The quest for meaning is as old as the hills. One of the most familiar stories in Greek mythology is that of Sisyphus. Poor Sisyphus reaped the displeasure of the gods when he disclosed to mere mortals secrets that were known only within celestial ranks. His sentence consisted in having to roll a massive stone to the top of a hill, watch it roll down again, and repeat the exercise endlessly. His was a life consigned to futility. All kinds of intriguing suggestions have been made by philosophers to rescue Sisyphus. 'If only Sisyphus could have changed the way he viewed his task, so that he enjoyed rolling stones.," opined one. " Could he not had rolled up a different stone each time, so that someone else could have built a monument with it? " asked another. In proposing such options, these thinkers not only miss the point of the predicament, but mores seriously, they completely miss the very essence of meaninglessness. We can really discern the reason behind the futility that holds Sisyphus in its grasp. The title Ecclesiastes given to this book is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Qoheleth. The book is concerned with the purpose and value of human life. While admitting the existence of a divine plan, it considers such a plan to be hidden from man, who seeks happiness without ever finding it here below (3,11; 8, 7,17). Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth All things are vanity! What profit a man from all his labor which he toils at under the sun.? One generation passes and another comes, but the world forever stays. The sun rises and the sun goes down, then it presses on to a place where it rises. Blowing now toward the south, then toward the north, the wind turns again and again, resuming its rounds. All rivers go to the sea, yet never does the sea become full. To the place where they go, the rivers keep on going, becoming (living waters). All speech is labored; there is nothing man can say. The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor is the ear filled with hearing. What has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun. Even the thing which we say, " See, this is new!" Has already existed in the ages that preceded us. There is no remembrance of the men of old; nor of those to come will there be any remembrance among those who come after them. Men remember nothing long, God never forgets. (1:11). While rejecting the older solution of earthly rewards and punishments, Ecclesiastes looks forward to a more lasting one. The clear answer to the problem was to come with the light of Christ's teaching concerning future life. As children, wonder can be attained by dabbling in a world of fantasy. But as the years pass wonder is eroded in the face of reality, and we recognize that may not live in a fairy-tale world.
But as times have changed and possibilities abound, one would think we came a long way from Sisyphus malady. Instead we deal with the same problem, only now not in mythological terms as much as in stark reality of our busy lives. No piece of ancient literature was more forthright and more penetrating of this struggle than the book of Ecclesiastes, credited to the pen of Solomon. His opening line charge into his deduction.- " Meaningless! Meaningless! Everything is meaningless!"
Then he takes a regressive journey, cataloguing his path to that cynicism -wisdom, pleasure, work, material gain, and much else. He comes away empty.
I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun. ( Ecclesiastes 2: 10-11).
This was no Sisyphus speaking. At Solomon's command, others rolled stones up steep hills so that he could build his stables, palaces, and temples. He was a man who boasted capacities of unparalleled intellect and imagination that made him the envy of many, and who presided over the most pompous court of his time. In the end he groaned that " under the sun" there was a monotony, a circularity, and a fatality, to all human endeavor.
This assessment by Solomon presents a most starling, almost fearsome reality: Meaningless does not come from being weary of pain but from being weary of pleasure. Solomon is not the only one surrounded with wealth and success who has talked of such disappointment at the end of the road.
That refrain is repeated with consistency. A modern day writer, Jack Higgins, was asked at the pinnacle of his success what he now knows that he wished he had known as a younger man. " I wish I had known that when you get to the top, there is nothing there." So it is not the condemnation of Sisyphus that restricts meaningless to the ranks of the monotonous. The condition is universal and cuts across cultures, wealth, and generations. In is the mind of God to which we turn in seeking an answer to meaning. The Gospel of Jesus Christ deals precisely with the question "why"- the why of creation, and the why of our existence. Jesus says, " I have come that they may have life., and have it in full." ( John 10:10). He tells his disciples that he wanted their joy to be full. All who came to him- the wealthy and the poor, the young, old- drew life and joy from him. How did he give life meaning?
We can take many approaches in coming to the answer. I shall take the indirect route. which you can attribute to our heritage. The shortage route is not always the best route because you may miss many of the needed lessons along the way. I have to wonder if that is why the Lord took his people through forty- year journey in the desert when it could be accomplished in a few weeks. For our purposes, let us divide life into four stages. childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, and maturity. Each stage, we will see God's answer to all. First stage we will consider is the world of a child. G.K Chesterton, who unabashedly proclaimed that he learned more about life by observing children in a nursery than he ever did by reflecting upon the writings of any philosophers. What is it about a child that fascinate us? We see it in our church, that the actions of a child, during the gospel text, upstages the sermon message and is more popular then the message?
More to the issue, what is it that fascinates a child? In the Gospel of Jesus Christ, God offers us the ultimate relationship with himself. At the heart of the Gospel message is the offer of Christ to come and dwell among us in fellowship.-making us his children, extending us to his care. The answer to the search for wonder lies in our relationship with Christ. But is this mere fantasy? No. Jesus pointed beyond fantastic to the fantastically. Aristotle was right when he said that all philosophy begins with wonder; but the journey, can only progress through truth, which leads to faith.
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