Because of envy Mark 15

Pilate answered them, saying, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” For he was aware that the chief priests had handed Him over because of envy. Mark 15: 9-10

Ok, so I digress. This wasn't the passage of the day...further down the page in Mark is the scene of Jesus being beaten in purple robes...we will get to that. But the whole reason for what is to come is that four-letter word: ENVY.

Yesterday was the big election. The phone calls will now stop, the commercials go back to cars and banks and will now fill with Christmas ads. But the thing that drives us all crazy about all the politicking is the envy. We are brought face to face with the green-eyed monster. If we can't have it, no one can. If they have something, we want it, too. I deserve my phone, t.v., college loan, education, sports success...whatever the neighbor or neighboring town has, I want one, too, or take theirs away so I don't feel left out or lacking. They push a new gym in our town right now...and not just one that will enable the crowd to sit through a volleyball game without getting hit by the ball in the stands...they want to compete with the complexes built in the towns around here...to be able to host events like everyone else. Whether this is good or bad is not the issue. The issue is envy to one extent or another. The question isn't do we have all we NEED, it's do we have what we WANT when compared to someone else.

I struggle with envy...we all do. Why does SHE get to own a textile store and I don't? Why does she have time and money to buy whatever she wants? She doesn't deserve that awesome machine that can do the things I want to do...you get the idea.

Note that the word is envy, not jealousy. Envy is what I have described...I want what you have, and possibly feel that you don't deserve it. Jealousy is when you fear someone is taking what you have. The Jewish leaders certainly felt that, as well, when it came to the ministry of Jesus. The whole world is going after HIM was their insider's insight. We have to stop this guy from taking all our followers! But the reason they turned him over is that they envied Him. They wanted that appeal that He had with the crowds. They didn't think He deserved to be a religious leader when He obviously hadn't been to seminary like they had! He could heal and raise the dead and they couldn't, and they couldn't accept that. God appeared to be on His side, not theirs. And they couldn't handle it.

So they killed Him...they had many chanced to stone Him, to make religious charges against Him, but they pushed it off on the Romans. Jerks. But it had to happen this way to fulfill scriptures. Jesus told His disciples time and time again that this is how it had to be. But they didn't listen. I didn't, either. Not until a study in Luke a few years ago did I read over and over that Jesus told them He had to suffer at the hands of the Jews, die, and rise again! Now He told them that for 3 years. He told me for 50. Neither of us got it for the longest time!

And the end times are like this for me today. I read of what is coming and feel like Peter pulling Jesus aside and saying, “Hey, this plan of Yours. It shouldn't happen this way.” And He tells me to get with the program or get out of the way. So I reluctantly get on board and have to trust. I look at the world and I tend toward envy. The evildoers are getting their way more and more by tantrums and accusing words. We see morality spinning down the drain instead of the dirt of sin. We conservatives want that they not get their way in this world and country, and if we can't have it the right way, we won't have it at all. I can pout with the best of them. But I do not want to be envious. I want to be zealous for the things of the Lord, but know that He is in charge even of the evil that goes on. Pharoah had his way for 400 years before God acted with mighty power, and I may live a lifetime of feeling enslaved to a system that turns against me more every day. Or I can know that deliverance is coming in a great and mighty way that will prove my God is GOD. Pharoah finally had to admit it, and someday every politician, every false preacher, every con-man out there will have to admit it, too.

And I don't envy them when that day comes.