Lent Midweek February 21, 2018
(The recording above isn’t very loud. The microphone wasn’t right.)
2018 Study of Envy (This file is a short study sent out in advance of the Lent midweek sermon.)
Lent Midweek
Genesis 4:1-10; 1 Corinthians 13
February 21, 2018
“Jesus vs. Envy”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Love and envy are direct opposites. Yes, love is the opposite of all sin. But love and envy have a special opposition. The object of both love and envy is the good that my neighbor has. Either I will love my neighbor and rejoice in his blessings, his joys, his faith, or whatever other good he has, or I will envy my neighbor and be sad at what he has.
Say your wife starts going to a new ladies group and she loves it and makes wonderful friends and can’t wait to go every week. If you love her you will rejoice with her and share her joy. If you envy her, you will criticize the group, talk bad about some of her new friends, and make her feel bad for having time and fun without you.
Say your friend gets a new job and is making more money than you. If you love your friend, you will rejoice with him or her and pray for their continued blessing. If you envy your friend, you will call him or her greedy, you will talk bad about their new employer, you will try to ostracize them from other friends, and you will drop lines about how much money they make so they will feel bad. Love and envy do not go together.
When there is love, all things are good. 1 Corinthians 13 reminds us of that. Love doesn’t envy. It doesn’t boast. It doesn’t rejoice at evil or wrongdoing. Love believes and endures all things. Love never ends. So let’s start then with the good picture. The picture of love.
First of all, love doesn’t have to be envious or hateful because we all know our worth and value before God. We’re all individually loved by Him. He made each one of us. He loves each one of us. He gave His Son Jesus for each and every one of us. Hence, we don’t have to compare ourselves always against others. We don’t have to play that comparison game.
We aren’t all the same before God. We’re all equal in grace to be sure. But we’re not all the same. And when we have love, that’s good and okay. I don’t have to constantly say, “I’m just as good as you are.” The truth is, I’m probably not. C.S. Lewis makes the point that no one who ever said that actually believes it.[i] We say it to try and convince ourselves it’s true. With love, it’s okay that we’re not all the same. It’s okay that women are better at being women and men are better at being men. It’s okay that you’re better at parties and your friend is better with money. This is all good when we’re loved.
Love also knows the value of everyone else around us. We know that God loves not only me, but everyone else around me. Love knows that Jesus shed His blood not just for me, but for every other sinner like me. Love also knows that God’s goods are not zero-sum. In other words, God has plenty of good to go around. If He blesses you, that doesn’t mean I should be sad that I’m not going to be blessed. I can rejoice with you because I know that God also has plenty of blessings for me. If you have three houses and I have one, that’s okay. God is good. If you are full of joy, I don’t have to resent you for it but I know God has plenty of joy also for me.
This is the greatness of love. You are loved. Your neighbor is loved. We’re not all the same and there are plenty of blessings to go around. This is good and God-pleasing. This is also the life we have in Jesus Christ. He is love. He envied no one and loved everyone. And when everyone couldn’t stand to see His joy and, in their envy, put Him to death—He prayed for their forgiveness and offered His life for them.
Now then, when there is no love, then there’s envy. Envy loves not God because we’re mad at God for not giving us what we think we deserve. Envy loves not ourselves because we’re not ever content with what we have. And hence envy loves not our neighbor because how can you love your neighbor as yourself when you don’t love yourself? With envy there can’t be any love and hence there can’t be any joy.
Cain had no joy and no love. He couldn’t stand to see his brother Abel’s joy and pleasure and faith. Instead of rejoicing with his brother, his pride led to envy which led to hatred which led to murder. He didn’t love his brother. But it was even worse than that. In his envy he didn’t love God either.
Cain shows us something that in German was called Schadenfreude. I would just tell you the word in English except we don’t have an exact word for that in English. Schadenfreude is two words pushed together, harm and joy. It is joy at your neighbor’s harm. This is probably the ugliest side of envy.[ii] We rejoice when our neighbor falls. Cain rejoice to see his brother dead on the ground.
There are numerous examples of this. One would be Martha Stewart. How many of you were secretly, or maybe not so secretly, joyful when she was put into prison? That’s ugly envy. Schadenfreude. Why would we ever rejoice in someone else’s harm? Envy.
What about political opponents? The fact is, during the last election if either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton would have dropped dead about half of the country would have rejoiced. That’s ugly envy.
If you neighbor brought a brand new $50,000 car that you were envious of and then the first day having it he gets into an accident, you’d probably have a smile and a good laugh with your other neighbors. That’s ugly envy. Envy loves to parade itself around as good and self-righteous, but when you get down to the root of the thing it’s just plain ugly and damning. After Cain killed his brother, he has the audacity to say to God, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Well, yes, Cain you are. We are all our brothers’ keeper. And shame on us if we don’t keep him but kill him.
I don’t know if you could get any uglier than Judas. In the days before Jesus is going to die, Mary buys an expensive ointment and perfume and pours it on Jesus’ feet and wipes it with her hair. It is an act of pure love for her Savior, Jesus. But Judas can’t stand to see it. Can’t stand to see her love and devotion. So he barks, “Why didn’t you sell that and give the money to the poor?!” Judas can’t stand to see the Savior of the world loved. That’s ugly.
So is there an answer to envy? Yes, there is. Love is the answer. But not just any love—the love of Jesus Christ. It destroys envy.
Does Jesus envy us? Does Jesus want all the riches of our world? Does Jesus want all the power and glory of our world? Does He want to be a great dictator or the President of the free world? Does Jesus want a IPhone 8 and a new Lexus? Does Jesus envy our modern medicine and science?
Ha! Keep dreaming. Jesus destroys envy. He comes into the world as the least of all. And then He takes all the worst of this world, not the best, and goes to the cross to suffer under it and die. Is God envious of us? Ha! He loves us. He wants us to have the best good that we have ever been offered. Better than anything this world can offer. What God has promised to you is far, far, far greater than anything this modern world can produce. And it’s all yours because Jesus loves you and gives Himself for you.
Jesus destroys envy. Just as He loves you, you love your neighbor. Just as He wants you to have all things good, you want your neighbor to have all things good. Just as He is content and joyful in what His Father gives Him, you are content and joyful in what your Father gives you.
Love is a blessed thing. Envy is an ugly, sad thing. In fact, the original name for envy was simply “sadness”. Sadness over other people’s good. How sad.
But we have no reason for sadness. What could you and I possibly envy? God has given us a treasure that far surpasses anything we can imagine. Jesus loves you. Have joy. Have contentment. Be at peace. And look forward to a heavenly home that’s greater than anything the richest people in this world could even conceive of.
So much for envy. The love of Jesus is envy-killer.
Amen.
[i] (Kreeft, Peter. Back to Virtue: Traditional Moral Wisdom for Modern Moral Confusion. Ignatius Press, 1992, p. 124)
[ii] Willimon, William H. Sinning Like a Christian: A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins. Abingdon, 2005, p. 59.