Envy The Unholy Complaint

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.