I am not going to deal with this passage verse by verse but look at the deeply pessimistic references to the unfairness of life. We are brilliant at distinguishing between fair and unfair treatment of ourselves. We know when we do not get our just deserts. We are pretty good at recognising when someone else suffers injustice. It is amazing that mankind with such sensitive antenna for justice is so incredibly bad at administering it. This proves deeply disillusioning and is responsible for widespread cynicism and bitterness.
Men of thoroughly bad character are often honoured because of their competence and success. In our society this is particularly true of entertainers and sportsmen. Serial adulterers with the morals of an alley cat are lauded and feted as film stars or pop singers. Foul- mouthed cheats are lionised on the terraces by besotted football fans.
I am afraid that even in the church there is a tendency to judge a pulpit performer by his personality, presence and presentation. It is important to look nice, sound nice and be nice. Character no longer counts for much. Self-sacrifice is discounted if those making the sacrifice are old, colourless and shabby.
I always take heart when, like the Teacher, I am feeling particularly depressed by the superficial judgments of men, from Jesus' teaching recorded in Mat23v5to8 and v11and12. Jesus is speaking about the teachers of the law and the Pharisees: Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honour at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted in the market-places and to have men call them 'Rabbi'. But you are not to be called 'Rabbi', for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. ..... The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
We have a foretaste of the judgment to come in the way Jesus at the temple treasury reacted to the poor widow who, in contrast to the ostentatious giving of the wealthy, slipped two very small copper coins into the collection box. Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on." Luke21v3to4.
The consolation of the overlooked, unrecognised and genuinely undervalued is to trust with Paul in the righteous judge who will award a crown of righteousness to all who have longed for his appearing. 2Tim4v8. We may, of course, be in for a shock if we have over-estimated our worth.
There is no justice in the world of business. Robert Maxwell lived in style and was lionised by many for his business acumen. It later transpired that he was propping up his ailing empire by robbing the pension fund of employees of the Daily Mirror. In contrast a Christian acquaintance of mine who sold pigs to a large exporter was owed £70,000 when the exporter went bust. He in turn owed his suppliers about the same sum of money. He honoured his debts even though it beggared him.
I know a Christian farmer who grows potatoes. He agreed a price for his potatoes with a wholesaler prior to harvest. There was a glut of potatoes and prices began to tumble. The wholesaler refused to take my friend's potatoes at the agreed price on the spurious ground that the quality was sub-standard. Meanwhile the potato grower had put his crop into store to maintain it at top quality and so he had a £30,000 bill for storage as well as hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of unsold potatoes on his hands. The dishonest wholesaler did not suffer but the Christian farmer did.
The large supermarket chains in this country treat their suppliers in a cavalier fashion. They pay third world producers absurdly low prices for their agricultural goods. I hope it isn't true but a friend told me that Brazilians get paid less than two pennies for every chicken they produce. It is a shocking price. The supermarkets between them have driven milk prices down so low that many dairy farmers in this country are going out of business. I get four pints of milk delivered to my door for £1.29 - an absurdly low price. The hard working, honourable, producers should get a better deal.
It is hard to bear life's injustices. How can we cope with them. It is important, as always, to think about the example of Jesus. He pleased God as no other man pleased God. At the Transfiguration of Jesus, God said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!" Mt17v5 Yet this same Jesus had nothing. He told an erst while follower, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." Luke9v58.
Jesus died a felon's death. On the cross he was stripped of his last earthly possession - his clothes. He was buried in a borrowed tomb. But that wasn't the end. Paul writes of Jesus: Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord... Phil2v9to11. So a time is coming when the righteous will receive their reward. James encourages us to: Be patient, then, brothers until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near. ..... The Judge is standing at the door! James5v7to9.
(D) Disaster is just round the next corner.See Eccles9v11to12.
I was sitting in the West Stow Country Park cafe, looking out of the window at the birds on the feeders, when a poor little blue tit that had been enjoying a tasty peanut was suddenly snatched by a predatory sparrowhawk. The life of that blue tit was changed in an instant. One moment life was as good as it can get for a blue tit - the next instant it was a sparrowhawk's lunch. That's how it is for fish: one second swimming free - the next in the fisherman's net; and for a mole ambling along its run in search of worms - then trapped.
The Teacher concludes that life is like that for us too: so men are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them. The learned, brilliant and wise do not inevitably prosper - but time and chance happen to them all.
This morning in the Daily Telegraph I read about the untimely death of three well known Americans. Dr Robert Atkins the diet guru and millionaire slipped on the pavement and hit his head. He died without recovering consciousness despite the best efforts of New York's greatest surgeons to save him. A life devoted to cheating the stomach was brought to an end by a combination of foot and skull failure. On July 20th 1984, Dr Jim Fixx, author of the 1977 bestseller, 'The Complete Book of Running', a work that effectively invented the modern craze for jogging, went for a jog in Greensboro, Vermont. He was 52. Within a minute or two, he collapsed and died of an enormous heart attack. Finally, the man who was responsible for putting lead into petrol and chlorofluorocarbons in refrigerators, Thomas Midgely, met an untimely end in 1944 at the age of 55. Thomas Midgely won all the prizes, became president of the American Chemical Society, but in middle age contracted polio. He designed an elaborate system of blocks and tackles with which to get in and out of bed. These proved his downfall. He died of strangulation, suspended above his bed tangled up in his own network of ropes and pulleys - killed by a combination of bad luck and his own ingenuity.
Disaster can befall us at any time. What is frightening is the sheer randomness of it. There is no rhyme or reason to it. So, once again, what is the Christian's response? First of all we should heed James' warning about taking life for granted. See James4v13to15. We don't know what the future holds and we should acknowledge that we are subject to the Lord's will.
Christians live by faith in Jesus Christ. He said, "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny. Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your father. .... So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." Mt10v29. My dear old father, whom life did not treat very fairly, (See An Eulogy) used to quote frequently in prayer from Samuel Medley's little hymn:
God shall alone the refuge be
And comfort of my mind;
Too wise to be mistaken, He
Too good to be unkind
Though I cannot His goings see,
Nor all his footsteps find:
Too wise to be mistaken, He,
Too good to be unkind
Hereafter He will make me known
And I shall surely find,
He was too wise to err, and O
Too good to be unkind!
My long-standing friend and fellow elder, Edward, who has also had many disappointments and sorrows in life, quotes from John Ryland's hymn in his public prayers:
Plagues and deaths around me fly
Till He bids, I cannot die;
Not a single shaft can hit,
Till the God of love sees fit.
(E) Success is not always based on merit.
The Teacher acknowledges, and how true it is, that: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favour to the learned.
Success in this life depends upon the judgment of others. Unfortunately the judgment of men is suspect because they have planks in their eye - the planks of bias, prejudice, ignorance and self-love. I can think of no better example of this than the case of Van Goth. In his lifetime he sold one painting and died penniless. Those who thought they knew best had the plank of prejudice or ignorance in their eye. I shall never forget standing in the National Gallery before a painting of a meadow by Van Goth. It was simply a painting of grass studded by small wild flowers. It was a work of genius even to my untrained eye. Yet Van Goth never received the plaudits of men. His brilliance never earned him wealth and favour.
A few days before a parent-teachers meeting a rather wizened youth of elderly appearance and limited intelligence came to my desk and said, "My dad said I was to make an appointment with that rough speaking teacher. I s'pose that's you." I thought that was rich as his dad was a Suffolk pigman and very rough speaking himself. However, I must admit that I am rough speaking - with a broad accent and a brusque delivery. It hasn't stood me in good stead - except amongst Suffolk pigmen!
My memory of the incident is beginning to fade, but when I was a post graduate at the London Institute of Education I took part in a debating competition. I proposed the motion, 'A woman's place is in the home.' I spoke with wit. The audience laughed a lot and my speech ended in very warm applause. I received no commendation from the three academics who judged the contest and my team lost. As I left the auditorium the chairman of the debate, himself an academic, whispered in my ear, "I think they were mistaken." I have no doubt the judges were put off by my accent, rumbustious style and abrasive personality. This led them to discount the verdict of the audience! They had the plank of prejudice or bias in their eye.
Rejection is hard to bear especially when you believe you deserve better. The Corinthian church rejected the Apostle Paul. Some said, "His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing." 2Cor10v10. Paul did not find this easy to cope with. He spends several chapters at the end of his second epistle to the Corinthians defending himself. He feels guilty about doing this and writes: I have made a fool of myself, but you drove me to it. 2Cor12v11. Paul is very upset by the Corinthian Christian's attitude to him: I ought to have been commended by you, for I am not in the least inferior to the "super-apostles", even though I am nothing. The things that mark an apostle - signs, wonders and miracles - were done among you with great perseverance. How were you inferior to the other churches, except that I was never a burden to you? Forgive me this wrong! 2Cor12v11to13. There is a lot of pain in these comments - even bitterness. Paul, along with a lot of other small, bald and unimpressive men, responded badly to rejection.
When I feel rejected I take comfort from thinking about Jesus. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. John1v10and11. No one has been so undeservedly despised and rejected as Jesus. The wonderful thing is that he did not let it embitter him. He was able to rise above it because he had complete confidence in his Father in heaven. That confidence was triumphantly vindicated. It was because Jesus became obedient unto death and went as a lamb to the slaughter that God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. AV. Phil2v9to10.
Faith in God is the only means by which we can cope with rejection and follow Paul's advice, rather than his example: Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Rom12v21.
(F) Good work is not always recognised, rewarded or remembered. See Eccles9v13to16.
I think this passage is one of the saddest in the Bible. No one remembered the poor wise man who delivered his city by his wisdom. His saving work was forgotten.
At the end of the 16th century an English adventurer, James Lancaster, discovered a cure for scurvy. He gave his crew three spoonfuls of lemon juice every morning and by this means banished the disease from his ship. Unfortunately Lancaster's cure was quickly forgotten and scurvy was to remain a blight amongst seaman for another 160 years. What a tragedy - a saving work was forgotten.
Galileo is often credited with inventing the telescope. He certainly publicised the invention and greatly profited from it. He actually got the idea from a Dutch spectacle-maker named Hans Lippershey. Galileo is remembered today whereas Hans Lippershey is all but forgotten.
In October I was travelling along the M11 to play hockey. We got held up in a traffic jam. The delay meant that I was able to enjoy the gorgeous riot of autumn colours displayed by the shrubs and bushes planted beside the motorway. Some unknown landscape designer had planned this spectacular, rich, tapestry of many hues. What a contrast to the publicity some modern artists get for their tawdry, disgusting and crude creations. The anonymous landscape designer has given so much more real pleasure than those charlatans paid high prices for sordid rubbish of no aesthetic value. That has to be the unsung heroes consolation and reward.
The Christian knows that, whether his efforts are acknowledge or not by his peers, the important thing is to make the most of his opportunities for doing good work. We believe that Jesus will say to all those who have made the most of their opportunities, "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things. Come and share your Master's happiness." Mt25v21.
(G) What's the point - we all die anyway! See Eccles9v1to6.
This passage has little in common with Christian belief. The teacher concludes that the good man is no better off than the bad because the same destiny overtakes all - death. This is a great evil and the ultimate unfairness. Only the living have hope - even a live dog is better than a dead lion!
So the teacher concludes that the dead know nothing and they have no further reward. The best thing to do is to work hard and enjoy life now because you only live once. Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favours what you do. v7.
This is precisely the view of millions who live in Britain today: this life is everything; you only live once; enjoy it while you can and prolong it at all costs. Death is the great demotivating disaster.
Jesus the Lion of Judah died - was he no better dead than a live dog - a jackal like Herod? Jesus life was very short. He died aged 34. The world would conclude that his premature death was the ultimate tragedy. Yet Jesus triumphed in death because both his life and his death were in the will of God. That is where we must be! It does not matter how long or short our lives so long as they are lived in the will of God. Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." John11v25. It is just not true that the dead know nothing; they have no further reward and even the memory of them is forgotten. Christians have a glorious part in the return of Jesus to this world because on that day they will be resurrected to join him and to enter in to the life he has promised.
(H) Conclusion.
In spite of knowing the truth we Christians can sometimes succumb to self pity if we feel that life hasn't treated us very fairly. On Easter Monday I went out walking by myself. I had no one else to walk with! As I trudged along a narrow footpath I turned a corner and was confronted by a very large black Alsatian. It was out walking with a very glamorous young couple. The girl ran back along the footpath calling out the name of her dog. It sprung round and bounded after her. She then bent down and hung on to the Alsatian's neck thereby allowing me to proceed safely on my way. The girl was quick witted, lively and very pretty. I thought: 'It's almost worth being an Alsatian to get a hug like that.' I also began to feel a little sad. I had never been out for a walk with such a lovely girl and now never would. But then I thought: 'It is a gorgeous spring day and I am fit and well and able to enjoy it; I am enjoying it - the trees just coming into leaf are so beautiful; indeed, I am more than enjoying it - I am ecstatic with the joy of it.' So I began to count my many blessings. I have often been spared heartache by singing quietly to myself the chorus I learned with Mrs Ada Pawsey in the Brockley Sunday School:
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your blessings, see what God hath done;
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.
ANY COMMENTS FOR JOHN REED: E-mail jfmreed@talktalk.net
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