The Destructive Envy Of The Pharisees

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year, A

St. Bernard Catholic Church, Cologne, MN

Sunday, March 14, 2021

Today’s Gospel is about the man born blind. In the Scripture, blindness is used as a spiritual metaphor to describe the spiritual condition of someone who is either unable or unwilling to perceive divine revelation. Blindness is a symbolism of sin. The man born blind represents all of us because in Original Sin we all have been born blind. Jesus meets the man born blind. He’s probably begging at the gate as blind people in those days would do. The disciples said to Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?” They were looking for ways to blame him. But Jesus says, “Neither he nor his parents sinned.” Rather, he will be used to manifest the glory of God. After answering his disciples’ question, Jesus approaches the blind man, spits on the ground, mixes his saliva and dust of the earth, and produces a kind of paste and restores his sight. What is significance of this? In the Book of Genesis, God fashions the first man out of the dust or clay of the earth. The Hebrew word for clay is Adamah, which is the first man’s name, Adam. Who is Jesus in this story? He is the creator God who created us from nothing. He notices in this blind man an unfinished work of creation and wants to finish it. So, he gives him vision. After restoring the man’s sight, he tells him “Go wash in the Pool of Siloam.” The man does as Jesus instructed him and was able to see for the first time. The pool reminds us of baptism. We are all baptized into Jesus Christ. Through baptism, we are brought into the life of Christ, we share in his life.

At this point, you might think that the story is over. Jesus has healed the man and gives him his sight. In fact, in John’s narrative, the story has just started. In all the Gospels, whenever Jesus does something amazingly good, whenever he manifests God’s creative power by healing someone, whenever God is acting, sometimes people are amazed and grateful; but oftentimes in the Scripture, the reaction is that of anger, disappointment, and outrage. In the story, the Pharisees tried everything in their power to undermine what has just happened. When the man’s neighbors and those who knew him as a blind beggar wondered how he was able to see, the Pharisees’ first response is, “No, he just looks like him.” But the healed man countered them and said, it is me. After that, the Pharisees tried another trick, the legal trick, “This man is not from God, because he does not keep the sabbath.” They are basically telling the man whose vision has been restored that the man who cured him is using a dark and demonic power. But the man isn’t having any of their argument. Beautifully he throws a question to them, “How can a sinful man do such things?” His question causes division among them. In their desperate effort to undermine the work of Jesus, the Pharisees ask the man, “What do you say about him, since he opened your eyes?” (Jn. 9:17). He replies, “He is a prophet” (v. 17b.) Still not convinced, the Pharisees involve the parents of the man. When his parents refused to be dragged in, they said to the blind man, “Give God the praise! We know that this man is a sinner.” Beautifully he replies them, “I do not know if he is a sinner. But one thing I do know is that I was blind and now I see.” In those words, he is stating the simple spiritual fact, that we come to vision through Christ. 

The Pharisees tried everything in their power to deny it. The question is why? Why are they opposed to it? Some preachers say they are opposed to what Jesus has just done because they do not want the inclusion or the restoration of the man born blind into the community. The Pharisees see themselves as followers and disciples of Moses, and as the good ones. They believe that the man is responsible for his predicament. He is worthy of blame and shame. They want to keep him out perpetually. By curing him, Jesus brings him back into the community. He wants him fully involved and fully alive. But the disciples and the Pharisees do not want him in the community. They want him excluded. 

Another reason why the Pharisees are opposed to the work of Jesus Christ is envy. In journalistic terms and in our way of speaking, we sometimes use envy and jealousy interchangeably. But they are two different things, although there is a little overlap between them. Jealousy and envy is like stealing and vandalism. Jealousy is the intense desire to guard and protect what one possesses or what one hope to possess. Jealousy is not always a bad thing. Even God said he is a jealous God. We belong to God. We are the crown jewel of his creation. We are his people. We are created in imago Dei. We are his actual and legitimate possession. He loves us. So, God intensely desires to guard us from being stolen from him. He wants to protect us from being lost. In the case of married people, they may be jealous because they want to guard their spouses from being lured away from them by another person. So, jealousy is not always wrong for it is the desire to guard what one has or possesses. Although it can be distorted. In our own experience, it is often distorted. We are jealous of other people because we want something that they have or something they have accomplished in life. Jealousy is always the desire to possess or the desire to guard what one possesses. This distortion can generate greed especially in the case of a rich person who jealousy guards what he or she has to the point of not sharing with others. This greed leads to wanting more and more and not sharing with others for fear of losing social status or class. Envy on the other hand is not the desire to guard what one has, but to possess what one does not have. Envy is sadness when someone else has something that I want. Jealousy is rooted in desire, envy is rooted in resentment, which is actually diabolical. St. Augustine calls envy the diabolical sin. Envy is sadness because someone else is happy; it is sadness over the accomplishment of another; it is resentful anger over the success of the other. Envy is sadness at someone’s else gifts. If jealousy leads one to greed, envy leads one to destroy. The Pharisees were envious of Jesus because of who he is and what he is doing. The endpoint of envy is hatred and destruction. Because Jesus is all things to all people, because he preaches powerfully like no one, cures many sick people, performs many miracles, signs and wonders and attracted a very large followers that the Pharisees are not able to do and cannot do, they become envious of him and seek for his destruction. 

What is the cure of envy? Appreciation and gratitude. Appreciate the success of another and give glory to God who makes all that possible. Envy breeds hatred. It leads to destruction. It also prevents us from discovering our talents and turning them into gifts because we are preoccupied with the thoughts of other’s successes and spends less time uncovering God’s hidden treasures in us. Thank God! Celebrate with others.