The basis for our meditation this morning is from our Old Testament reading, the account of Joseph and his fearful brothers. The setting of this reading from the very end of Genesis is so rich with conflicting emotions it might as well be a scene in a well acclaimed movie.
In the midst of the long expected death of the family Patriarch Jacob, there is considerable unease as to where the chips will now fall. You can almost picture a group of men gathered around a table secretly meeting over candlelight. Joseph’s brothers are exceedingly fearful for their safety. They suspect that their powerful brother Joseph will take this opportunity of their father’s passing to exact some long in coming revenge. Not just any revenge, but a 20 years in the making, you left me in a pit in the wilderness and faked my death so father wouldn’t come looking for me kind of revenge.
To add to the intrigue of the story the brothers have come up with a desperate intervention of defense. They will tell Joseph that their father had a message for him, “please forgive you brother’s offense to you” The moment of truth is now at hand. One of the brothers serves as a messenger. Just as they rehearsed it, those words are recited… your father gave this command…
Will this plea even make a difference they are not sure, but before they know it Joseph is down on his knees in tears. The rest of the brothers come. They begin to see in that moment how completely unfounded their fears were. They are all now on their knees overcome with emotion. In fact they now are hearing from Joseph as if from the Lord. “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”
Joseph manifested to them the unconditional love of God to them as he forgave them. They received undeserved grace as they saw Joseph down on his knees in tears. He pointed them to the unconditional mercy and love of the Son of God who had appeared to their father Jacob and wrestled with him and blessed him. His forgiveness of his brothers pointed them to the ladder their father had seen where the angels of God where ascending and descending from heaven.
This passage in Genesis was further expanded upon in the book of Romans where in the 8th chapter St. Paul writes “We know in all things God works together for the good to those who love him and have been called according to His purpose.” From the previous content of Genesis we know that the good God worked out of the trials Joseph experienced was the long sequence of events where Joseph became second to Pharaoh in authority in all of Egypt and had the divinely given foresight
to store up surpluses of food for the long drought and famine ahead. And in a much greater sense the good accomplished from the evil Jospeh experienced was none other than the settling of the children of Israel in Egypt as the stage by which Israel would be delivered by the Lord with a mighty hand- pointing forward to the same Exodus our Lord Jesus Christ would lead the people of God out of the grips of sin death and the devil.
Have you ever felt like Joseph’s brothers, gathered together plotting for their survival by deceit and desperation? Have you ever felt like the sins of the past are going to catch up with you? As if the amount of sins you have committed against God and against others is so great that it is more than you deserve forgiveness for?
Have you ever found yourself doubting whether God’s forgiveness could apply to you? Have you ever doubted if someone could really forgive you for what you said or did to them? The reason why they doubted was because they were looking at themselves, and not that salvation is outside of themselves.
We heard in our Introit the proper response a believer has when confronted with the danger of enemies all around us. The response is to flee to the Lord for refuge. This is the way we should handle the times when we feel that we have messed up too much and are in a hole we cannot get out of- flee to the Lord for refuge and seek his forgiveness.
In fact when we know we are forgiven by the lord- our enemies have no hold over us, for we know that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, neither death nor life, neither persecutions or things to come.
Sometimes as I recall particular things I have said or done in the past that were hurtful, I feel a sting of embarrassment or regret. Sometimes it is over something as trivial that I could easily never think of it for years at a time. But then all of a sudden there is that painful memory of regret of sins against others.
What I have said in the spirit of sinfulness, God can turn into good, whether through my learning and maturity or through some other means.
Today’s reading from the gospel of Matthew demonstrates how vital it is that we forgive others considering that God has first forgiven everything of us. We have been forgiven the great debt of our sin.
We are in this way just like Joseph’s brothers, we have shown mercy and forgiveness when we know we deserve none of it. In fact, we are not only like Joseph’s brothers, we are more specifically Jesus’ brothers.
As humans we badly mistreated Jesus in a way that even exceeds the mistreatment of Joseph. We rejected Jesus and inflicted onto Jesus the completely undeserved punishment of death on the cross. Despite our great offense Jesus has forgiven us completely.
We can either accept this forgiveness, or we can look inward and live in fear and doubt about our own unworthiness as did Joseph’s brothers. We need to look at the salvation Jesus gives us- instead of looking at our own shortcomings.
In this fallen world we live in we can expect the experience of being hurt deeply by others. God’s word tells us that our life is not defined by the hurts we experience in life. Instead, our lives are defined by the healing Jesus brings to our lives. Forgiving others is not simply an exercise in proving that you are a mature Christian or the more mature person in a relationship.
Forgiveness means that you believe the ways of God’s kingdom are bigger and greater than the ways of this world. Forgiveness means that you treasure the new life you have in Christ far more than your own sense of pride. Forgiveness because of Jesus and through Jesus, frees us from everything that oppresses us and has a hold over us in our life today.
Valuing the riches Jesus gives to you more than your sense of pride or fairness means that you forgive before or regardless of whether a person is repentant over the sin against you. This is because the Lord’s Forgiveness is a freely given gift that is not earned. It is no different than the servant who owed the impossible sum of 10,000 talents is shown mercy and forgiven his debt.
This is the truly liberating work of the gospel in our lives. We are freed from our debts and thereby freed up to love our neighbor unconditionally and offer unconditional forgiveness- regardless of what our neighbor’s behavior is like.
This freedom means we are not expecting particular actions from others in order to forgive. And it means we are not seeking to perform our own actions of penance to make up for what we have done wrong. That would make an insult of the gracious gift the Lord gives to us.
Iti s easy to focus on what we do not have and what vulnerabilities exist in our life, and what can go wrong next. Instead, we rejoice at the power of God’s Word to heal us and make us whole again. Although this fallen world brings us all many uncertainties, we have the perfect certainty of the gifts of God’s Word. We have perfect certainty of our salvation in our Baptism and in the reassurance of the Lord’s Supper.
May the Lord bless us with a living faith that abounds with unconditional love to others. And may this living faith set us free from all of our fears. Amen.