AND YOU FORGIVE THEM?
Pentecost 17 (ILCW-A) Genesis 50: 15-21. 2008
15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?” 16 So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died: 17 ‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept.
18 His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. “We are your slaves,” they said.
19 But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? 20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. 21 So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them. [1]
Did Moses get it right here, Joseph? “Get what right?” You forgiving your brothers. Did you actually do that? “Yes, I forgave them.”
Seems to us that you did more than that. Moses also reports that you told your brothers you would provide for them and their children – take care of their physical needs, in other words – and that you reassured them and spoke kindly to them. Or did Moses get that wrong? “No, he’s got it right.”
1. Wow!
You actually did all of that for those guys, Joseph? I mean, blood brothers or not, what they did to you was bad and really low. It was absolutely shameful and downright despicable. We know about forgiving people who don’t or didn’t know what they were doing, but your brothers knew exactly what they were doing. They were openly resenting you. For a time they thought about killing you. They didn’t, but selling you like a goat or camel to people who were going to take you far away and resell you – even a beginning Sunday school child knows that’s just plain wrong – very, very wrong. Your adult brothers did those things to you, Joseph, and you forgive them?
“Yes. Not that what they did wasn’t wrong or all that bad. It was the absolute pits, because that’s where I landed; and not once, but twice: In the pit of a well or cistern and later in a prison dungeon in Egypt. And being set out like a clearance rack for the sidewalk sale of slaves in that country – that was very traumatic, not to mention very embarrassing and humiliating. No, the jail dungeon wasn’t really my brothers’ doing. I was thrown there because of the scorn of a rejected woman, my boss’ wife.”
“But what could I do? Go to bed with a woman who wasn’t my wife, the way she propositioned? No way! That’s adultery! And what could I do if dad had more than one wife and I was the son of his favorite wife? Could I help it that dad seemed to like me best of all his boys, and I was the only one to whom he gave a colorful, attention-grabbing coat? Could I help it that God gave me the gift to interpret dreams and that the interpretations had my brothers honoring and bowing down to me?”
Hey, we hear you, Joseph. Some of the junk we experience and the abuse we get from other people these days – sometimes it’s pretty bad and so often we can’t help it. Join in ogling someone of the opposite sex? No way! God says that’s adultery. But some people really give us a hard time about that. Work hard and honestly on the job or at school - we’re just minding the Lord, using our God-given abilities and tending to business! But some people really resent us for it. We have a disagreement with someone or try to correct them, and that person goes out of their way to avoid us or goes around saying things that damage our reputation. That hurts! When people pick and beat on us for saying things that God has said – can we help that? No. God says that we should tell people what he says, and it’s for their own good that we do.
All that abuse and rejection we get are shameful and maddening. There’s no excuse for much of it, because in most cases, people know exactly what they are doing to us, and they know that what they are doing isn’t right. And we forgive them for that?
Oh, forgive us, brother Joseph. Forgive us because, the things I have just mentioned are certainly not pleasant for us, but the pain and the shame for us are very small compared with what you experienced from those men who came to you in Egypt and said that their father – who was also your father – had suggested that you forgive them. They were saying you were brothers and that brothers forgive. Brothers? Ha! Brothers don’t pull the kind of stuff on each other that those guys pulled on you, Joseph!
“Ah, my brothers and sisters in the Lord, but brothers do pull stuff like that. So do sisters. They pulled it when I was growing up with my brothers in ancient Canaan, and they must have pulled it at the time of Jesus. Look at Peter’s question in your third lesson today: How many times shall I forgive my brother?” (Mt. 18:21). Sounds to me like he was talking about someone known and rather close. I will even be so bold and go so far as to guess that you have pulled stuff like my brothers pulled on me, and that you pulled it on your blood-brothers and sisters – those with the blood of your mom and dad flowing in them, and those who will kneel and receive the blood of Jesus with you at the altar today.”
Joseph, you are so right about that – more right than you will ever know. Pushed a little brother or sister down because we didn’t like what they said or we thought they were getting ahead of us? Put another person down with harsh or sarcastic words because they questioned us, didn’t agree with us or they tried to correct us? Resented someone for having something we didn’t have? We are just like your brothers, Joseph: guilty on all counts! Withheld forgiveness and held a grudge against people. We have been guilty there, too. And that other thing you did, Joseph – reassuring your brothers of your forgiveness and speaking kindly to them – that’s something we haven’t always done with people, either.
“But isn’t that the final leg of forgiveness? How could my forgiveness be or mean anything if I didn’t then speak nicely to my brothers?”
That’s a good point, Joseph, and we have two words for you: First of all, wow! Forgiving your brothers to that extent is amazing. We are impressed – and humbled – when we think of how hard we find it to forgive people whose trespasses against us are far less than your brothers’ sins against you. And that brings me to our second word for you, Joseph:
2. How?
How did you – how were you able to - forgive them?
“It was several things. Later, when I thought about it, I could kind of understand my brothers’ actions against me. It must have been a pain to them for me to be dad’s favorite and to be interpreting dreams that never favored them. Also, before he died, our dad said they should ask me to forgive them, the way our heavenly Father asks us to forgive other people.”
But didn’t you sort of wonder, Joseph? Wonder if your dad really said that or if they were just making it up? And their offer to be your slaves – that sounded like they were sorry for and humble about what they had done to you, but didn’t you wonder if it was really sincere or just a ploy?
“Well, my dad was dead, so I couldn’t look into the matter with him. Besides – and this was a big consideration for me – I’m not the Lord. So I couldn’t look into and know my brothers’ hearts. Likewise with taking my brothers up on their offer to become my slaves. I couldn’t go there, not for a minute, even though it would have made their lives miserable, like they had made my life miserable for a while. To do that I would have to be the Lord God, because his Word says: Do not repay evil with evil, or insult with insult. As far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone… ‘It is mine to avenge. I will repay,’ says the Lord (1 Pet. 3:9; Rom. 12:18,19). So, I may have felt like giving my brothers some of their own medicine, but I couldn’t do that – didn’t dare do that – because I’m not the Lord.”
“Let me explain that last comment a bit. I didn’t forgive my brothers simply because I was afraid that trying to right some wrongs would put me on God’s turf, and God wouldn’t like that. There was something else going on with the Lord and me – something very positive.”
Like what, Joseph?
“Well, my great-grandfather was Abraham, and the Lord God appeared to him several times and made a promise to him. The good Lord said that great-grandpa would be the father of a large nation and have a descendant who would be a blessing to all nations of the earth.”
“I remember my grandfather Isaac saying that his dad often talked about that promise, and I heard my dad Jacob talk about the promise when I was growing up. The promise wasn’t all fleshed out at the time, but they said that everyone on the planet since the time of Adam and Eve was cursed because of sin – curse by God with death and hell; but the promised descendant to come in our family tree would bless all people, He would remove the curse completely. In other words, the Lord was going to forgive and take away the sins of the world – including my brothers sins against me and my sins against my brothers and all my many, many other sins.”
“That was a real wow for me! God was going to hold back his hand of vengeance and provide forgiveness for me and all my sins and all the sins of other people against him. If he was going to do that, I would hold back vengeance, and I would forgive my brothers for sinning against me.”
You know what, Joseph? We are happy to say that you were spot-on about God bringing forgiveness for all people of planet Earth. Far down your family tree, and many generations out on the branch of your brother Judah, is a little sprout named Jesus, who was also called Christ.
Talk about being resented and abused, getting rough treatment and people wanting you dead – and all you were doing was tending to business! But here we have to say, Joseph, that what you experienced was nothing compared to what Jesus experienced. He tended to God the Father’s business of obeying all God’s laws, but Jesus got the business of crucifixion for it. Jesus hammered on people’s consciences about their sins, but Jesus got spikes pounded through his hands and feet and into the wood of a cross.
Then something really amazing and impressive happened: Jesus prayed for the people who did these things to him: Father, forgive them (Lk. 23:34). And after he prayed, Jesus gained God’s forgiveness of our sins by dying on the cross with our sins, because the Scriptures say: In Christ God forgave you (Eph. 4:32).
“And also you, my friends.” Yes, and also us, Joseph. God forgives us completely, with no conditions or hoops to jump through. And when others sin against us, Joseph, we forgive them?
“Amen, brothers and sisters. You forgive them.” Amen.
[1]The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House) 1984.