“Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous?” (Matthew 20.15)
Among the many Jewish folktales, there is the story of two merchants, each of whom owned a shop, their shops on opposite sides of the same street. When the day was done, each shop owner would tally up the day’s income, but the tally was not used to see if sales had been good for the shop, but to see if they exceeded the other shop owner’s sales. The measure of a good day was by comparing one shop owner’s sales with the sales of the other shop owner.
The Most High God, the story goes, became frustrated with the competition, sending an angel to visit one of the men, offering this deal. The angel said to the man, “You can have anything you want in the world. It can be riches, wisdom, a long life, or many children. Just know that whatever you ask, your competitor will get twice as much.”
The angel continued, making it clear to the man, “So, if you ask for $20,000, he will get $40,000. Tell me, then,” the angel said to the man, “what is your wish?” The merchant thought for a brief moment, finally answering in this way, “Make me blind in one eye.” The story ends with this simple statement, “God wept.”
Listening to the Galilean Teacher today, we hear him tell a similar story of envy, this one between workers in a vineyard who have worked the full day and workers who have worked fewer hours. When all the workers are paid the same–a full day’s wage–by the owner of the vineyard, the all-day workers grumble.
As he hears the complaints directed at him, the vineyard owner asks the workers who are complaining a question, “Are you envious because I am generous?” With that question, the Galilean wants his followers to understand that the evil of envy is the main point of the story, although the story doubtlessly contains other lessons as well.
Looking at the context of the story that the Galilean tells, we learn that Simon Peter again precipitates this story, as he often does, by asking the Teacher a rather pointed question, “We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?” Rabbi Jesus assures Simon that he and the other disciples will receive “a hundred times more,” as he says, “and will inherit eternal life.”
However, he utters a caution, “Many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.” Then the Galilean tells the story of the workers in the vineyard, concluding that story with the same warning, “The last will be first, and the first will be last,” these words reminding Simon and the others that the Most High God does not think in the same way that this world thinks, a place where the haves are first and the have nots are last, where the graspers get more, and where the empty-handed get less.
Significantly, Biblical commentators point to the fact that some early translations of the text pose the vineyard owner’s question in a slightly different way, the question now being, “Is your eye evil,” an allusion to envy, which always looks at what another person has, the phrase “the evil eye” continuing to the present day, denoting someone who wishes ill fortune upon another because of what they have, their evil eye taking in what the other has, their hearts filling with envy.
Fueled by envy, a person looks at what another has received, as did the laborers in the vineyard, rather than at what they themselves have received, the envious person doing a quick calculation of who has received more, envy almost always making what one has received look less than what another person has received, setting the stage for conflict and comparison and competition.
Already in the 6th century B.C., the Greek storyteller Aesop told a fable about two eagles, one envious of the other because the other eagle could soar higher and more gracefully than he could. The envy growing in him, the first eagle began to pluck out his biggest feathers from his own body, using them as arrows, shooting them at the other eagle, hoping to wound or kill it.
Not being able to hit the other eagle with his plucked feathers because it flew high in the sky, the envious eagle grew frustrated, plucking more feathers, until the day came when it had removed all its feathers in this futile effort, making it impossible now for the envious eagle to lift itself off the ground, condemned by his envy to never fly again. Envy, as Aesop pointed out, had destroyed the first eagle.
Another problem with envy, as many people learn too late, is that it is always dissatisfied, always desiring more, always designing ways to get more, with the envious person never content, never convinced, never comfortable with what he or she has. Envy becomes a bottomless pit that eventually buries the envious person in its depths.
As we have seen, the laborers in the story, disgruntled and displeased, gripe and grumble, pointing out to the landowner, “These last ones worked only one hour and you have made them equal to us,” causing the landowner to reply, “My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?” This question made clear that no injustice has been done to the laborers who worked all day, their payment complete and fair, even if they choose to see some supposed inequality at play.
Blinded by envy, they fail to see that they have enough, a full day’s wage for a full day’s work, ignoring this reality as they look instead at what the late-comers have received, suddenly their own full day’s wage now not enough, although it was enough at the start of the day, the envious person convincing him or herself that they don’t having enough, this thought quickly becoming a quicksand pit nearly impossible to escape.
Making the same point, there is a story told about the writer Joseph Heller of Catch 22 fame who, informed once about a fund manager who had made more money in one day than he had made from all his books combined, answered back, “Then I have something he will never have. Enough.” Heller knew an important truth–having enough was much better than having envy, where enough is never enough.
Enough. With that one word, Heller offers an antidote to the soul sickness brought on by the green-eyed monster of envy, an answer to the never-ending want for more, the insatiable beast tamed only by the serum of enough. A person who sees that he or she has enough does not need to look to see what others have, but is grateful for what they have, not grabbing for more, not greedy for what others have.
Looked at in this way, the opposite of envy is gratitude, understood as an appreciation for what one has, whatever its measure, grateful that one has enough at the end of the day, thankful for every favor, however its size. When a heart is full of gratitude, there is no room for envy, no need for comparison, no desire for more and more.
For every person, the choice between envy and gratitude is always there, a matter of choosing what we want to see, our eyes either looking at what we have, or choosing to look at what others have. For the followers of the Galilean Teacher, the choice is clear, our eyes open to the wonder of the gifts we have received, whether great or small, our eyes not tempted to look at what others might have received, unlike the laborers in the vineyard.
In Mitch Albom’s book, Have a Little Faith, the story of Mitch’s conversations with the old rabbi he has known since his childhood, he tells of one particular conversation between the two of them. Mitch says to the Rabbi, “So have we solved the secret of happiness?” The Rabbi answers, “I believe so.”
Mitch asks, “Are you going to tell me?” “Yes,” the Rabbi answers. “Ready?” Mitch answers, “Ready.” The Rabbi looks at MItch and says, “Be satisfied.” Mitch is puzzled. “That’s it?” The Rabbi nods his head and says to him, “Be grateful.” “That’s it?” Mitch asks again. The Rabbi nods his head again, answering Mitch, “For what you have. For the love you receive. And for what God has given you.”
A third time Mitch asks the Rabbi, “That’s it?” The Rabbi looked at Mitch in the eye. Then he sighed deeply. “That’s it.” Many years before this Rabbi sought to teach Mitch the secret to happiness, another Rabbi, the one called Jesus of Nazareth, sought to teach his followers the same secret, telling them the same truth. “Be grateful.”
In an effort to bring home the lesson, he told the story of some day laborers who were not grateful for what they had received, who chose instead to look at what others had received, causing them to become dissatisfied and disgruntled, inviting envy into their hearts.
For us, as we also do a day’s labor, if we do not desire to be destroyed by the same demon of envy, always a threat in a world fraught with competition and comparison, then we do ourselves a service by heeding the words of the Teacher from Galilee, who taught his followers that it is far better to be grateful than to be grumblers, the grateful, he says, becoming the first in the Kingdom of God, the grumblers, he says, becoming the last in the Kingdom of God.
–Jeremy Myers
Sunday Brunch 