Summary
There was a young girl who was in grade school and as they had show in tell one day, one of her friends stood up and showed a doll that was absolutely incredible and this little girl looked at that doll and she had envy. She continued in her school days and she noticed that the people around her were getting pretty good grades and they were getting praised for those grades and she got very great because she wanted the best grades she wanted to be the best and so she worked very hard and she made good projects but she also worked behind the scenes to butter up judges, to butter up teachers, to give her better grades and soon enough she was the valid Victorian of the class and she got to stand before all, pronouncing how she was the best in the class. Her parents died, her brother died, her sister soon died, her husband died and those friends won by one continued to die and she was still so proud to be the one that remained out living them all and then her children died one after the other and she realized that she had outlived them all and one day this old, aged woman she thought finally to herself, I am the best. God blessed them and God said to them be fruitful and multiply until the earth and subdue it and have a dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. God said, see I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth and every tree with seed in its root you shall have them for food and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the air and to everything that creeps on the earth everything that has the breath of life I have given every green plant for food and it was so. Adam and Eve had everything down to the fact that they bore the image of God the idea of not having enough not being enough it wasn't even a question in their mind because they had never experienced lack they had never experienced anything outside of perfection they had never experienced anything outside of the completeness of God and then the devil comes that tricky serpent and whispers into Eve's ear and raises the question of enough in her life the temptation stirs in Eve's heart and she thinks maybe what she has isn't enough maybe there's more look with me please at chapter three beginning in verse six so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise she took of its fruit and ate and she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked and they so did leave together and made loincloths for themselves eating fruit seems pretty innocent it's not a huge deal right to eat a fruit why is that really a big deal after all it looked good it seemed like it would be good to Eve was it a big deal yes it was a big deal because God had expressly forbidden it he had expressly forbidden eating of that fruit we like to judge sin and rank it some sins are worse than others some sins not so bad we can joke about it a little bit but sin is sin sin is sin all sin and sin is not determined by how you or I feel about it sin is not determined by whether we want to say something is right or wrong the whole series of acceptable sins with the big question mark it begs the question what sin is acceptable and the answer is a resounding none no sin is acceptable absolutely zero sin is acceptable even if everyone else does it sin is sin sin is wrong and sin earns the full wrath of God the Father Eve sinned when she questioned the word of God and determined for herself what would be right and good she tried to blame the serpent but the guilt lies directly on her shoulders for her own sin and just like Eve just like Eve we sin out of envy Eve envied God his wisdom Eve envied God his authority and his sovereignty and so she determined for herself that what she had the word of God was not enough and she ate of the fruit just like Eve our envy says that we what we have been given by God is not enough whether it is a matter of a material thing that God has blessed us with we see others who have more and we look at our blessing and say it's not enough out of envy we see the spouse of another person and look at our own spouse and say what God has given me in this spouse is not enough we see others who are wiser than us more talented than us more skilled than us funnyer than us and we envy because we are not enough in our envy we delight in the downfall of others when another struggles we take delight when another when another has a mishap we find little glimpses of joy or humor our envy our envy ultimately comes down to the envy we have over our own lives, over our own morality, over our own decisions that we do not hold the authority that we do not hold the ultimate wisdom that we do not hold ultimate sovereignty and we envy God we envy God and we determine for ourselves what is right and what is wrong in our gospel reading today we have that period where pilot is bringing Jesus before the Jewish people and he has a custom to turn over one of the prisoners to the Jewish people to release him and let him go free and surely he's expecting that he'll let Jesus go because as it said he knew that Jesus had been handed over by the chief priests out of envy the chief priests envy Jesus they envied the power that he had they envied the fluence that he had and they sought his downfall they sought his demise we envy God Jesus stood before the crowd in a crown of thorns and they mocked him and called for his crucifixion do you envy God in that moment they beat him and flogged him stripping away pieces of skin do you envy God they marched him through the streets holding across that he could barely carry do you still envy God they nailed him to two pieces of wood do you envy God Jesus hung there on the cross struggling for breath while those around him crucified with him taunted and tormented him the soldiers at the foot of his cross teased him mocked him while his mother and his friends stood by weeping unable to do a thing do you envy God on that cross the entire wrath of the father was poured out so heavily the burden of the sin of this world of all time all places all people thoughts words and deeds the punishment poured out upon the sun so devastating that he called out my God my God why have you forsaken me and he gave up his spirit to death do you still envy God they removed the body and buried it in a tomb Jesus had died if that had been you or I or any person to ever walk this earth the story would end there it would be done and it would be deserved and just but God God is God he is not you or I God in the second person of the Trinity Jesus Christ walked this earth to live the life that you and I cannot live he walked this earth out of his love for you and I so that when he died experiencing the full punishment unjust punishment of the father he could do what neither you nor I could do and he rose victorious he conquered death he conquered the grave he conquered your sin he conquered my sin even the sin of our envy Jesus did for you and for I what we could never do for ourselves or for anyone else from the beginning of your life of faith when you were born through waters of baptism you were born free you were born into salvation you were born into eternal forgiveness and you were born once again in the image of God and as Paul writes in Galatians it is no longer I who live but it is Christ who lives in me and in Christ you come before the father not enough in yourself but you are in Christ and in Christ you are enough because you stand redeemed in Christ and this was planned from before the beginning in Ephesians chapter one Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit writes he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love he destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure of his will to the to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the beloved in him we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us what you have my brothers and sisters is Christ there is no need to be in Christ you have forgiveness in Christ you have salvation in Christ you have life in Christ and what you have in Christ is enough and so the joy that you have in Christ is enough the peace that you have in Christ is enough the love that you have in Christ is enough and so I encourage you I encourage you to live live in Christ because not only is Christ enough Christ is everything
Video citations
- "Back to the Beginning" 3-23-25 — I want to share a story with you. There was a young girl who was in grade school and as they had show in tell one day, one of her friends stood up and showed a doll that was absolutely incredible…