We love baptizing believers at our Easter Sunday evening service. This year, though, we don’t have any candidates ready to take the plunge. Since we have the rest of our evening services planned through July that left an opportunity for something else tonight. As it happens, the Omnibus class read The Great Gatsby the last couple weeks and it got me thinking about the great Solomon and the great book of Ecclesiastes. When men search for a meaning and satisfaction, if they don’t look for it from the Lord, then they won’t find it.

If the Christmas story is a story of God identifying with the vanity of life under the sun, the Easter story is a story of God conquering the vanity of life under the sun. It is the story of God overcoming and defeating the curse of vanity that we all live under because of sin. In the resurrection we celebrate God in Christ not only identifying with us, but also overcoming the curse for us and restoring us for joy in the process and eternity. In that sense, Ecclesiastes needs Easter.

Ecclesiastes may be the most dismal and discouraging book of the Bible. Solomon’s wisdom towers far above his optimism. His huge doses of realism overwhelm the meager spoonfuls of positivity. In fact, his optimism fell down a hole in the backyard and is crying for help. Solomon’s message is a gloomy one and as a preacher he presents some of the most unhappy truths under the sun.

We can learn from that. It is part of Solomon’s strategy as he repeats the message of misery over and over. He explains near end of Ecclesiastes that his target audience was young people. He wanted them not only to learn, but to feel the misery so that they would stop looking for life in uncertain and unsatisfying things. His main approach was to point out how tasteless and bitter life under the sun can be. He wanted them to learn what was truly enjoyable, what genuinely matters, what actually lasts, and what is really important.

Part of Solomon’s approach is to point out, time after time, how bad it is. Better than anyone he exposes the moldy, foul, slimy underbelly. From the beginning to end of Ecclesiastes the refrain is, “vanity of vanities, all is vanity” (1:2; 12:8).

Some of the most miserable, difficult truths under the sun:

Work is hard, endless, forgettable, and vain.

Thus begins the cheery half of tonight’s message. In his opening poem Solomon asks, What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? (1:3) The obvious answer to the rhetorical question is “zero, absolutely nothing.” You work and work and work and the work doesn’t stop. Like sunrise and sunset, like the blowing wind, like water running into the ocean, we keep working and nothing ever really seems to be finished. Work is hard; even the best dish detergent doesn’t keep you from needing to use your fingernail to pick off the stuck-on, greasy mess. Work never ends; once you’re done with that load of dishes it’s already time to make another mess as you prepare for the next meal.

If that weren’t bad enough, everything we do is forgettable. None of us will come up with anything truly new or lasting. No one cares today or, if they do, they won’t tomorrow. There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later thing yet to be among those who come after (1:11). Work is forgettable.

And work is vain; that is, it is empty. It can’t really satisfy. Even after building the temple, the palace, irrigation pools, and architecture throughout all Israel, Solomon considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun (2:11). That is worthless.

Even more, that is miserable. What has a man from all the toil and striving of hear 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 (2:22-23). Men spend their days gathering and collecting (2:26) but never keeping. They earn money but never have enough; they are never satisfied (5:10). As he came from his mother’s womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand (5:15). Just as he came, so shall he go, and what gain is there to him who toils for the wind? (5:16)

Solomon studied the business that is done on earth, how neither day nor night do one’s eyes sleep (8:16) and his conclusion was that work is hard, endless, forgettable, and vain.

Everyone dies.

At most you have a few days (2:3) of life. Life is hard and then it’s over. It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As is the good, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, the same event happens to all (9:2-3). All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return (3:20; see also 6:6).

You can’t stop death or even slow it down. No man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death (8:8). And you can’t predict it. For man does not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them (9:12) Man lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow (6:12).

Work is hard and then (everyone of) you die.

The best it gets is to enjoy the process.

We shouldn’t minimize the life-sustaining, joy-infusing passages in Ecclesiastes. To say that Ecclesiastes needs the cross isn’t meant to reject the five or so oasis passages in Ecclesiastes where those who fear God are enabled by Him to enjoy the process. God-given joy is possible in the midst of vanity.

If God gives it, we can eat and drink and toil with enjoyment (2:24; 3:12). In one sense there is nothing better. Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God (5:19). So much enjoyment is possible that he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart (5:20).

But there are a lot of people trying to enjoy the process apart from God. And there are men to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them (6:2). He’s got all the equipment to enjoy the process but joy still escapes him.

Their motivation for striving to eat bread in joy and drink wine with a merry heart is not because they fear the Lord, but because tomorrow they might die (see 9:7). They dress up and get married and work hard—but they do it all for themselves. They do it to drown the misery. They do it to forget how vain and empty their lives are. Running down the train tracks is not the same as riding the joy train.

In Ecclesiastes, enjoying the process is the best it gets. But even that joy isn’t guaranteed, especially if you’re trying to ETP for the wrong reason.

Mostly we suffer and submit.

Not only does all the hard work and the certainty of death suffocate joy out of the process, add to that the oppression and unfair treatment (of the poor and helpless) and necessary submission to unkind, let alone unjust, authority. Those are pointy sticks that pop our thin-skinned joy balloons.

Again and again Solomon saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness (3:16). He saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them (4:1). He admitted, if you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and righteousness, do not be amazed at the matter (5:8), because when a man has power over man to his hurt (8:9) he will hurt him.

Even when the wicked are buried it seems like they’ve gotten away with it. Solomon saw the wicked buried. They used to go in and out of the holy place and were praised in the city where they had done such things (8:10). Other people see that and think they can get away with it too (8:11).

If those wicked men are rulers, we still have to submit (8:2), and we better not complain even in our private thoughts (10:20). Mostly we’re oppressed or we see oppression, we’re hurt or watching others get hurt, and we’re still responsible to obey foolish and/or immature and/or unjust authority.

Which means life is heavy and unhappy.

I realize this is kind of what I’ve already said, but Solomon wrote some almost unbelievable summaries of how rotten and lousy life under the sun really is.

As if saying that all is vanity and striving after wind wasn’t enough, that there is nothing to be gained under the sun, he said I hated life because what is done under the sun was so grievous to me (2:17). Later he claimed I hated all my toil (2:18) and gave my heart up to despair (2:20).

When it came to the oppression he saw, I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun (4:2-3). Life is so heavy that it’s better to be stillborn than to carry the heavy burden (6:3).

When it came to having all the temporal blessings any man could ask for but not being able to enjoy them he said, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and its name is covered. Moreover, it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he (6:4-5). That’s bad news.

The heart of the children of men are full of evil and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead (9:3). The living are absolutely pitiful.

We’re all headed for judgment.

It’s disturbing when we remember that God has put eternity into our hearts (3:11), that God does what He does so we will fear Him (3:14; 7:14), and that we still keep looking away from Him and for life from things under the sun. For all these things God will bring you into judgment (11:9). In fact, God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil (12:14). That’s the end of the matter: an all-knowing, wholly-righteous, sovereign God ready to judge.

And Solomon just leaves us there. That’s the end of his sermon. Though I assume he knew what the temple represented and what all the sacrifices anticipated, there’s no talk in Ecclesiastes of a coming Messiah. But what if we’ve blown it? Is there any forgiveness for not keeping all God’s commands? Though it won’t be well with the wicked, how can we rely on that? And if all is vanity and then we die, isn’t that salt in the wound? We’re left with misery and death and certain judgment.

What a cold, nearly comfortless world view. Ecclesiastes needs the cross.

Any remedy of hope that Solomon hints at, Paul screams. What is a small fissure in Ecclesiastes erupts into a flood in 1 Corinthians 15. If Ecclesiastes is a soft opening, the New Testament is a grand opening. Not only can we commiserate together, we can celebrate together. Ecclesiastes heaps burdens on, the cross and the resurrection set us free.

If Solomon presented some of the most miserable truths under the sun, Paul proclaims some of the most glorious truths because of the Son, in particular because of His death and resurrection.

I understand that the following is not the exegetical outline of 1 Corinthians 15. I’m doing eisposition, reading my outline onto the passage. I’m not reading an interpretation into the passage, but I am reading an outline onto the passage. 1 Corinthians certainly does more than provide an remedy to the misery in Ecclesiastes, but it does not do less.

Ecclesiastes needs the cross and the resurrection 1 Corinthians 15. Though I don’t think the apostle was trying to answer the problems I just listed about life under the sun in Ecclesiastes, this chapter in 1 Corinthians does answer them all—and more. The resurrection of Christ we celebrate today is the ultimate cure for the curse of vanity. The curse of vanity is conquered by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:1-2)

That’s the kind of vain that’s worse than the vanity in Ecclesiastes. Faith that is vain is worse.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, (verses 3-4)

That’s the gospel. Jesus is God, He came from heaven to earth, He was perfectly obedient, He died, bearing the penalty that we deserved for our vain life of sin, and rose from the dead to overcome sin. That is why we celebrate the cross.

Some of the most glorious truths because of the Son:

The resurrection:

Keeps us from dying in our sins.

In Christ we’re headed for judgement no longer. Christ took care of our sin. Judgment is coming at the end of Ecclesiastes, but for believers, those resurrected in Christ, our sins have already been judged. We’ve been paid for.

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. (verse 17)

The opposite of that is true as well. If Christ has been raised, and you believe in Him, you are not in your sins. Our failure to keep God’s commands deserved punishment; Christ took it. The resurrection answers the judgment, and the greatest threat against us is resolved.

Keeps us from being pitied.

As heavy and unhappy and sorrowful and unpleasant as life is, as Christians, if Christ didn’t come back from the dead, we’re even more to be pitied because we thought there was an answer.

If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. (verse 19)

Without the resurrection, foolish self-deception compounds the heaviness. That’s worse. But He has risen, and we do have joy beyond this life. Because He has risen we are not most to be pitied, we don’t need to be pitied. We have life now and that’s coming, eternal life.

Makes suffering unjustly worthwhile.

The resurrection makes suffering, even when we don’t deserve it, worthwhile. Paul describes how he endured pain, suffering, and fighting, that was all worthwhile. If, as Ecclesiastes seems to suggest, you have to submit to people who aren’t going to get punished, how can we endure? The resurrection achieves a couple things.

• The resurrection enables those in Christ to submit and suffer.
• The resurrection demonstrates to those not in Christ that God is serious about dealing with sin.

One of two things is true about the people we’re submitting to and suffering from. Either those people’s sins were paid for by Christ, or they will pay for those sins later themselves. The people who are sinning against you have not escaped God. He knows. That enables us to be free to submit no matter how poorly we’re treated because we don’t have to make it right. Trust God to make it right. The resurrection demonstrates that God is serious about doing so.

Why are we in danger every hour? I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day! What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? (verses 30-32a)

Paul encountered dangers in the spiritual battle as he fought against false teachers, even those who slandered him and sought his death. But he endured because of his hope in the resurrection.

The resurrection itself culminates Christ’s example, as He submitted to unjust authority when, out of all people, He didn’t deserve the treatment He received. His obedience and submission and endurance are the power and example for us.

Keeps enjoying the process from being condemnable.

Look at the second part of verse 32:

If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” (verse 32b)

At first that sounds very Ecclesiastical in terms of enjoying the process. But Paul presents it here as condemnable without the resurrection. It is possible to eat and drink and find enjoyment in toil in such a way that is damning.

Christ is the only one who can make it so our enjoyment of His gifts isn’t greater than our enjoyment of Him. Pagans and unbelievers can’t fathom joy like this. Eating and drinking may judge us, but in Christ we can truly enjoy only because of our resurrection with Him.

Takes the sting out of death.

We still die, unless He comes back soon. All people, including Christians, die, but the bite is gone. You know these verses well.

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory."
"O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (verses 54-57)

The pain of death is no longer master. The resurrection is God’s conquering of death and sin. We can even (soberly) rejoice in the death of a Christian because we know it leads to something better. Death for the Christian is not defeat, it is victory.

Makes work (in the Lord and for the Lord) not in vain.

And this is really good.

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. (verse 58)

Haven’t we been waiting to hear that? “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity” is different after the resurrection? Work isn’t meaningless when it is on His behalf. Work is not empty when through Him. It has eternal ramifications. We can be busy and joyful because it isn’t empty. That only happens because of the resurrection.

Conclusion

The resurrection conquers every part of the curse of vanity, because vanity comes from sin and the resurrection decisively defeated sin and death:

For as miserable as the truths of Ecclesiastes are, the truths of the resurrection are more glorious. The hope Solomon hints at, Paul announces with clarity and celebration.

If you’re not in Jesus, all you have is coming judgment after a miserable, vain life. If you aren’t united with Christ in His death and resurrection, Ecclesiastes is all you have and the best you can do is try to eat and drink and find parties. But for us believers, life is totally different. While we can learn from the dissatisfaction of bitter things under the sun, we have something so much more. We have been redeemed from the vanity through the cross.

So as 1 Peter 1:17-19 exhorts,

conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

We are ransomed from futile ways. The resurrection of the Son changes life under the sun and forever.