❖ Video
❖ Audio
The Joy of Living Taught by Jesus and the Author of Ecclesiastes
Ecclesiastes, Matthew 16:25-26, others
Mari Ikeda
Today, instead of our usual series on the book of Romans, we’re going to read Ecclesiastes from the Old Testament and the words of Jesus from the New Testament.
I wanted to read Ecclesiastes because I came across a book last year that taught a new interpretation of the book that was so good that I wanted to share it with you. The title of the book is ” Let’s read Ecclesiastes – a book that calls us to ‘live'” by Satoshi Otomo, and published by UCCJ (The United Church of Christ in Japan).
The author, Mr. Otomo was also my seminary professor, so let me call him Dr. Otomo. I’d like to talk about the first half of today’s message based on this book.
Let’s start reading Ecclesiastes, Chapter 1 verse 1-11.
A. The meaning of life taught by the author of Ecclesiastes
1. Life is short and we are small (1:1-11)
1 The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:
2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”
3 What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?
4 Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.
5 The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.
6 The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.
7 All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.
8 All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.
9 What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.
11 No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them.
Anyone who reads this will be puzzled as to where the salvation is in this. Of all the verses, I think the most striking is verse 2.
Meaningless! Meaningless! Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.
In both Japanese and English, it is repeated that everything is empty and meaningless, which sounds very nihilistic.
However, according to Dr. Otomo, the word translated as “empty” or “meaningless” does not necessarily have only a negative meaning in the original Hebrew, but can also be translated as ” fragile,” “short,” or “fleeting.
And he says that when we read Ecclesiastes as a whole, we should not read this place simply as a nihilistic and hopeless lament, because it never says that life is all empty and meaningless.
Then, what was Ecclesiastes trying to say? It was saying that we should not turn our eyes away from the reality that our lives are short and our existence is small.
When we are healthy and things are going well, we forget how fragile our lives are. Ecclesiastes is trying to tell us that life has limits, but because of those limits, living the life is precious. Let’s read chapters 3:12-13.
2. And yet, life is a gift from God (3:12-13)
12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.
Phrases similar to this appear repeatedly in Ecclesiastes. Until I read Dr. Otomo’s book, I thought it was saying that there was nothing to look forward to in life except to eat, drink and live as one pleases at most. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. Eating, drinking, and working hard are all part of our daily lives. Ecclesiastes says that being able to live such a normal everyday life is what makes people happy.
According to Dr. Kotomo, during the time of the author of Ecclesiastes, wars continued for a long time, the traditional values of the Israelites were shaken by foreign domination, the gap between the rich and the poor widened, and people could not find hope in this world, so they began to have hope in the afterlife.
And the teaching that one should live ascetically in this world was widespread. But the author of Ecclesiastes was in direct opposition to such thinking. He believed that the reason God gave us life and put us in this world was not so that we would hate living in it and spend our whole lives in sorrow, but so that we could find happiness in our daily lives. He says, “That is the gift of God.”
In the book of Job, which the author of Ecclesiastes was probably familiar with, there are these verses.
If it were his intention and he withdrew his spirit and breath, all humanity would perish together and mankind would return to the dust. (Job 34:14-15)
Our life is a gift that God is giving to us at this very moment. It will
not change until the moment we breathe our last breath.
We try to live selfishly when we misunderstand that our life is our own, and we would never want to give it up.
Or, on the other hand, it happens that we are willing to give it up ourselves.
But this life is a gift that God has given us for a limited time, to live happily in this world.
However, how do we know that God wants us to live a happy life? And what kind of happiness does God want us to have, and how can we have it?
The answer to all of this is found in Jesus. Let’s read the Gospel of Matthew 16:25-26, in the New Testament.
B. The joy of living that Jesus teaches
1. Do we need to lose our life for Jesus? (Matthew 16:25-26)
For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? (Matthew 16:25-26)
People can never be satisfied or happy by acquiring wealth and power.
Then, what is necessary, Jesus said, “is to lose our life for his sake.
Losing our life for Jesus means to stop using our life for ourselves and to use it for Him only.
Then, again, it may seem that we have no choice but to live an ascetic life and hate the world, but that is not the intention of Jesus. Here is a parable He gives us as the hint.
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it. (Matthew 13:44-46)
Dedicating our life to Jesus means knowing that He is a treasure that we would be willing to sell all our possessions to obtain, and living our life looking for Him that way.
The fact that Jesus is worth more than ourselves, more than anyone else, more than any wealth or power is not something that can be believed immediately after someone tells us so, but is something that each of us must take the time to confirm. Even in a parable, the treasure is hidden and cannot be found unless we look for it.
Yet, looking for Jesus, finding Him, and living His life is a treasure hunt worthy of our lifetime.
For Jesus is the one who is looking for us as His treasure before we look for Him.
The proof of this is the cross. The fact that Jesus died on the cross is the proof that God loves us as a treasure more precious than His own life.
So even when we say we are looking for Jesus, He is not hiding Himself because He is mean. It is simply that our sins are hiding Jesus who is right beside us.
How can we find Jesus even in the midst of our sins? It is by living with Jesus as our best friend.
2. Life with Jesus as our best friend
Do you all have a friend you can call your best friend? I suspect that there are not many people in this world who can proudly answer “yes.
And even if there is, I don’t think there is anyone who can share all of the joys and sorrows of their life.
Even so, Jesus is the one who will become the best friend of each one of us. But just like a treasure hunt, it takes time for us to become Jesus’ best friend.
Because we take more time to be sure that we can really call Jesus our best friend and trust him.
And, because we’re friends Sometimes we fight each other. Jesus doesn’t fight with us with malicious intent, but we do fight with him because we don’t understand him, and he is the one who can accept that.
It may seem a little abstract and confusing to talk about Jesus in this way, as we cannot see him or meet him in person.
However, to live a life of faith in Jesus is something that happens in the relationship between each person and Jesus, and so each person has to confirm it for themselves.
And I believe that what Jesus said, “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will gain it,” can be paraphrased to say that we are to make Jesus our best friend, who is more precious to us than our own lives.
By doing so, we can discover the joy of living with Jesus in this world and the joy of loving others with Him.
And when we finally leave this world, it will be the same Jesus who will greet us.
Our Best Friend is the joy we have while we live in this world, and is the joy we can look forward to seeing after we die.
(Prayer) Jesus, our Lord, and friend, please show Your presence to those who are now overwhelmed by the emptiness and pain of living.
There are limits to the amount of joy and comfort we can give, but the joy and peace you give us will never go away.
Please guide us with the hope that we can believe in the love you have given us and live our lives in love with you.
Lord Jesus, I pray in your name. Amen.
Summary
The book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament teaches us that our lives are short, we are small, and therefore, we need to appreciate the ordinary in our lives. As we live in this world, there are times when we suffer to the point of losing the ordinary and our happiness is threatened. Even so, Jesus teaches us how to live in joy and hope all the way to the end of our lives: to invite him to be our best friend.
For Discussion
1. What can you say or do for someone who is experiencing despair?
2. What is the joy of living that Jesus gives us?