Envy

The green-eyed monster played a part in Jesus' death.

"... it was out of envy that the chief priests handed Jesus over..." Mark 15:10

Were they envious that people liked Jesus better? Were they that infantile? Perhaps.

In The Parable of the Tenants, the envy of the Jewish leaders has a murderous edge:
"But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him and take his inheritance.' So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him."

They wanted Jesus' inheritance.

We could point our fingers at the Bible's arch-villains and forget that we have roots of envy, too. Eve's enticement, which represents ours, is "You will be like God" in Genesis 3:5.

There's a subtle but crucial difference between admiration and envy. It's
"I want to be like you" vs "I want to be you".

And there's a difference between jealousy and envy. It's "desiring what rightly belongs to you", vs "desiring what belongs to someone else".

There's nothing wrong with wanting to be like God. God thinks this is a great idea and encourages his people to be transformed more and more into his image.

But there's definitely something wrong with wanting to be God ourselves. Sounds crass, huh? Who would dare take God's place? But don't we do it when we kick God out of the drivers' seat of life and drive off? Do we treat our words as more authoritative than his? Do you presume to enter heaven without asking him first, as if he didn't own the place?

Next to our grasping and selfish aspirations, Jesus is so amazing. He had all the entitlements to Goddiness, but gave it up to become a lowly human. He did the backwards of jealousy. Actually, it's probably us who has got it backwards! So it may be hard for us to get our heads around Philippians 2:5-11:

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 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.