Sermon Illustrations on jealousy

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Background

Coveting Yesterday and Today

Remember how you felt that Christmas when your sister opened the gift you wanted? Or when your brother got a T-bird for graduation and you got stuck with the family Nova? Fast-forward to today and ask yourself how it hits you when a co-worker gets a raise but you have done more work—or perhaps, his work?

Or when a neighbor decorates her home from an unrestricted budget and you’re gluing the peeling wallpaper back on the wall? We find ourselves kids again, pouting around the Christmas tree amid our piles of toys. There’s a reason Scripture has to command us not to covet. It’s in our (fallen) nature. It’s systemic. It’s the kneejerk reaction of jerks. If we can’t have more than others, at least we want it equal. But less than others? Uh, no.

Wayne Stiles, Waiting on God, Baker Publishing Group, 2015, pp.16-17.

The Focusing Illusion

Bestselling business author Simon Sinek gives a motivational speech called “Understand the Game,” where he mentions a study asking people if they would rather have a $400,000 house on a street where all the other houses are $100,000, or a million-dollar house on a street where all the other houses are two million dollars. People chose the $400,000 house, even though it was lower in value than the million-dollar house, because they wanted to be better than their neighbors.

…There is a theory that psychologists have described as the “focusing illusion.” This theory suggests when we compare our lives to others, we often focus on small details and assume if these small details were different, we would be happier.

For example, have you ever been having a fantastic day and then decide to scroll your feed? Suddenly, you come across another picture of Sydney. Sydney is perfect. Her hair is always perfect, her outfits are stellar, and her thighs don’t touch (which honestly just feels unhealthy), but you are jealous, so . . . whatever. Sydney is on another vacation. Greece, hashtag Mykonos. Suddenly your perfect day is spoiled. You can barely afford the Olive Garden, let alone Mykonos.

Stories

An Englishwoman, Frenchman and a Russian

Joseph Epstein tells a joke that illustrates envy’s malicious and impotent character well. Once there was an Englishwoman, a Frenchman, and a Russian:

Each [was] given a single wish by one of those genies whose almost relentless habit is to pop out of bottles. The Englishwoman says that a friend of hers has a cottage in the Cotswolds, and that she would a friend of hers has a cottage in the Cotswolds, and that she would like a similar cottage, with the addition of two extra bedrooms and a second bath and a brook running in front of it.

The Frenchman says that his best friend has a beautiful blonde mistress, and he would like such a mistress himself, but a redhead instead of a blonde and with longer legs and a bit more in the way of culture and chic.

The Russian, when asked what he would like, tells of a neighbor who has a cow that gives a vast quantity of the richest milk, which yields the heaviest cream and the purest butter. ‘I vant dat cow,” the Russian tells the genie, “dead.’

Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung, Glittering Vices: A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins and Their Remedies, Brazos Press, 2009.

Jealous Juno

In the ancient world, a place where the veil between the earthly and spiritual was easily pierced, rumors and gossip about great leaders being born of the gods, especially amongst royals, was somewhat common.

Alexander the Great of Macedonia, for instance, was often claimed to be the son of Jupiter, rather than the son of King Phillip. Alexander’s mother Olympias, who was often not on the best of terms with her royal husband, preferred to leave the matter open. Eventually, Alexander’s hubris led to him embracing these rumors of his divine origins. When word came to Olympias, she was said to respond, “Please–I don’t want to get into any trouble with Juno.”

Stuart Strachan Jr.

Analogies

Coveting Yesterday and Today

Remember how you felt that Christmas when your sister opened the gift you wanted? Or when your brother got a T-bird for graduation and you got stuck with the family Nova? Fast-forward to today and ask yourself how it hits you when a co-worker gets a raise but you have done more work—or perhaps, his work?

Or when a neighbor decorates her home from an unrestricted budget and you’re gluing the peeling wallpaper back on the wall? We find ourselves kids again, pouting around the Christmas tree amid our piles of toys. There’s a reason Scripture has to command us not to covet. It’s in our (fallen) nature. It’s systemic. It’s the kneejerk reaction of jerks. If we can’t have more than others, at least we want it equal. But less than others? Uh, no.

Wayne Stiles, Waiting on God, Baker Publishing Group, 2015, pp.16-17.