Forgiveness: Joseph and His Brothers

 

 

Near a town in the state of Washington, millions of gallons of radioactive atomic wastes are being stored in huge underground tanks. The tanks have a life expectancy of 20 or 30 years. The wastes within them will remain deadly for about 600 years. We live in a society which, like those tanks in Washington, can no longer contain its anger and bitterness, which in some cases has led to violence and destruction. Haven’t we learned that this anger and inability to let go of hurt, real, imagined or manufactured is a societal cancer. It's particularly troubling  to know that we allow the not so subtle transition from justifiable anger to a carefully manufactured agenda to destroy our society.  Why do humans find it easier to hold on to anger than to let go and find a way to forgive. Over the past months our readings and discussions of Matthew remind us that our forgiving and our being forgiven is what it means to be Christian.  

No character in the book of Genesis  better illustrates the fundamentals of forgiveness than Joseph, and no chapter more clearly defines and describes the essentials of forgiveness than the last, chapter 45(Genesis 45). The years that Joseph spent in slavery and prison could have been the occasion for a slow burn that might have ignited into an explosion of anger at the sight of his brothers. 

And how angry was Joseph with God who he "credits" for getting him into such a situation? Yet through it all Joseph recognized that God was with him in his sufferings and that these trials he believes  were from the loving hand of a sovereign God. Most of all, Joseph could have been angry with his brothers, who had callously sold him into slavery. While we justifiably credit Joseph being a model for forgiveness, I am puzzled by the number of times God is “credited” for setting up obstacles for Joseph that creates threatening situations for him as if it were God’s plan. This Genesis reading leaves us deep in the mystery of God and how God’s interacts with humans. Some folks see God directing their lives, while others express God’s presence in other ways. Genesis was just the first book of the Bible. Where and when did the concept of a punitive, retributive God begin in these very early writings? The universe is about 14 billion years old; Genesis was written only 5,000 years ago. God didn't just show up when man started to write about him. 

Personally, I have a difficult time believing that the God of love as made flesh by his incarnation in Jesus, would purposely inflict pain and entrap us in order to test our faith. It just doesn't make sense. But then, that’s what I believe and I suppose we all must come to terms with this question; some will be comfortable with Joseph’s theological speech and others will not. The great benefit of the text is the opportunity to ponder what we believe and why.  

Ok, back to Joseph, the high point of Joseph’s relationship with his brothers comes in chapter 45. Here reconciliation was made possible on the brothers’ part by their genuine repentance, regretting their sin with regard to Joseph, and reversing it when a similar situation was presented with regard to their youngest brother, Benjamin. Joseph’s reconciliation was achieved through his sincere and total forgiveness of his brothers for the evil they had committed against him. Forgiveness is pivotal to what it means to be a Christian. It is essential to our relationship with God.  

Based on The Fundamentals of Forgiveness (Genesis 45:1-28), Bob Deffinbaugh, May 2004.

I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel

 

Can we imagine what it feels like to have a pressing need or a significant request met with silence? Just think about it for a moment. For me, the question and related unpleasant memories bring the plight of the Canaanite woman home. (Matthew 15:21-28). This Gospel has always made me uncomfortable. In years passed whenever it rolled around as our assigned reading, I wrote around the story, not wanting to address it, not fully understanding it as it was so contrary to Jesus’ nature and earlier events in Matthew’s Gospel. Even Mark in his corresponding account of the story (Mark 7:24-30), chickened out and did not include Jesus’ somewhat callous response in Matthew: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

Admittedly, women’s words are too often met with silence or are interrupted or disrespected, by men and sometimes by other women. Those times in my life when I asked for information or help and received nothing but silence, were hurtful. No one immediately responds to the Canaanite woman or gives the impression that they will respond. The disciples urge Jesus to send her away because, it appears, they are annoyed by her continued shouting, and her refusal to take silence for an answer. Too often we either cannot or refuse to empathize with people whose experience is different from ours. If we are not at the receiving end of oppression or injustice we find it easy to dismiss it as unwelcomed noise. If our common humanity and our relatedness does not move us, what will? The Canaanite woman’s blood ran through Jesus’ veins and for that matter, ours…but it didn’t seem to move Jesus!

So many women or disenfranchised people in history like the Canaanite woman have persisted as lone minority voices among a majority of authoritative and powerful men. She persisted! She didn’t go away; she would not be dismissed. Her plea for help was met with the language of societal indifference: “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”

In the end, Matthew’s Jesus responds by commending the woman for her faith. (In Mark’s version, Jesus commends the woman with no mention of faith.) Matthew calls what this woman does an act of faith. Yet, Jesus does not perform an exorcism; he simply says, “Let it be done for you as you wish.” He does not say let it be done as you believed but as you will. The woman’s strong will manifested by her persistence, identified as faith, led to her daughter’s healing.

While Jesus doesn’t tell us, we are told that the woman’s daughter was healed instantly. Perhaps faith engenders persistence or maybe persistence feeds faith. Either way, persistence and faith make a powerful pair. While we can never  underestimate the power of a persistent woman and determined mother and the God in whom she believes, we still wonder why Jesus hesitated and initially responded as he did? For me, the answer lies in the fact that Jesus was as fully human as he was divine. I wonder if this was meant to be a teachable moment for him and that this woman at this precise moment in time, was the vessel for this powerful education? 

While I feel a little better, I still have difficulty with this Gospel. You see, it’s so easy to relate to the loving, compassionate, Jesus who is “above it all,” but when I encounter Jesus who in this case, behaves as I might have, it makes me uncomfortable. Maybe that’s the lesson for us; we’re are trying; we’re still learning. We are only human.

Remember man, presume not God to scan, the proper study of mankind in man. Alexander Pope

 

Yes, I'll get by with a little help from my friends

 

The gospel of the Centurion in Luke (Luke 7:1-10) and in Matthew (Matthew 8:1, 5-13) is a story of great faith especially in one who would have been considered at the very least, an outsider, if not a persecutor of Jesus. While in Matthew, the main characters are Jesus and the Centurion face to face, in Luke the Centurion never appears in person but rather is represented by his surrogates, his “friends.”  The message is not only about great faith, it is about friendship, brotherly love and community. Could there be a more disparate group of friends than those characterized in Luke? The image of Jewish elders coming forward to appeal to Jesus on the part of a humbled Roman centurion, who in turn, petitions Jesus on behalf of his slave, runs counter to what we know of the social order of the day. 

The story is enriched when the believer’s community connects the believer to God. Even the powerful centurion could not do it alone. Isn’t that the way it is with us? There are times in my life when my needs and story were being carried to God by my friends. My guess is that neither I nor they even knew it at the time. However, the threads that connect us to God are often woven by our friends. So, it's not just about me. It’s not just about you. It’s about us and Jesus and the community that nourishes us and helps us stay connected. But what about this thing called community? If it works so well, how come there are times when we would prefer to fly under the radar, unnoticed and content to be left alone?  In our men’s group discussion this past Saturday we read from Genesis 12:1. There was a passage that prompted considerable discussion: “We will be summoned to act upon the faith we profess: ‘Get up and do. Get up and  go….bring others with you.’”

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee."

John Donne, Meditation 17 from Devotions, 1624

 

Guess who's coming to dinner?

 

I had been asked by my employer to relocate to the company’s home office located in a small Midwest City. After a period of time we adjusted to the move. In fact, we, in retrospect, thrived during that 15 year experience. We quickly learned that many of those with whom I worked and became friendly were, like us, “ex pats” living away from “home-towns.” Over time some of these business associates became very close friends. More often than not, these friendships were forged through shared dinners and informal get-togethers that were great ways to get to know my colleagues outside of work. Of course, this was also a time during which our ambition to advance in our careers was very important and that these social events were a great way for people to get to know one another outside the workplace. 

I can remember a one time when we struggled with a guest list, since we were entertaining some new arrivals to the home office and had to decide whether to invite a close friend who was known to get a little obnoxious as the night progressed. He was invited as he, one of the “regulars” no doubt, would have expected to be. The evening arrived, the table was set, the settings were placed, the wine was poured and the menu was well in hand… and true to form, my dear friend in no time, hijacked the evening and while several of us made attempts to wrestle it back, it was futile. Everyone knew what had happened. They, including our new friends, were aware and sympathetic to our plight.

Later when the guests had gone and we were alone, I tried to make excuses for my poor friend who, like the woman who interrupted Simon’s dinner party with Jesus, was out of place and defied convention by behaving in a disreputable way. 

Wasn’t I behaving just like Simon the Pharisee in Luke 7:36-8:3?
 In truth one of the reasons this new friend was valued was that he could have been helpful in my career. ( As it happened, this honored guest became one of my closest friends.) I chose to invite my obnoxious friend, not only because I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but because I didn’t want to suffer the consequences. Now, I’m not suggesting that we should have tolerated poor manners and bad behavior, since my friend clearly was out of line; I am saying that compassion for one another is not always easy. Sometimes, defying convention requires compassion rooted in deep feelings for each other and not according to our plan and agenda. Compassion requires that we don’t use people and try to help our friends engaging in risky behavior in any way we can. Compassion means that we don’t hide behind false “nobility” and rationalize our own behavior to suit our own agenda. Jesus praised Simon’s unwanted guest who took a risk and defied convention.