This is
the second week of our sermon series “A Time for Everything”, looking at the
third chapter of Ecclesiastes. Last week, we talked about a time for love
and a time for hate. This week, we look at a different subject.
Ecclesiastes says there is a time to search and a time to give up.
Giving up is not really something we
value very much. We never want to give up. After all, to give up is
to admit defeat. To give up is to say we cannot have what we want to
have, we cannot do what we want to do. To give up is to quit.
Nobody wants to be a quitter. Nobody even wants to be called a
quitter. We don’t really have a whole lot of respect for someone who
gives up.
And in fact, the Bible does not show
a whole of respect for people who give up, either. Jesus told all kinds
of stories about how we should not give up, how we will be rewarded for not
giving up. He told a story about a widow who went to an unjust judge day
after day after day, demanding justice. The judge could not have cared
less about what the widow wanted. He kept shoving her aside, pushing her
away, telling her to get lost. And yet, she kept coming back, day after
day after day, until finally the judge did what she wanted just to get rid of
her.
Jesus told a story about a man who
had a hundred sheep and lost one. He went after that sheep, searching and
searching until he found it, and then he called all his friends and wanted them
to celebrate with him. Jesus told a similar story about a woman who had
ten coins and lost one. She swept the house, looking in every corner,
under every piece of furniture, until she found that coin, and then she called
all her friends and wanted them to celebrate with her.
All these stories about not giving
up. In Galatians, Paul writes about how important it is as Christians
that we not give up. He says that at the proper time we will reap a
harvest, a harvest for God, if we just don’t give up.
I am not familiar with one story in
the Bible where someone gave up and quit and got rewarded for it. And
yet, here’s the writer of Ecclesiastes saying there’s a time to search, but
there’s also a time to give up. And as you heard, and as we talked about
last week, the writer says that God has made everything, including giving up,
beautiful in its time. So when is the time to give up?
Well, there’s an old saying.
I’m sure a lot of you have heard it before. The saying goes,
“You’ll always find something in the last place you look.” And, of
course, there’s a reason why that’s true. You always find something in
the last place you look because once you find it, you don’t look in any more
places, right? There’s no point. Why would you keep looking for something
after you found it? Once we find what we’re looking for, we can give up
and stop looking.
And that brings us to our reading
from Matthew. The “John” who’s referred to in that reading is the man
we’ve come to know as John the Baptist. John, of course, had been preparing
the way for the Messiah. He had been telling everyone who’d listen, and
some people who would not listen, that the Messiah, the Savior, was coming.
But at this point, John the Baptist had made some powerful enemies, and
he’d been thrown in prison.
But he’d heard stories about Jesus.
And, of course, he’d baptized Jesus, and had heard the voice from heaven
saying “This is my son, with whom I am well-pleased.”
John thought Jesus was the one.
But he’d been searching so long, and waiting so long, that he wanted to
be sure. So he sent some people to Jesus and asked him. Are you the
one, Jesus? Are you the Messiah? Can I give up my search now,
because I’ve found what I was looking for?
Of course, Jesus did not come out
and say, “Yep, I’m the Messiah.” That was not his style. He simply
told them to tell John what they’d heard him say and seen him do. He knew
that if John knew what he’d said and done, John would know that Jesus was the
Messiah. He’d know that he could give up his search, because he had,
indeed, found the one he was looking for.
You know, the reason that old saying
about finding something in the last place you look sounds kind of funny to us
is that it seems obvious. Of course, once you find something, you stop
looking. And yet…
There were plenty of people in
Jesus’ time who did not get it. The Pharisees did not get it. The
Sadducees did not get it. The scribes, the teachers of the law, they all
did not get it. You know, they were searching for the Messiah, too.
And they were sincere about it. They really did want to find the
Messiah.
They wanted to find the Messiah just as much as John did.
And they knew the signs to look for, just like John did. And they
heard what Jesus said, they saw what Jesus did.
They had found what they were looking for, just like John had.
They had found the Messiah. Their search was over. It was
time to give up.
And they did not realize it. They did not realize the time
for searching was over, and the time to give up had come. And because they
did not realize it, they missed out. They missed out on the incredible
joy they could’ve had from knowing their salvation had come.
When we study the Bible, and we think about the things that people
like the Pharisees and the Sadducees did to Jesus, we sometimes think of them
as the bad guys. And in the context of the crucifixion of Jesus, I guess
they are. But when I think about it this way, I really kind of feel sorry
for them. I mean, can you imagine it? Can you imagine searching for
something your whole life, wanting it more than anything else in the world, and
then finding it, but not recognizing it when you found it? Going on
searching, looking here, looking there, looking high and low and everywhere
in-between, when the thing you wanted so desperately was right in front of your
nose? What a sad thing that would be.
And yet, how many of us do that now? How many people are
there who are looking everywhere for their salvation and for their happiness?
We look to the government, we look to power, we look to money or
possessions, we look to food or alcohol or drugs, we look in all kinds of
places. We so desperately want our salvation, and we so desperately want
to be happy, and we search here and there and everywhere for that salvation and
for that happiness, and we don’t recognize that the time has come for us to
give up our search, because the thing we want is right in front of us.
Our salvation and our happiness, is right there, right in front of our
noses. And we don’t see it. What a sad thing that is.
And please don’t think I’m talking about people outside the church
when I say this. I’m including people outside the church, but I’m
including people inside the church, too. I’m including all of us.
I’m most definitely and specifically including me. We are all
susceptible to doing this. We say we have faith in Jesus. We say we
believe. And to an extent, maybe we do. And yet, we keep looking in
other places for our happiness. We keep looking other places for our
salvation. We don’t see that it’s time to give up the search. We
don’t see that what we’ve been searching for is right here in front of us, and
has been all along.
Now, I don’t want to give the wrong impression. I’m not
saying that if we just accept Jesus as our Savior, all our problems will be
over. You all know better than that,
especially given the events of the last week or two around here. And besides, I know, and I’ve said this many
times, that each person here is fighting some sort of a battle. Each
person here has something going on in their lives that is really hard to deal
with. Maybe lots of people know about it. Maybe only a few people
know about it. Maybe nobody knows about it. But it’s there.
And it’s serious. And it’s not going away just because we put our
faith in Jesus.
But it will be better. It will be easier. Because we
will know we’re not fighting the battle alone. We’ll know that we have
God with us. We’ll know that God will guide us. We’ll know that God
will give us strength when we need it, will give us courage when we need it,
will give us comfort when we need it, and will give us love when we need it.
And we’ll know that God will give us forgiveness and salvation when we
need it. We don’t need to look elsewhere for help. We don’t need to
be searching. We can give up the search. God will give us the help
we need.
There is a time to search. But when we find what we’ve been
searching for, it’s time to give up. The Messiah is here. Our
salvation has come. We don’t need to search for it any more. We can
give up the search, because it’s right here in front of us. In the last
place we’ve looked.
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