Out of Envy

I read this today, from Mark in the account of Jesus' trial:


Mk 15:10 - "For he [Pilate] perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up."


Pilate sees through to the root of this sin, which is the source of all sin--the desire to be like God and the envious anger that people have toward him for being God.  Adam and Eve sinned so that they might be like God, and the devil before them fell because he resented God's power and wanted it for himself.  The chief priests envied Jesus because of his claim to deity.  You do not "envy" a schizophrenic who claims to be the President, but many have envied the President and some have tried to kill him.  This suggests that the Jewish leaders recognized Christ's deity, but instead of worshiping it made them angry.


People have made similar mistakes with the incarnation every since.  God brought himself close to us in the person of his son not so that we could see ourselves as one step closer to the satanic goal of becoming like God, but so that we would trust in he man Jesus and be saved.  It is human nature to confuse self-giving humility for weakness.  People continue to strive to assert themselves over God when they reject Jesus and try to do things on their own; as with the Jewish leaders, the humble appearance of Christ only makes them think "I could do that!"  Our human envy stirs: "Why him?  Why not me?"  And so Christ is a stumbling block to natural man.