Envy—The Unholy Complaint
2/1/09 OT Isaiah 45:5-13 Mark 10:35-45
Four kids were in the kitchen talking with each other. All of their eyes glanced by the large cookies in the glass cookie jar. There were only three cookies in the jar. All of them wanted a full cookie. What were they going to do? Talking about it in the open was not going to be an option because it meant breaking a cookie or being left out altogether. What would you do to solve this dilemma?
Each kid had decided on his or her own, that he or she would take a cookie when no one else was in the kitchen and go and eat it in secret. Janet came into the empty kitchen and got her cookie. Tasha came through the silent kitchen and got her cookie. Jamaal was so glad to come into the dark kitchen to get his cookie. David took his flashlight into the kitchen and carefully tipped over to the cookie jar, and yelled, “I’m telling Mom, “it’s not fair, somebody ate all the cookies.”
Let me ask you, is David interested in justice and fairness, or making an unholy complaint? He wanted to do exactly what the others had done, except the opportunity did not present itself. He really had wanted a cookie, and he had planned to take a cookie. But because he could not get one, he was ready to attack those who had. David was envious that they had gotten a cookie, and he had not.
Have you ever had someone not like you for no apparent reason? You never said anything one way of the other about the person, you never mistreated the person, as a matter of fact you even tried to be nice to the person but no matter what you did or did not do, the person simply did not like you. There’s a good chance that envy is at the root of the person’s problem. There is something you have that the other person wants. You may not have a clue to what it is.
Envy is one of those sins that the bible considers deadly, but we simply brush it to the side. We bring it with us to worship on Sundays. That’s why we have to sing, “As we gather, may Your Spirit work within us.” Otherwise envy will be at work each time worship begins. If someone claps louder for another soloist or if someone says, wow that was a great song. Envy whispers, “your song was just as good why didn’t he say it about you.” Someone says, “He does an outstanding job as an usher.” Envy says, ‘you do just as good as a job, why does she play favorites.” Envy resents it when someone else gets more credit, more recognition, or more results than you do. It keeps us from rejoicing with those who rejoice.
Envy can begin with very innocent sounding statements. “I wish I could sing like she does.” I use to dance like that. Then they move to accusations. “Why can’t you be more like Janet’s husband.” “It’s just not fair, I know I deserved that promotion more than she did.” “Our church works just as hard as they do, why are they growing by leaps and bounds and we’re barely growing at all.”
Envy is something I struggle with in ministry as well. “Lord, I’ve worked hard and been faithful for twenty years in this church. So why is the church that started four years ago already four times the size of our church.” How many of you can confess to there being some envy in your heart as well. Sometimes the envy very quickly fades away, and we think nothing else of it. But other times we allow the envy to take root and become jealous to the point of taking something away from the person.
What are some definitions of envy ; Webster’s Dictionary: Envy: "a feeling of antagonism towards someone because of some good which he is enjoying but which one does not have oneself. You’re upset because everything is just falling into place for them, but nothing is going the way you want it to go for you. You know they do not deserve what they’re getting.
Vine’s Theological Dictionary: "envy, is the feeling of displeasure produced by witnessing or hearing of the advantage or prosperity of others; Your no good brother who feels like work is a disease, just won the lottery. Your friend who brags about everything, just got the most handsome boyfriend you ever seen.
Dr. Gary Collins (Homemade, July, 1985): To envy is to want something which belongs to another person. In other words…ENVY is saying… "I like what you’ve got, I don’t like the fact that you have it, and I want it"!!!
The bottom line is we think we should have what the other person has, whether it’s a position, a power, an authority, a blessing, or an item. Envy says that should have happened to me, or I somehow deserved to have it happen to me. Do you see how envy goes against the spirit of Jesus Christ. Envy thinks about self, and it leads to grumbling, complaining, murmuring, gossip, and death. Envy is Satan’s tool for wreaking havoc in the body of Christ.
Envy says that everyone is to be treated at or below my level of approval and my level of success. This means, nobody should get more than I get but it’s okay to get less. The sneaky thing about envy is that it is at times hard to tell the difference between envy, selfish ambition, and seeking God’s best for our lives. This is a struggle we all will have to go through because it’s not always a black and white issue.
Peter had asked Jesus, what will we get since we have left everything to follow you. Jesus says in Matthew 19:28 (NIV) "I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. “ Notice that Jesus said, you who have followed me, will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Jesus you is inclusive of all those who give up everything to follow him, as we can see from the next verse. But what the disciples heard, was that the 12 of them would soon be sitting on twelve thrones ruling with Jesus. They are still thinking about this earthly kingdom Jesus is going to have. They have no concept at the time that Jesus is going to be killed in a few weeks.
Now they heard that Jesus was calling them to rule in this new kingdom. At what part does wanting the fulfillment of what Jesus said was going to happen begin to turn away from seeking God’s best for our lives to selfish ambition and envy. For instance if God spoke to you and said you would be a vital part of the church’s choir or of the church’s leadership team or of a company you worked for, or on a team you played for, how many of us would have heard God to say, we were going to be the super star in the choir, or get a top spot on the leadership team, or rise to prominence in position in the company, or to be the main man or woman on the team?
We can let the prophecy take its course or we can try to fulfill it with selfish ambition and envy. We retranslate God’s prophecy of vital part to mean something else. We should get the best solo parts on the best Sundays. We should be in the inner circle making decisions. We should get the promotions or best projects on the job. We should get to play the most in the game.
But what if the vital part God intended for us to play was to be a support to others to reach their goals? What if the vital part was to be a servant in the group demonstrating Jesus’ attitude? Sometimes, what we think of as vital is really putting on a show, and what we think of as lowly, God thinks is vital to the work of Christ.
There was a lady who had a vital part in preparing Jesus for his death, but she was severely criticized and sharply rebuked in front of others. All she had wanted to do was to show her love for Christ, by pouring her own perfume on Jesus. The disciples themselves started arguing, “why this waste of perfume?” It could have been sold and the money given to the poor.” Suppose the lady had said, “I want to pour a little of this perfume on each one of you twelve because I admire Jesus and how much you each love him.” How many of you think she would have gotten the same sharp rebuke?
Two of the disciples wanted to secure their spots in the twelve spots that they had heard Jesus mention. So they came to Jesus with a request. They asked it in funny sort of a way because they wanted Jesus to agree to it before they even asked. They started by saying, “Jesus we want you to do whatever we ask.” Jesus didn’t fall for that. He asked, “what is it that you want?”
They said, “Now Lord, when you start to rule in your kingdom, and we’re sitting on those twelve thrones, let one of us sit at your right hand side and the other at your left hand side.” Now are they asking for the best places to further the kingdom of God or has selfish ambition come into play? Are they seeking to serve Jesus faithfully or are they looking for places of importance for others to look at them?
Now Jesus has already taken a lot of flack and murmurings over James and John. You cannot read the gospels without recognizing that even though there were many disciples, there was a special group of 72, and out of that 72, there were a closer group of 12, and out of that twelve there was an inner group of 3 made up of Peter, James, and John.
Jesus invited those three with him on several occasions to very significant points in his life, but the other disciples were not invited to be a part of the events. They got to see him raise the little girl from the dead. They were up on the Mount of Transfiguration. They were there at Gethsemane in the garden. Don’t you know the other disciples had a problem with this?
“Hey Andrew, if Jesus takes those brothers James and John on them special trips, how come he doesn’t take you? You’re Peter’s brother.” Hey Phillip aren’t you sick of Peter, James and John always being invited to go with Jesus. They’re no better than us.” This same problem comes up in the church in which envy simply gets strife and division going. Why do they get to make decisions? How come they’re running everything? Sometimes before we criticize something, we might need to see what’s the cost for the people involved, and what’s the ministry that’s being produced. And am I willing to pay the cost that they’re paying.
James and John were seeking a level of personal self-ambition. Jesus says, there is a price to be paid for anyone who wants to get to close to me. You have to be willing to drink from the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I will undergo. These brothers did not know the cup was the crucifixion of Christ on the cross, and they did not understand that the baptism meant being in a situation of being overwhelmed with floods of suffering. They simply said, “sure we can do that.” Jesus told them, “yes you will experience them, but there are others who will also experience it and they may be the ones chosen to sit at my right and my left.
James did not know it, but in probably less than a year or two, his head would be cut off by Herod. John did not know it, but he would be severely persecuted and spend his elderly life exiled on an island for his faith in Christ. Be careful when you decide to make demands on God for your life to lift yourself up. You may be asking for more than you desire.
What do you think is going to happen when the disciples find out what James and John had asked of Jesus? The Bible says they were indignant with James and John. So they were angry and upset, not wanting to speak to these two disciples for a moment.
But still we have to ask the question, why were they so upset? Had they thought about the seats at Jesus right and his left? Were they like the kids with the cookies who all wanted the seat for themselves, but didn’t want to do it out in the open? James and John did not even get the seats, but the disciples are having a fit. Just knowing that they might have gotten them was too much for some of them to think about.
Jesus wanted to put an end to this bickering among the disciples. Jesus says look, you know what it’s like to have others trying to rule over you and dominate you. That’s not what my kingdom is like. Don’t seek to be in charge, but seek to serve. The ones among you who want to be great, must be willing to be the servant of all. Whoever wants to first, must be a slave of all. We don’t believe that Jesus was telling the truth. But He was. This is true in our homes as well as in our churches. We keep trying to measure our success by the amount of influence and control we have over others rather than by the acts of service that we give.
All of us can be great in this church if we truly wanted to, but envy keeps us from allowing it to happen. At the heart of envy is an anger toward God, because it seems to us as though God is playing favorites. God how dare you do that for them and not for us. God, How dare you treat me like this, when I have done so much for you!
God, Why on earth would you use my life in this way, when I could be making such a great impact for you over there? God why did you choose her and not me? Why did you make me look like this? Why did I have to have this family? Is there anyone here who just feels as though there are times when God just seems unfair? Envy keeps us from seeing how God has blessed us in the situation we are in. Somebody would love to be in your place and in mine.
In Our Old Testament reading God asked, does the piece of clay have the right to ask the potter, “why have you made me like this.” God is our Creator. God had a plan in mind for each of us when he fashioned us in our mother’s womb. We allow our own ambition to try and change what God’s plans may be.
When we come to Christ, we forget that we give our lives to Him and instead think, Christ is now obligated to bless whatever it is I want to do. So our contentment is not in Christ. We then find ourselves constantly comparing ourselves to each other which will always end in futility and failure, especially in the body of Christ.
That failure leads to resentment, which leads to envy, which leads to the death of the body. The bible is clear that God chooses which gifts we receive for the building of the body of Christ. The world may tell us we can be anything we want to be, but that verse is not found in the Bible. We all have a certain amount of limitations. There is also the factor of time and chance according to the bible.
That does not keep us from doing our best. It’s not just being the best. It’s am I being the best servant that Christ has called me to be, not to the world, but first to Christ. If our focus is on Christ, the world will begin to take care of itself. Can we accept that our plans, may not be God’s plans?
Can we humble ourselves to say, Lord I see the envy in me. Would your pour yourself into me, so that there is no longer any room for envy. If you want me to be such and such, I’m going to give it my best shot, but if you want me to stay right here where I am, I’ll give it my best and be content just as well. Just pour Yourself in me.
