3 June 2010
Psalm 50; Eccles. 3:16-4:3; Gal. 3:1-14; Matt 14.13-21

Solomon’s view of things at this point is more or less existentialism, that things are just what they are, we are powerless to change them so we may as well just muddle through them. His conclusion so far is that there is no meaning or point in life, that we are little, if any, better off than animals. How can a man who has had so much in his life, who has been sought and praised for his wisdom, come to the conclusion that nothing matters and what if it did? One of the keys to understanding the book and his philosophy is the last verse of this passage, and the last few words of that verse, “the evil deeds that are done under the sun.” Under the sun is his way of speaking of temporal things and what happens under the sun fades and dies, we have to set our sights somewhere else to find meaning.

After hearing of the death of his cousin and the prophet who pointed to Him as Messiah, Jesus attempts to get some private space and time but the crowds follow Him. In His humanity Jesus surely needed some time to grieve and to sort out what John’s death meant for Him. He would now become the center of attention for those who were not of the Jerusalem party of the Jews and, in a less pleasant way, for those as well. Here, even in His grief, Jesus has compassion on others and accommodates their desire for healing and then for their need for food. His focus was always on others.

Paul is an extraordinary man. He spent the entire first part of his life pursuing righteousness under the law, excluding all those who were outside the covenant, non-Israelites, then spun on a dime theologically and changed everything he believed about the law and everything in the Bible. His encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus changed everything in his life. Here, he even argues that the children of Abraham are those who believe, not those who are circumcised and attempt to keep the law. He values the Spirit more highly than the law as the law is a failed enterprise as a way of getting eternal life. If our hope is in ourselves or anything else “under the sun” it is misplaced.

The mighty one, God the Lord,
speaks and summons the earth
from the rising of the sun to its setting.
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God shines forth.