Not in Vain: How Ecclesiastes Points Us to Christ
"Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity." — Ecclesiastes 1:2 (ESV)
We all understand the weariness that comes from busyness. However, I sometimes feel just as weary wondering whether any of it matters.
Maybe you know that feeling too. You have been faithful — showing up, serving, praying, pouring yourself out — and yet life still feels like pushing against the wind. The work is real but the fruit is hidden.
I feel that a lot as I care for my disabled daughter. The days blur together and a quiet question forms underneath everything: is any of this worth it? There are many days when my soul deflates at the thought of supervising her in her daily routines yet again.
Ecclesiastes was written for this moment. Where is Jesus in this book? This has been an interesting question to ponder because it sounds so unlike any wisdom we have received. It almost seems sacrilegious at points.
So perhaps this book doesn’t necessarily tell us something directly about him but reveals how he is the only solution to this problem in life.
Questions, Questions
We tend to read Ecclesiastes as either too dark to be useful or too philosophical to be practical. What we miss is that its relentless honesty has a deeply positive purpose. The Preacher is not wallowing. He is diagnosing. And every diagnosis in Scripture points toward the same Physician.
The frustration and futility of life under the sun is not the conclusion of Ecclesiastes. It is the starting point. The book oscillates honestly between everything is vanity and nevertheless, enjoy what God gives you — because this is what faithfulness actually looks like in a fallen world. Not forced optimism. Not settled despair. Both held together, inexplicably intertwined, in the hands of a God who is above the sun even when we are not.
Two errors keep us from reading Ecclesiastes well.
First: it’s believing that frustration equals failure of faith, that a mature Christian should be above the feeling that nothing works and nothing lasts.
Ecclesiastes won’t allow this. The Preacher names the brokenness plainly and is not rebuked for it. God can handle our honesty about how broken things are. He put this book in Scripture precisely so we would have language for it.
Second, it’s treating frustration as the final verdict, settling into the under-the-sun feeling as if it is the whole story, as if nothing more can be said.
Ecclesiastes will not allow this either. The futility is meant to drive us somewhere. It is meant to surface the longings and questions we have and propel us to look for answers beyond what this world can offer.
In short, Ecclesiastes raises questions it cannot fully answer.
Answers in Christ
Sometimes it is in the desperation and futility that we begin to define what we are looking for. When something is not there, it begins to give some shape to what we need. In a sense, it’s a “reverse definition.” And the Preacher is looking for someone who will be permanent, satisfying, comforting, and hopeful.
By His grace, we have what the Preacher did not — the entire New Testament, the person and work of Christ. So perhaps one way of looking at Ecclesiastes is seeing how Jesus is the ultimate “solution” to all the questions that are raised.
While this earth will pass away, we learn that Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us that will last (John 14:2–3).
While everything the Preacher looked to for satisfaction failed him, Christ provides living water so that we will never thirst again (John 4:13–14).
While the oppressed will not find help or comfort, Jesus promises to wipe away every tear (Revelation 21:4).
Working for wealth will never satisfy but in Christ, we are told that our labor in the Lord is not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58).
We struggle with the brevity of life—here today and gone tomorrow, but with Christ, there is hope beyond the grave because He was raised on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:4).
All the Preacher could hope for was a good life here, but those in Christ will find great reward in heaven (Luke 6:23).
Like a diamond set on a dark background, Ecclesiastes points to Christ by showing him to be all that the Preacher was looking for. By highlighting the emptiness of life under the sun, Jesus demonstrates that he is the One we seek. For every void we feel, Christ reveals himself as the one who fills it.
Answers for Today
This means we live in two worlds simultaneously — in this cursed and dysfunctional world and its labors, but also in the heavenly realms with Christ. To be sure, the frustration is real.
But so is the hope. They do not cancel each other out. They are held together by the One who lived under this same sun, experienced its weariness and its fleeting joys together, and then rose from the grave to make all things new.
Because He rose, your labor is not in vain — even the tedious labor, even the invisible labor, even the labor whose fruit you will not see this side of glory. Everything done in fear of Him matters forever, even the work that feels futile.
So if you feel that void today, instead of trying to fill it with the world’s meager offerings, let it drive you to Christ instead. Let the frustration become the diagnosis that leads you to the Physician. And then keep going, steadfast, immovable, knowing that in the Lord, not one moment of faithful labor will be lost.
