignity and still not starve to death.

But that’s not what the Quester sees…

READ TEXT (Ecclesiastes 5:8-17)

What the Quester sees here, especially in verse 8-9 is tons of oppression of the poor. He’s likely seeing something like Amos 2:7, "They trample the heads of the poor on the dust of the ground and block the path of the needy…” These are religious leaders and government officials doing this.

To use our pizza analogy what is happening is these “friends” have already eaten supper but they show up at your house and then eat your pizza. Now you don’t have any pizza. You’re still hungry and they say, “I’ll tell you what. I’ve got this pizza here…I’ll sell you a slice for a $50….what?....you don’t have $50. Well, if you do my laundry we’ll call it even…”

And what the Quester says is this… “Don’t be shocked by that.” Now these verses are difficult to translate and interpret. We don’t know if the king or official is the one being spoken of in verse 9…it could be translated “the arrogant”. And we don’t know if it is the king…is he doing good or not…It’s hard to know where to land on that but the big picture is that oppression is happening. And the king could stop it…there is a right system that could work…but the problem is that they aren’t. And we shouldn’t be surprised by this corruption because that is what is.

If we go back to something like world hunger…we might have the solution…well we just need more food. But the reality is that the world produces enough food to feed everyone. There isn’t just one pizza to feed 8 people. The world’s farmers produce enough food for 1.5x the global population. That’s enough good to feed 10 billion people.

Why then is there still hunger? The answer to this is complicated. One of the issues is waste...It’d be like two people eating the pizza and then leaving half of it because they are stuffed…but not giving it to their friends.

But the other issue is that you can’t get it to the friends. Sometimes the hunger is because of the land where people are living, floods, drought, just a ton of factors. But often it is because of oppression. Wicked people using the need for food to further enslave people.

The Quester sees this messed up system and just says, “Don’t be shocked by that. It’s the way of the world.”

And I think here of this illustration I heard from Eugene Peterson

The present age prepares roles for people and expects us to fit into them. These are roles in which we are asked to smoothly function: as good consumers, as indulgent hedonists, as proud owners, as ruthless competitors, as satisfied customers. But there is a problem: Christians don’t fit. People of faith have sharp, awkward edges. We are square pegs in round holes. Society relentlessly whittles away at those sharp edges so that we will be well adjusted, profitable, and safe. The massive energies of journalism, entertainment, education, and advertising pour over us like the powerful, persistent flowing of water over rock, working to erode us into smooth, secularized surfaces.

I share that here because if Peterson is correct, we’re constantly being chiseled at. That means there is going to be some measure of success…and so that puts us in a difficult position for hearing something like Ecclesiastes 5.

And I think that’s also why I’m struggling with exactly how to illustrate this next part. You see I’ve got several ways I can illustrate this idea that money, wealth, fame, etc. doesn’t satisfy.

I can give you a great quote by John D. Rockefeller…” How much money is enough?” Just a little more. It doesn’t satisfy.

I could tell you about Jim Carrey saying, “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.”

Or Michael Phelps having deep depression and that no matter how many gold medals he won it just didn’t satisfy him. Or Tom Brady winning super bowl after super bowl and thinking, “is this all there is”. It’s empty. It has a bottom to it. It’s not big enough to fulfill them.

I could also talk about Mick Jagger…or really Keith Richards is who got the ball rolling on I Can’t Get No Satisfaction…it’s a little about the emptiness of commercialism…Nothing satisfies. And some people take issue with the grammar and meaning of his version…

I can’t get no satisfaction…’cause I try and I try and I try.

And people say, “It should say “but” I try and I try and I try. Now it’s possible that Jagger is just saying words…but I think ‘cause may actually fit. That’s why he’s saying he can’t get any…it’s not that he’s going to keep trying…he’s saying that’s why he can make that declaration…he has tried and tried and tried…and nothing satisfies.

Though he did admit that once in 1992 he found a bit of satisfaction…popping bubble wrap.

But here is the problem with sharing all of that. I think it’s a little tired. You’ve probably heard that before. I don’t think we are going to come into this text with any disagreement, really.

“He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his incomes; this also is vanity.”

Yep. That’s so true. That’s not where my satisfaction lies…I know that. Check. But you know it’s much better to be rich than poor. I’d rather be meaninglessly rich than meaninglessly poor…

Chisel…chisel…chisel….

When goods increase, they increase who eat them….

Mo, money—mo, problems. Amen. Boy isn’t that true. It’s like this Norm MacDonald joke about going to purchase a dog and being shocked that it was a $600 dog. The guy said, “well, if you get the dog he will help protect your valuables…well if I have a $600 dog…the dog will be the most valuable thing I own.” You get a really expensive wallet and then you don’t have money to put into it. You get a nice house, a nice car, and you end up having to pay more to insure it. You have more to lose.

That’s why the Quester says what he does in verse 12. The stomach of the rich will not let him sleep…because he is filled with desire. It’s a never-ending thing. It’s never enough. But again…I think we know that.

You have a guy in 10-12 who gets all that he wants…but not really…it’s never enough. It doesn’t satisfy. And this is vanity. A chasing after the wind. Even if you get more and more and more.

And I believe this is what is behind the oppression we see in verse 8-9. It’s a messed-up system that will never satisfy anyone.

In verses 13-17 we have a wealthy guy who ends up losing everything. And he has no inheritance to give to his son. And even if it isn’t taken by some bad business venture it is ultimately taken by death. You can’t take it with you. Eats in darkness in much vexation and sickness and anger.

It’s not worth it…this chasing after the wind. This pursuit of wealth. Or fame. Or pleasure. Or any of it. It’s not going to fill you up.

But the Quester here isn’t telling us new information, I don’t think. I don’t think he’s saying, at least not yet, you should jump off this hamster wheel. He’s just observing. He’s saying this is what I say. This is what is.

What he would say is that every person in here…at our base level…we’re fighting over that box of pizza. Some are battling for control of the pizza….and some are battling for a slice or even a bread crumb of it. But we’re all battling.

You could summarize almost every bit of our political division, our wrangling, etc. down to this. Who is in control of the pizza box? Some are upset because you feel like people are getting your slice of pizza…that somebody has come in and given your pizza to someone else and you’d like to see it stop. Or maybe you are upset because you believe powerful people are hoarding that pizza box and you’d like to see it distributed to others…even if they aren’t working for the slice…and others say, “wait a second…if they aren’t working why do they get a slice…” And who invited these people here for the pizza? And someone else says, “well they are hungry” shouldn’t we give them a slice?

And around and around and around we go.

We call it other stuff for sure…but it’s really this same basic argument. Now for the Quester…he’s just telling us what it is. And I think it’d be to get us to this spot where we’re on that hamster wheel and saying…”gee, I’m tired.” But it’s all you know…

If you go back to that illustration of square pegs and round holes…do you know what happens when you get chiseled enough? When you do start to conform to the pattern of the world? Well…you don’t find it weird anymore…you’re not weird anymore. You’re comfortable arguing about pizza boxes. And you carry the name of Christ in with you…but it’s just as worldly as if it you didn’t have that name. You’ve been chiseled to look like the world, to interact like the world, to be caught in this hamster wheel just like the world….

And we don’t even notice it. And so we hear something about the emptiness of a Tom Brady, or the advice of a Jim Carrey, and we nod our head in agreement and assume that we’ve got it…that we’re above the fray…because we know that the love of money is the root of all evil. And we think, maybe with Solomon, that so long as you know it’s fire you can carry it to your chest and not get burned.

Let me show you this from a little different angle in John 5. You’ve got this guy who has been crippled for 38 years. And he’s by this Pool of Bethesda. It’s one that they believe has some healing properties…rumor has it if you get in that pool before anybody else then you’ll be healed of whatever disease or infirmity you have.

And apparently this dude hasn’t ever been able to be first. And so Jesus comes to him and says, “Do you want to be healed?”

What kind of silly question is that. Of course I do. But the problem is that I can’t get into the pool first. Nobody will help me.

Now, I want us to listen and hear what this guy is saying and the way he is viewing things. Let’s imagine for a moment that this pool really does heal. Why is nobody helping this guy? Why is he suffering like this? Why isn’t someone helping him—this shouldn’t be!

But this is an Ecclesiastes 5 world, isn’t it? His healing would mean no healing for somebody else. And nobody is going to put him first. So, what does he have to do? He has to figure out a way to get himself into that pool. Can you see that this is the same thing…how do I get my slice of pizza? How do I get satisfaction? How do I get the life I want…where my legs work…and it’s consumed him. Getting into that pool is his life. He has tunnel vision.

And you might have that same thing. If I can just get this thing…or maybe you’ve got it…and now it’s about keeping it…I’d like to be healed…I’d like to be whole…I’d like to be satisfied…but you see, I can’t get into the pool. It’s all about the pool.

Chisel, chisel, chisel.

And Jesus says to him…”Rise up, pick up your mat, and walk”. He picked up his mat and walked. Notice the reversal here…what once controlled him he is now in control of. He is carrying his mat around…his despair…his hopelessness…it’s all there. And just by one word from Jesus.

Jesus breaks into that Ecclesiastes 5 world of emptiness. Of oppression. Of there being no justice. No hope for a guy like this…And he gives him healing. But the story doesn’t stop there. The religious leaders are upset because Jesus healed him on the Sabbath.

And they question him. I don’t know who healed me. Then Jesus meets him and says. “See you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” It’s implied here that the something worse would be judgment by God. We don’t want to read too much into this…but I think we’re supposed to keep this story in our back pocket.

Because the guy goes away and tells the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who made him well. Now, we don’t know the guys motive. Maybe he was just thinking they wanted to reward him or something. But this guy’s story is intentionally told in the same manner as another story in John 9. And in John 9 what happens is he heals a guy in a similar fashion…and the religious leaders are questioning him…and he says, “I don’t know about all that you’re saying…but I once was blind but now I can see…”

At the end of his story, he is worshipping Jesus. Complete healing. That’s what we are to see.

Do you want to be healed?

There is a way that we can answer that question…which is something like this…”Do you want a slice of pizza”? Why, yes. And we see Jesus as the means to helping us on the hamster wheel. Jesus helps me get by. Jesus helps me get money. Or he helps me to be content not having quite so much.

But that’s still thinking from an Ecclesiastes 5 worldview. It’s why, I think, you can have an encounter with Jesus---experience some measure of healing but still live in darkness and vexation and sickness and anger (as we see in Ecc. 5). We have that encounter but we don’t see through to real discipleship. We don’t see “over the sun”. That’s why the guy goes back and tells the religious leaders. He’s still stuck in that old way of living and thinking. He’s not tasted of the new. And so, he isn’t brought into worship…he’s not brought into awe.

But you know we do live out our lives under the sun. We are still at least in some since in that Ecclesiastes 5 world. It’s different. Christ has come and has changed everything he has caused the winter to thaw and the spring to come…but it’s not here yet…and so we’re waiting and living here…and at threat of being chiseled time and time again and falling back into those old patterns.

What would it mean if I took the sermon on the mount seriously? That’s where Jesus says to us…this is what reality is actually like…this is what is real…this is what it looks like off the hamster wheel….

1. Well, I’d realize where true happiness and blessedness comes from and what it looks like with the beatitudes…I’d pursue character that is marked by

a. Meekness

b. Hungering and thirsting for righteousness

c. Being merciful

d. Being pure in heart

e. Being a peacemaker

That’s not going to fly in this world. That’s not going to put you in charge of a pizza box. It’s not going to get you more slices of pizza. No matter if you say you want to have the box so you can give it to other people in Jesus’ name. It’s just not about pizza…

2. If I really believed Jesus’ words here I’d not hide gospel truth under a bushel for my own safety.

3. Really believing Jesus’ words would get to the heart of things and we’d see that inward stuff like anger and lust is what gives rise to all the outward stuff…and I’d focus on cleaning the inside and not only the outside.

4. And I’d love my enemies. I wouldn’t just wink at this…but truly love pizza thieves. Want what is best for them…do things like God does bringing about rain and sunshine on their lives…

5. I’d quietly give to the needy…but really give to them.

6. My prayer and fasting would be simple.

7. I’d store up treasure in heaven…and I’d really take to heart “you cannot serve both God and money”.

8. I’d not give into worry. Focused on pizza boxes and whether I’ll have enough to eat.

9. I’d not be judging others.

10. Humbly asking…building my life upon Christ.

Ecclessiastes 5 world…more is better…if I can just get more.

Ecclessiastes 5 partially redeemed…more isn’t better, but you need different…if you can just try something different…maybe that will satisfy.

Ecclessiastes 5 fully redeemed…you need the right kind of different…

Only one person in the pool at a time…only one person gets healed. Come to me ALL you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest!

ALL. Not some…and that’s why we can share Jesus…that’s why this is transformative…

Do you want to be healed?