Rev. Dr. M. Taylor Bach

Genesis 37:3-11 Luke 9:46-48

Two businessmen built stores across the street from each other. They sold the same products and every time one got a customer, that one would go to the big picture window in front of his store and smile triumphantly at the other man who did not have that customer. So there was a great rivalry that grew up between them. One night while they were asleep, an angel appeared to one of them. The angel said, “I am going to grant you your request. There is only one catch to it. Whatever you request that I grant, I will double that for your rival across the street. So if you want good health, I will grant you good health. But the man across the street will get double the good health. If you want business success, I'll grant you business success. But the man across the street will get double your success.” The man thought about it and thought about it and he finally said, “Make me blind in one eye.” Jealousy.

The scripture this morning is about jealousy or envy. We've talked a little bit about this in the past several weeks since I am covering Biblical stories - when I talked about Joseph and his brothers. This morning we got the full story in the scripture that Jill read, where we heard the story of Joseph's father liking him the best of all the brothers, making him a gorgeous multi-colored coat and the other brothers didn't get one. So they were, the Bible says, “hating him.” But another way to look at that would be to say they were jealous of him. He got the attention. He was the favorite son. As the story goes, the brothers sought to destroy him. They first thought they would throw him in a pit and then they discovered they could sell him as a slave. That is what they did and never dreamed that someday they would be beholding to him and that he would be over the entire economy of Egypt. When there was a famine, they would have to approach him and beg for food from him that they might buy the food from the Egyptians. As you remember, as the story is completed, Joseph forgave them. As a result, he saw to it that they got new land that was fertile and that he honored his father and his brothers and they were saved because of his generosity and forgiveness.

The problem of jealousy shows up in lots of different ways. There is another Biblical story that is quite graphic of this. It is the competition or rivalry between Saul, the king of Israel, and David, the young upstart warrior. Remember David killed a lion with his bare hands and then he went and defeated Goliath, the enemy giant, with a single shot from a sling shot. He was able to knock down the giant and cut off his head. People began to look upon David as a savior and when both Saul and David came into town, ten thousands of people would line the road to see David. When the king came into a town, a thousand or two came and lined the roads. Saul became quite jealous of David's popularity. In fact, he was so jealous that he created within himself a murderous rage towards David, pursued him to kill him thinking, “Well, if I get rid of him, I will no longer have a rival to my throne.” One of the interesting events that occurred in this section of the Bible was when David escaped and was hiding in a cave. Saul came looking for him and stood near by the cave. David snuck out when Saul had his back to him, cut off part of the king's cloak, went back into the cave and hid and wasn't discovered. Then later when his life was in danger, he brought out this piece of cloak, and King Saul, out of guilt, didn't kill David because he knew that David had spared his life at a time when David could have taken it. But David had respect for the king. He wasn't a jealous type of person. Saul was not as morally developed.

We have these stories in the Bible illustrating jealousy and envy and are aware that it's quite easy for people to be jealous and envious of one another. Ben Franklin, one of the Father's of our country, said, “The problem is with our eyes. If I didn't have eyes, I wouldn't want the best looking furniture. I wouldn't want the best looking house.” There is some truth to that. If we didn't see what other people had, perhaps we wouldn't want what they had. Apparently, this has been such a problem throughout history that God made it one of the Ten Commandments. In fact, the tenth commandment says, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thy neighbor's wife, thy neighbor's ox or donkey.” Apparently, coveting is wanting what the other person has, a form of jealousy, a form of desiring to look better than the other or something like that.

Have you ever noticed in our society that we talk about or “stroke” people who fail more profoundly than we compliment or praise people who succeed? One minister made the comment that it is easier to weep with a person who weeps than it is to rejoice with a person who rejoices. There is almost something innate in us to be glad about people who are worse off than we than to support a person who does something better than we do. It is a struggle within all of us. Somehow we have to get the idea that your success, your possessions, takes nothing away from me in God's eyes. Whatever you have is not a reflection on me. And if you are highly successful in something, I ought to be able to celebrate that with you and rejoice with you and realize that in God's eyes, that takes nothing away from me or what I can be successful at. The basic root cause of jealousy is the belief deep inside that I am not enough, that somehow I am not enough to keep you. I am not enough to get your attention. But most of all, I am not enough in God's eyes. Once we register that in God's eyes, I am enough, jealousy ceases. The Gospel that Jill read says that quite profoundly, that the person who is least, God considers first. So if we somehow have grown up with an inferiority complex, we need to register how God views us and see ourselves through God's eyes.

There is an interesting exercise I used to do with some of my counselees. I would have them fantasize that they were walking into a beautiful church and came up and sat in the very first pew. Then Jesus would walk out carrying with him a folding chair. He would sit on the folding chair in front of them. They could look at Jesus face to face, very close, perhaps only five feet away. As they looked at Jesus, they somehow are able to begin to see themselves through His eyes and see themselves as He sees them as if their mind became one with His. As I would lead a person through this exercise, we would then discover that Jesus was identifying their gifts, identifying their talents, showing them their loveableness, and if He found guilt in them, He was forgiving it. If He found sin in them, He was confronting it but He wasn't condemning them but requiring them to change. And He was loving them intensely. Then I would have the person go back and feel this acceptance by Jesus, the same acceptance that He gave the woman who was caught in adultery, that He gave to Peter after Peter had denied Him three times - this same acceptance, this same affirmation that they are enough even though they sinned, even though they were less than or lacked something someone else had, and He loved them and He loved them intensely, so intensely in fact, that He was willing to give His life for that person. That is the same thing I would have you register, too, that He loves you so intensely. He finds in you that which is loveable about you. And God the Father having Christ dwell within you through the power of the Holy Spirit, loves you, too, intensely. In Christ, you are enough. So if you grew up with the notion that “I'll never be enough” perhaps because you couldn't please a parent or couldn't please a teacher or someone who was an authority figure when you were little, I want you to register right now that in God's eyes, you are enough. So there is never a reason to be jealous. Yes, other people may have more possessions. So what? You are enough in God's eyes. Other people may have a more prestigious position. So what? You are enough in God's eyes. Other people may have a better personality. So what? You are enough in God's eyes. The key to this is to learn to be enough in your own eyes.