The Wounds of Coveting
Notes
Transcript
Our Old Testament lessons come this day first from Exodus 20:17:
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
From Paul’s letter to the Philippians:
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Finally, from the Gospel According to John:
The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,
“Fear not, daughter of Zion;
behold, your king is coming,
sitting on a donkey’s colt!”
His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”
As we read John’s description of the events on the first Palm Sunday, it appears as though Jesus is at the pinnacle of His power and glory. Great crowds had gathered to greet Jesus, joyfully shouting and welcoming Him as the long-awaited messianic king of Israel. The city was filled with the testimony of those who had seen Him raise Lazarus from the dead. All of this gave Jesus the kind of prestige that would make even a narcissist blush. Even his critics bemoan, “Look, the world has gone after him!” Yes, these critics are despairing; but where they also motivated by jealousy?
Coveting is seeking that which is not ours to possess; seeking the things that belong to others. It was the very first sin:
But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 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.
It is often assumed that Adam and Eve sinned when they took the fruit and ate, but if we take the Ten Commandments seriously we must identify the first sin as their desire to have the knowledge and authority that only God possess. It was not that they did not already know what was right or wrong, it was that they wanted to “be like God” and define for themselves what is right and wrong! They desired what rightly belonged to God only, this is the sin of coveting. Coveting is desiring what belongs to another.
Coveting is a sin that hardly even gets noticed. Primarily, this is because we are all doing it. How often have you desired what someone else had? If I am honest with myself, I am ashamed to admit how often this has been the case for me. I suspect that if you are honest with yourself you would not judge yourself guiltless either. We all want what someone else has.
Jesus, in contrast, did not have a problem with coveting. Jesus did not covet power and glory. These he already had before he was born. However, as St. Paul exclaimed, “he did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but he made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant.” (Philippians 2:6-7).
How far, indeed, Jesus would empty himself, even unto death on the cross! He was not anointed as a Messiah of great power, but rather we see earlier in John 12, that He was anointed as one who would die for the sins of His people (John 12:7). The crown he wore was a crown of thorns; and the purple robe of a king placed upon him was only meant to mock him (19:2), and the crowds that once shouted “Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” would soon shout the words, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” (19:6, 15).
There was no glory or power in the wounds that Jesus bore. Isaiah was correct when he prophesied:
For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
We celebrate Palm Sunday because each year it reminds us that Jesus could have take the path of worldly glory, but He choose the glory of the cross. In the same chapter as his account of Palm Sunday, John records Jesus speaking these words:
“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”
Then Jesus says,
And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
The great Reformer, Martin Luther, once observed that there were really only two types of theology: The theology of glory or the theology of the cross. One offers an easy path to worldly glory, the other offers a difficult path to heavenly glory. In our epistle lesson, Paul urges us to have “the same mind” as Jesus. We must empty ourselves of coveting and trust ourselves to God’s mercy and wisdom.
As I close this message I want to hear again the words of the Apostle Paul:
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Two thousand years ago a large crowd numbering in the thousands offered Jesus worldly praise and glory. That was the first Palm Sunday. Today, a multitude in heaven and on earth, numbering in the billions are giving Jesus true glory and praise!
Why do waste your time coveting what others have, when all things are yours in Christ Jesus? Let the amazing truth of these words sink in:
So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.
You can’t covet what you already have. By His Wounds We are Healed!
Let us pray.