Screaming From the Top Rung
March 5, 2023
Preached by Greg Kabakjian
Scripture Reading
Ecclesiastes 2:1-26
1 I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity. 2 I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?” 3 I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. 4 I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. 5 I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. 6 I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. 7 I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. 8 I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man.
9 So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. 10 And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. 11 Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.
12 So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done.13 Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. 14 The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them. 15 Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. 16 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! 17 So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.
18 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, 19 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. 20 So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, 21 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. 22 What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? 23 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.
24 There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, 25 for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? 26 For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
Someday in the future, someone will have a thought of you. Perhaps they’ll think of you and smile. Or perhaps they’ll grimace. Or maybe they’ll think of you and feel nothing at all. In any case, that future person will think of you and then stop thinking of you. And that thought will be the last thought of you that anyone will ever have. Someday, someone somewhere will think the last thought about you, and no one ever will again.
That’s my cheerful opening idea. Well, it’s not cheerful, but it’s true. As it is with Ecclesiastes – not cheerful, but true. You won’t find many greeting cards with a verse from Ecclesiastes on them. This is a dark chapter in a dark book. Qoheleth is the word that is translated as the “preacher.” And the Qoheleth writes in Ecclesiastes 2 about the vanity (ָֽה ֶבל ) of the life that we live. If we read Ecclesiastes 2 honestly, it feels a lot like sitting on the lip of a cliff, dangling your feed off the edge, and staring out into the void. And so that’s what we’re going to do this morning. For the next 30 (ish) minutes, we’re going sit on that cliff and stare into the void together. So, while this is not going to be the most joyful sermon you’ve ever heard, it’s because Ecclesiastes 2 isn’t the most joyful text you’ve ever read. And while the Qoheleth is not someone you’d want to have come speak at your high school graduation; he offers a profound wisdom to us. Ecclesiastes is in our Bible’s for a reason. Just like a black felt cloth is placed behind a diamond in the jewelry store and the diamond shines all the more brightly because of it, the book of Ecclesiastes is placed behind the gospel to accentuate the brilliant beauty of the gospel. And it’s not until we have the dark backdrop that we can truly begin to see the brilliance of the diamond.
What we’re going to do this morning is look at three things the Qoheleth says is vanity in chapter two and then we’re going to end by placing the diamond on the cloth and asking, “Where is Jesus in it all?” So, if you’re taking notes, we’re going to stare into the void together, looking at the vanity of pleasure, the vanity of wisdom, the vanity of work. Then ending by asking “Where is Jesus?”
A few encouragements before we dive into the darkness. First, if you are a Christian, my encouragement to you before we jump in is this: Let this text upset you. In a way, that’s what it is designed to do. The notion that Christians are supposed to be happy all the time is an absurd idea that finds no precedent in Scripture or in the life of Jesus. Our world has enough happy go lucky Christians. They don’t need any more quick, pithy answers to difficult questions. We do ourselves and our world no favors by having a shallow, bumper sticker Christianity. Our world needs Christians who have grappled with the darkness, who have thought deeply about death, purpose, and meaning. Our world doesn’t need Christians who are happy all day every day. In fact, being happy all the day long is probably a sign of an emotionally stunted faith (or a psychiatric disorder). Therefore, let this upset you. Let it make you spiritually nauseous. And
although there is hope, there is a resurrection; don’t rush there. Have the guts to sit on the cliff and stare for a while. It’s good for you.
If you’re here this morning and you wouldn’t call yourself a Christian, first, welcome, I’m so glad you’re here. My encouragement before we dive in is this: Wrestle with the logic of the Qoheleth. I get it – it’d be easy to read this and say “ah, you know how poets are – gloomy.” Don’t dismiss what he’s saying merely because it’s gloomy and depressing. Deal with his logic first, then dismiss him if you find it lacking. The reasoning of the Qoheleth in chapters like this one is why I’m still a Christian today. Ask yourself, what is the reason for my life? In light of my inevitable death, what is the point of working my job or pursuing pleasure or becoming wise? Does any of it have any meaning at all?
And finally, a word of encouragement to all of us. Our culture has indoctrinated each of us since we were born to not ask questions like those that the Qoheleth is going to force us to ask. Blaise Pascal says, “Being unable to cure death, wretchedness and ignorance, men have decided, in order to be happy, not to think about such things.”(1) We live in an age of distraction. Our culture is impressively designed to keep us from serious self-reflection. We live distracted, hurried lives that keep us from stopping and reflecting on the fact we’re all going to die someday. The incessant demand for efficiency, productivity, achievement, together with the immanence of technology, the endless scroll, and nonstop notifications mix together to form a poisonous cocktail that is brilliantly designed to keep us too busy, too distracted, too entertained, and too caffeinated to ask ourselves “what is the point of this all?” And so, when someone does ask a question like the Qoheleth, it’s easy to just laugh at it because we’re uncomfortable and then click “Next Episode” on whatever Netflix special has been playing in the background. So, at risk of sounding crude, my gentle encouragement to us all is “grow up.” Don’t run from the void. Let’s look at it together. Because if we do, I’m convinced that the gospel will shine all the more brightly.
So, the Qoheleth addresses three things that are vanity in this chapter. The vanity of pleasure, the vanity of wisdom, and the vanity of work. First, the vanity of pleasure.
THE VANITY OF PLEASURE
In the beginning of our chapter the Qoheleth details his experiential quest for happiness. He searches the earth for something, anything that will make him happy. Every carnal desire he has, he satisfies. And he has the means to do so. He says in verse 10, “Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them.” If he wanted a house, he got a house. If he wanted a vineyard, he got a vineyard. If he wanted a vacation, he went on vacation. If he wanted sex, he got sex. If he wanted entertainment, he got entertainment. Everything he wanted, he got. Now, some of you are thinking, “that sounds like the life! Who wouldn’t want everything they’ve ever wanted?” In fact, for so many of us, the reason we haven’t lived like the Qoheleth is not that we are righteous or have a profound wisdom. It’s really just that we haven’t had the opportunity!
The reason we don’t over-indulge in alcohol is not because we’re sober minded, it’s because good scotch is expensive, and I’ve got to go to work tomorrow. The reason we didn’t have endless sex is not because we see it as a sacred act, but more because we’re bad at flirting and scared of pregnancy. The reason we don’t have 7 vacation homes is not because we have an affinity for a simple life of prudence, but because interest rates are ridiculous right now and one mortgage is more than enough. But what if you didn’t have to go to work tomorrow? What if you had endless free time? What if you could have any sexual partner you wanted? What if you could build any home you felt like, anywhere you felt like? I wonder, how much of our holiness is true, Spirit- wrought righteousness, and how much of it is due to mere convenience, or limitations outside of our control? If you had zero consequences; if you had the resources the Qoheleth had, how would you live?
This is fascinating because the Qoheleth is unconstrained by all of the things that constrain us. No one in this room has the time, money, resources, or power to actually be able to get everything they want. And the genius of this book is that Qoheleth had all of that – and is telling us it’s vanity. He dives headlong into an ocean of self-indulgent hedonism only to drown in it. And still, we foolishly believe that if we just had the things Qoheleth had, it would be different for us.
The monk Thomas Merton used the analogy of a ladder. He said that so many of us spend our lives climbing a ladder of pleasure, only to get to the top and realize that we leaned it against the wrong building. We spend our lives climbing this ladder, all the time believing that if we just climb one more rung, we will finally be satisfied.
You’re familiar with the feeling of ladder climbing. I’m just guessing not many of you have mansions filled with concubines, you’ve still felt the feeling of longing for something that we think will satisfy. The updated new house is magnificently satisfying for roughly the first year. And then other people’s homes start appearing larger and nicer than they used to seem. Your marriage is the idyllic, picturesque model of love – a romantic masterpiece. That is, until you have that first big fight a few weeks after the honeymoon...or on the honeymoon. That new car, article of clothing, that new boyfriend, your long-awaited retirement, the driver’s license, the job promotion, role in the play, the spot on the team, the money saved, the degree completed – all of these things make us so happy...until they don’t. And then we’re left where we started, grasping at straws, chasing the wind, restlessly fascinated with novelty and improvement, thinking that one more rung on the ladder might do it. So, what do you want? Right now. What do you want? Do you really think it’ll be any different this time? Do you really think that that pesky discontentment will finally go away if you just climb one more rung on this stupid ladder? Here is Qoheleth, having climbed to the very top of the ladder, unable to go up any further, shouting down at us, “there’s nothing up here! We leaned our ladders against the wrong building.” That’s the first thing Qoheleth says is vanity: pleasure. It’s ungraspable smoke. It looks like there’s substance until you try to grab it and then it slips through your fingers.
THE VANITY OF WISDOM
The second thing that the Qoheleth says is vanity is wisdom. Pleasure doesn’t satisfy, so in verse 12, the Qoheleth turns to wisdom. If outright hedonism doesn’t satisfy, perhaps wisdom will. Now, this might sound strange at first, to call wisdom vanity. Isn’t wisdom a good thing? Aren’t we supposed to pursue wisdom? Isn’t the genre of writing of Ecclesiastes called “wisdom literature?” And it’s important to note that the Qoheleth isn’t opposed to wisdom as much as he is opposed to wisdom being seen as the ultimate solution to the problems in life. Wisdom is valuable. Look at verse 13 “there is more gain in wisdom than in folly.” So, the Qoheleth still sees having wisdom as better than not. He is simply opposed to the idea that wisdom is an all- encompassing solution to life’s problems.
This is perhaps especially relevant in our culture today. We live in an age of education and intellect where the solution to every social ill is better education. What should we do to fight racism? What is the answer to income inequality? What’s the way out of poverty? How should we address hate crimes? The social response in our current cultural moment is almost always “better education.” And while there’s truth to that, the Qoheleth puts his finger on the ultimate shortcoming of wisdom. Namely, wisdom is vital, but it cannot mend our hearts and in the end we all die anyway.
When it comes to the most basic problems of life, even wisdom is vanity. It is useless in solving our world’s brokenness. You know who is well-educated? Al Qaeda. Osama Bin Laden had degrees in economics, business administration, and engineering (2). Most members of Al Qaeda were and are more educated than most people in this room. A surprising number went to medical school and are doctors (3). Many have our equivalent of multiple master’s degrees. And they put bombs in hotels and fly planes into buildings. Education isn’t the end all solution that we think it is. Our world is broken, and the brokenness cannot be educated out of us. Or, as the theologian Sinclair Ferguson says, “There are some things that education, even the best education, is powerless to do: it cannot untangle the twists in the human heart; it cannot make up for what is lacking in the soul. Perhaps the Qoheleth too had noticed that some of the most intelligent and well-educated individuals are among the saddest and most tortured of people.” (4)
The big thing that wisdom fails to do for us, says the Qoheleth, is defeat death. Look at verse 16 with me, “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!”
In ancient Rome, there was a tradition where, after a major military victory, the triumphant military generals were paraded through the streets to the roars of the masses. This was a massive ceremony. The procession could span the course of a day with the military leader riding in a chariot drawn by four horses. There was not a more coveted honor. The general, back from battle, victorious, was idolized, viewed as divine by his troops and the public alike. But riding in the same chariot, standing just behind the worshipped general, was a slave. The slave’s sole responsibility for the entirety of the procession was to whisper in the general’s ear continuously, “Memento mori!” Remember, you are mortal. It doesn’t matter if you are a general or a slave; a sage or a fool – we are all headed to the same place.
If you know me, you might know this strange fact. But I have this odd tradition on my birthday, where I spend a few hours, every year, on my birthday, in a graveyard. I get rid of distractions, leave my phone in the car, and walk around a graveyard looking at the tombstones. I walk through the graveyard until I find a tombstone where the person died the age that I’m turning that year (which actually requires a ridiculous amount of mental math). And when I find someone who died at the age I’m turning, I sit by their grave, think about my life, and ask myself “would I be satisfied if I too were to die this year? Would I have lived a good life?” Now, you might think that I would do this, and walk out of the graveyard depressed, saddened by the reality that my life will one day too end. But invariably the opposite happens. Without fail, I walk out of that graveyard with a sober determination to care about the things that count. A few hours in a graveyard makes it really difficult to care about stupid things. The things of life find their proper proportion in the face of things of death. And Qoheleth is here saying, “wisdom is important, yes. But you’re going to die someday, and it is not nearly the solution that you think it is.” No one was wiser than the Qoheleth. You read last week that he had surpassed in wisdom everyone who was over Jerusalem before him. This person would make us all look like bumbling fools in comparison. And here he is, at the top rung of wisdom’s ladder, shouting down “there’s nothing up here either.”
THE VANITY OF WORK
So, the Qoheleth describes the vanity of pleasure, the vanity of wisdom, and finally, the vanity of work. The final place he turns in our chapter is to his work in verse 18. He writes, “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 some ways, it’s hard to believe this was written thousands of years ago. It feels like it could have been written yesterday by a businessman after a tough board meeting. Think about this. This is a sobering reality for us who are upwardly mobile and incessantly encouraged both explicitly and implicitly to tie our worth to our work. Someday, you will die. You will be forgotten. And someone else will have your job – if your job still even exists. And no one will remember you. What then of your salary, promotions, impressive title, benefits, or PTO?
For some of you, you’ve retired already, you are living this. For sure, this is a thought to have before you go work that double shift or pick up extra hours on the weekend or get yet another side hustle. And it applies both to our work at our job, but
also work that we do around the home. Someday in the future, some other family will buy your house. They’ll take down all your decorations that you got from Hobby Lobby, and they’ll throw them all in a big dumpster. They’ll paint over the accent wall that you painstakingly selected after a thousand trips to Home Depot and a million color samples. And while they do it, they’ll chuckle about why anyone in their right mind would’ve picked the color you did. They’ll have their own Christmas tree set up in the living room. And at night they’ll sleep in what used to be your bedroom. And they won’t remember you. They won’t even know your name. And they might be fools. The husband might beat his wife in what is now your living room. The wife might have an affair in what’s now your bedroom. So, are all those house projects you’re stressed about really that important?
The Qoheleth looks at all the work he has done and says, “this is all vanity.” It’s all smoke. He has outworked every single one of us. He’s achieved more than you ever will and is a bigger workaholic than all of us combined. He has climbed to the top rung of the work ladder and is shouting down at us, “there’s nothing up here either.”
THE GOSPEL IN THE SMOKE
Pleasure is vanity. Wisdom is vanity. And work is vanity. The Qoheleth brilliantly points out that the stone statues we have spent our lives chiseling have been made out of smoke all along and we’ve spent our time chiseling the air and climbing ladders leaned against the wrong building. It’s vanity. So where is Jesus in all of this? Well, I hope by now you feel a little uneasy. A little desperate. You should. Don’t get me wrong, Ecclesiastes is true. Everything we read in this chapter is true, but it’s partial. If Ecclesiastes is all that is true, then we all might as well go home right now because there’s nothing left for us to do than eat food, get drunk, and try to enjoy our lives before they’re over. The good news, the diamond, is that Ecclesiastes is not all that is true. There’s another side to the coin.
A few hundred years after the Qoheleth wrote this chapter, another teacher came teaching about the vanity of life. Now, that’s not unique. Every major thinker and philosopher to ever live has dealt with the apparent meaninglessness of life, from the Qoheleth to Aristotle to Immanuel Kant to Justin Beiber and his 2015 song “Life is Worth Living.” But this teacher named Jesus was unique. Just like the Qohelth, he talked about Himself as the Son of David. This Rabbi too came with a wisdom unprecedented. The single wisest person to ever walk the earth, making Solomon, Einstein, and Spinoza look like fools in comparison. He too came teaching about the vapor, the vanity of life, saying things like “What’s the point of worrying about tomorrow? You don’t even know what tomorrow will bring.” And “why bother accumulating and storing up treasures for yourself on earth? Thieves will break in and steal them, and moth and rust will eat away at your riches. It’s vanity.” Sound familiar?
And more than teaching about it, just like the Qoheleth, and just like all of us, this Rabbi, Jesus of Nazareth, faced the void Himself. He felt the vanity of it all in His bones. He wrestled with how temporary everything was and how fleeting everything
feels. On His knees, alone, by himself in a garden, He cried tears of blood because He was also scared of dying.
But more than just teaching about the vanity of life and suffering under it, Jesus also did something about it. As wise as the Qoheleth was, all he could do with the vanity of life was describe it. Jesus comes along and offers to change it. He also says things that the Qoheleth could never say. Things like “Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” And even further, He actually defeats the grave. He dies, and then comes back to life, never to die again; promising that everyone who trusts in Him will also someday rise from the grave just like He did. For them, for followers of Jesus, life is not ultimately vain, because we are guaranteed a resurrection. If this is true – If Jesus really did rise from the grave, then this changes everything.
The gospel is not just a happy story that’s nice if it’s true. You need it to be true. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, then Ecclesiastes is the whole truth, and we should all leave now for lunch. But if Jesus really raised from the dead, then Ecclesiastes is only half the story and it’s possible to live a life that, as Paul says, is not in vain.
And so, may we throw off our vain idols as if they are nothing – because they are. May we follow Jesus like everything depends upon it – because it does. And May we cling to His resurrection as if it’s the only hope in a world of vapor – because it is. Let’s pray.
1. Blaise Pascal, Pensées, trans. A. J. Krailsheimer, Revised ed. edition. (London : New York: Penguin Classics, 1995).
2. WIKIPEDIA, s.v. “Personal Life of Osama Bin Laden.”
3. Robert Sibley, “When Healers Become Killers: The Doctor as Terrorist,” CMAJ Can. Med. Assoc. J. 177.6 (2007): 688, https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.071159.
4. Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Pundit’s Folly: Chronicles of an Empty Life (Banner of Truth, 1996), pg. 9.
Sermon Discussion Questions
Do you find yourself making idols out of the things mentioned (pleasure, wisdom, work)? If so, which ones?
How should the temporary nature of our lives impact how we live? Use our time? Spend money?
Why is the resurrection so important? Where could you find meaning in life if Jesus didn’t raise from the dead?
