Ecclesiastes 7:1-13

This is a passage written by a man who is tired.  This is a man who is tired of life.  This is a man who is tired of sin.  This is a man who is tired of the wickedness and the injustice of the world.  This is a man who has tried to be wise and tried to be good and tried to be just, but who has found out that it cannot be done.

Who can really blame this man for his despair?  Who hasn’t felt the pull of despair or the tickle of such dark cynicism?  Who hasn’t at times found it more comfortable to live in the house of sorrowful mourning rather than joyful feasting?  Who hasn’t at times wallowed in black thoughts and feelings?  Who hasn’t tried to keep God’s Law and failed?  Who hasn’t tried to be wise for wisdom’s sake alone?  Who hasn’t felt more comforted in sorrow than laughter?  Who doesn’t feel passionate frustration at the cruelty of the oppression of the weak?  Who hasn’t felt utter frustration at the laughter and tomfoolery of fools?

Still, even more depressing, we are more often than not the fools!  We laugh at our stupidity when we should mourn over our sin.  We oppress and we bribe.  We would rather hear the songs of fellow fools rather than feel the stinging rebukes of the wise and just.  We’re proud people with proud spirits and we don’t want to think about our own mortality nor consider or immorality.  We are impatient and selfish.  We are discontent with our own lives, always looking back into the past or selfishly looking into the future, hoping for what we alone want.  We dwell in the house of mirth, unaware of our foolishness and not caring.

Surely such a reality should drive us to madness!  What depression we should naturally feel when forced to see the blackness of our own hearts!  We try and try to be wise and be good and holy but we can’t, won’t and to try only drives us to despair.

Thanks be to God for Christ!  In Christ our hearts are made new and our sins are forgiven.  We are given hearts of flesh to replace those dead hearts of stone.  Although we still sin we know our sins are forgiven and covered by the blood of Christ.  We once wanted only to engage in our wickedness and now we desperately want to be like Jesus.  In Christ death is defeated!  We now are free to laugh and enjoy what God has given us!  We need not despair over our sin because Christ died for us!  We need not try to keep God’s Law to save ourselves because Christ kept it perfectly and in Him we are made righteous.  What love, what Grace, what Mercy!