Resurrection - An answer to "meaningless"?

Hi friends,

I apologize that it has been so long since I last posted. Life has been busy - but it has been busy for you too, so no excuses. Anyway, back on the horse.

This week, I've decided to take on the book of Ecclesiastes during my devotional time. As you read Ecclesiastes, you are immediately confronted with an exasperated sigh. "Meaningless!" Some translations have "Vanity!" The Hebrew behind this word indicates something that has no substance to it - a vapor, for example. As soon as it comes, it goes. The Teacher of Ecclesiastes laments that everything under the sun is meaningless - it has absolutely no staying power. Creation does what it does, and we have little power over it, as recent natural disasters have shown us. Though wisdom seems a better path than folly, both the wise and the fool end up experiencing the same fate - death. And for the wise person who has saved and stored up good things, there is no guarantee that an heir won't be foolish and squander in months what has been toiled for over the course of a lifetime. The stuff of this life, concludes the Teacher, is like a vapor - and who chases after a vapor?

While many conclude that the Teacher's point in Ecclesiastes is that God gives our life under the sun meaning (a valid point), I believe the Teacher is looking for something even more concrete. I believe that the writer of Ecclesiastes is a God-fearing person, and yet even for the child of God the stuff of this life, the toil we are given to do, can appear to be nothing more than an exercise in chasing after wind. What if God offered us something more substantial - something heavier?

Interestingly, the Hebrew word which we translate as "glory" also means "heavy." It is the opposite of vanity and meaninglessness. It lasts. Jesus has experienced it, and he offers it to us. "Did not the Christ have to suffer these things (His passion) and then enter his glory?" (Luke 24:26). I believe that Easter and Resurrection provide the answer to meaninglessness. Under the curse of sin, we and the creation are subject to a toilsome and frustrating existence, ending in death. But Jesus' resurrection gives us a picture of something greater, something more substantial. For the child of God, baptized into Christ, death no longer can short-circuit our labor in Him under the sun. We proclaim a creation that will be redeemed and bodies that will be raised to eternal life because our Savior came to die and rise again. His glory will be revealed in us, as Romans 8:18 says.

Does life feel meaningless? Look to the promises of Easter.