The Evil Eye
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Welcome back. After last weeks shocking revelation that three of the most beloved parables are not what you may think, I am glad you returned for more.
If you have missed the messages are were snoozing. Over the last three weeks I have said that against all odds, a group of Jewish blasphemers and recent convicts by Jewish law, somehow started a movement so powerful that nothing anyone could do could stop it. Listen, they had no buildings, no military, no political authority but despite all the odds being stacked against them there movement took the world like a fire to dry hay in west Texas. There movement was so powerful it made ruler, actually generations of rulers, from the most powerful Empire in the Rome sit up, pay-attention and feel threatened by this movement. The people who had biggest buildings, largest military, and most influential political machine in the world were threatened by a group that had none of this. They had short stories or what we call parables.
Soren Kierkegaard said, “Parables conceal in order to reveal.” The best definition of a parable that I can give you is that it is what you need to hear but don’t want to hear. These early Jewish followers of the Messiah set the world on fire with parables, the short stories of Yeshua.
Today’s short story deals with a nasty topic.
ENVY if envy had a small it would be porto-potty at a summer music festival, if it had a color, yeah porta-potty color. If it had a sound it would be that sound of somebody throwing up inside of a porta-potty.
Here is the thing about envy we all do it. I am going to go ahead and just have a terrible confession right now. I coached baseball for my son. And, I had a terrible internal habit. My son is good at baseball but just not the best at baseball. Here is my porta-potty, ugly confession. You see there would be times my son would strike out. I hated that. A strike out leaves a mark on a player that is toxic like when you break a mirror and get seven years bad luck. Two strike outs 14 years bad luck! Ugh..Now there were times when another player struck out, I would be secretly happy. Ha! Seven year curse on on you!! Ooops, I mean, you will get them next tiger!
That is the ugly thing about envy. Envy is a deeply private but destructive form of covetousness. It was Aquinas who provided a famous definition of envy when he suggested it is “sorrow at another’s gain and joy at another’s loss.”
The Land of Est.
The Smartest
The Cutest
The Wealthiest
The Sexiest
The Conservative-est
The Liberal-est
When you are living in the land of “est” and feasting on envy you will do and make some of the most stupid decisions.
Envy Trap:
There’s no win in comparison.
Debt
Trap:
Diet
Date
Ghosting
Debt: you have debt because you spent too long staring at someone else’s lifestyle
Dieting: you are dieting yourself to debt trying to look like someone you don’t look life and spouse.
Dating you are dating yourself to death.
Ghosting yourself death by ending every good relationship you have
Driving somebody crazy.
Driving yourself crazy.
Psychologist will tell you there is a difference between
Admiration
Benign Envy
Malicious Envy
“When we admire someone, we do so from a distance. When we have benign envy, it is a driver for change for the better, but malicious envy is about pulling down another person, you want their downfall, you want their advantage.” - Maria Konnikova
I would say, and most, would agree that there are three factors that must be in place for envy:
Relevance
Similarity
Proximity
The first is relevance: an envied advantage must be meaningful to us personally. A ballerina’s beautiful dance is unlikely to cause envy in me as a Rabbi, unless I once had professional dancing aspirations of my own. The second is similarity: an envied person must be comparable to us. Even though we’re both Rabbis, I’m unlikely to envy Rabbi Paul of Tarsus. The third is proximity: an envied person must be close enough to me that I can smell that new car smell on them. I am unlikely to be envious of someone in New York, or even a neighbor I don’t know, but the neighbor I do know, who is of similar age, similar life experience, similar career, that I am close to that person will be the one I envy.
Here is the point: Envy happens in some of our closest and most important relationships.
I think
Admiration
Benign Envy
Envy is a no win proposition I saw people determining where they were based on where everyone else around them is at.
Malicious Envy
I think admiration is a positive emotion but not helpful. Admiration can be a pleasant feeling, in large part because we think of the people we admire as being unlike ourselves. I really admire them but they seem like they are in a category that is different than me.
I think benign envy is a painful emotion but a positive one that spurns us on to want to do better. It is what the Bible calls “Godly jealousy.” When I see other 40 something rabbis and pastors doing much better than me, it pains me to want to do better, to try harder, and to lean in harder to the point of almost falling over.
But malicious envy well it is dangerous. And out of all the vices that Yeshua could have chosen from, malicious envy is the one he believes poses the greatest threat to the community of the Kingdom of God.
It is not wrong to want to, to try to run at the pace of the people you have godly jealousy towards. Here is what is wrong, to hate the success your neighbor experiences. To think advantage is only advantage when it is to your advantage.
Ha-Foke-Bah
Ha-Foke-Bah
De-Cola-Bah
Ha-Foke-Bah
Ha-Foke-Bah
Mashiach-Bah
Turn-it and turn-it, all you need is in it.
Turn-it and turn-it, the Messiah is in it.
We are in a section of Matthew that I would call the
The Rabbi teaches His Disciples up to Jerusalem.
Context 1 SLIDE
Context 2 Chiasm Slide
Here is the point, this whole section is about how Yeshua is reversing this world’s values and the short story of the Workers in the Vineyard is the key.
Historically this short story has been more abused than any of the others.
Allegory
Anti-Judaism
Anti-Semitism
Abused by allegorical interpretations. The idea was that the first called were the early patriarchs and the last were the gentiles. Anti-judaism said the first called represent legalistic Pharisees who hated the free offer of grace to the Gentiles. Thus the parable is all about getting saved. But, in the short stories of Yeshua
Yeshua is more concerned with how you love your neighbor than how you get to heaven.
Allegory
Anti-Judaism
Anti-Semitism
The anti-semitic interpretation took it further and said all Jewish people complain and hate the love God has for the gentiles.
John Wesley said, “The primary purpose of the parable is to show, that most of the Jews would be rejected, and many of the Gentiles accepted.”
“The Jews are getting what they deserve in this parable. They were always greedy, treated people harshly and it only fitting that the Master of the Vineyard would now do the same to them.”
David Buttrick, I am summing up what he said, said, “If your interpretation of this parable requires allegory, anti-judaism, or anti-semitism then you may be shocked to find you are the very audience this short story was intended to correct.”
Not about Salvation
Not about Rejection
Its about Comparison
It is asking the disciples, thats context, and us a powerful question:
How do you you respond when the people you know become as successful as you with 90% less effort and work?
“For the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household, who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.
Matthew 20:1
Kingdom of Heaven - this is Matthew’s reverential way of referring to the Kingdom of God. In today’s speak, we would call it the messianic age. This is a time that is already/but not yet. When Yeshua is speaking about the Kingdom of Heaven in Matthew he is almost always speaking about “life in the community of the Kingdom.
Master of a household - right away we bump into a problem with this word. People see the word “Master” and “Vineyard” and automatically think “okay” this must be God or the Messiah. But, Yeshua never makes this explicit. That might be part of the beauty of this short story. He might just be the figure of a Employer or maybe he in some way reflects Yeshua’s values. He leaves that up to us.
And after agreeing with the workers for the standard wage, he sent them into his vineyard. When it was about nine o’clock in the morning, he went out again and saw others standing around in the marketplace without work. He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and I will give you whatever is right.’ So they went. When he went out again about noon and three o’clock that afternoon, he did the same thing.
Matthew 20:2-
Reason for Not Thinking This is God: The master of this household seems to have no idea how many workers he really needs. Anyone who manages a vineyard or farm. Or, he does not know if he wants all of it harvested in a week by a small crew or harvested in a day by a large crew.
Sequence of Hirings: Early morning sun-up, 9am, 12pm, 3pm.
At this point, the short story presents nothing shocking at least to 1st century Jewish ears.
That is about to change.
And about five o’clock that afternoon he went out and found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why are you standing here all day without work?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go and work in the vineyard too.’
And about five o’clock that afternoon he went out and found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why are you standing here all day without work?’
Matthew 20:
He now goes out at the close of the day. You know that part of the day where you really are struggling to keep on working. This is your daydream time, secretly check twitter and pinterest time.
The State of the Last Hired
Standing Around - The TLV gets this wrong it says they were idle. That is not the case. They are there standing where people stand as day laborers to get jobs but no one is picking them for the jobs (example of today’s day laborers).
Question: Why questions are questions of motive.
Answer: Want to Work But No One Will Hire Them
The Response: Crazy Kind. This would have seemed a little bit out of the ordinary for most people.
“Now when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning from the last to the first.’
Matthew 2
Last to First: now things are really starting to take a turn for the worst at least for those who have been working all day. Describe
But, it is still, a forgivable offense.
The only advantage they have, the only thing to be envious of is that they got to skip to the front of the line. Now, I can tell you, that can be something to be envious of, story of Disney World.
When those hired about five o’clock came, each received a full day’s pay.And when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more. But each one also received the standard wage.
Matthew 20
Full Day’s Pay: One denarius was the average daily wage for a day laborer. It was subsistence pay at best. Usual estimates are that an adult in ancient Israel needed about half a denarius a day to live and that an income of 200 denarii per year marked the poverty line. This would hardly keep a family of four from going under or having to acquire some kind of debt. What I am trying to say is that this not necessarily a radically generous amount of money.
We think the Scandal: This may be a living wage but it is not a just wage.
The Real Scandal: The laborers should have been happy about the good fortune of their coworkers who, because of the generosity of the landowner, would now have enough for their families.
“But when they received it, they began to grumble against the master of the house, saying, ‘These last guys did one hour, and you’ve made them equal to us, who bore the burden and scorching heat of the day!’
Complaint: This an accurate representation of reality. They bore the burden of 12 hours of labor for a denarius and the other guy only worked 1 hour. For most of us injustice is what happens to our disadvantage, while what happens to our advantage well call justice.
Anger: The master’s goodness has become the occasion for their anger.
Envy: The first hired or envious that the last hired have a living wage with less effort. They should rejoice and that is why they are in the wrong.
“But answering, he said to one of them, ‘Friend, I’m doing you no wrong. Didn’t you agree with me on a denarius?
Take what is yours and go. But I want to give this last guy the same as you.
Am I not permitted to do what I want with what belongs to me? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’
Matthew 20:13-
Friend: This is not a positive term in the Gospels. When Yeshua calls someone “friend” not good.
Hierarchy: Your not the boss of me, I am the boss of you and I have not treated you unfairly, I have given you what you and I agreed upon.
Evil Eye: Talk about the Jewish background of this word (sight inspired by Satan) but it is the right way to speak about the controlling influence of envy. You see the world as being about you.
Malicious Envy: The only advantage that feels goos is when it is to your advantage.
The problem in the parable is not with salvation, not with law verses grace, or jews versus christians; the problem is about how the first ones hired have broken their own sense of community through envy.
Illustrate: You seem full of pride.
Illustrate: I was so mad at you because…I had hoped this would happen.
Malicious Envy is
a painful feeling
has a corrosive effect
leads to destruction
and takes us on a path we wish we hadn’t taken.
The parable offers us no moral cure, no answer it just says
Am I not permitted to do what I want with what belongs to me? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’
“So the last will be first, and the first last.”
“So the last will be first, and the first last.”
He just gives us a line in the sand, a door, either walk thru it or turn away from it.
God’s goodness will be contrary to human expectations. Implicit as well is that malicious envy – displeasure at someone else’s success – is toxin to God’s kingdom family.
You know where this shows up in your life? Everywhere! Sadly, our western culture has trained us to embrace malicious envy as a value. Someone is doing well, try them as guilty, slander their success. When you are doing well, take a selfie, have a party.
We have codified envy in the workplace. There are