Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
The text for this meditation is written in the 45th Chapter of the Book of Genesis: Verses 3 – 15:
Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence.
4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me.” And they came closer. He said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. 5 And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6 For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. 7 God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. 8 So it was not you who sent me here, but God; he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. 9 Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay. 10 You shall settle in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, as well as your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. 11 I will provide for you there—since there are five more years of famine to come—so that you and your household, and all that you have, will not come to poverty.’ 12 And now your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my own mouth that speaks to you. 13 You must tell my father how greatly I am honoured in Egypt, and all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here.” 14 Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, while Benjamin wept upon his neck. 15 And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him.
There was a great temptation to preach on the Gospel today. It makes for good Christian instruction. Jesus tells us to love our enemies, be generous, be charitable and most importantly do not be judgemental. I thought, I prayed, and then when I read the Old Testament reading, I was blessed by the insight of the message of the Gospel as written in Genesis 45: 3 – 15. Here is the Gospel message played out in real time and real circumstances to which we can all relate.
There Joseph stands, in front of his brothers who’ve fled starvation back home to journey to Egypt, where they’ve heard there was bread to be had, . . . only to find the man holding the loaf to be the brother they had hated and tossed aside like trash. There they stand, powerless; he, strong and dangerous as a stormy sea. Would he enact revenge, or would he be benevolent? No one would question either decision—his word would be obeyed no matter what he said—and his brothers, for a moment that felt like a lifetime, thought their fate was hanging in the balance so delicately that maybe something as small as a grain of the flour they sought could shift it. They’d come in desperation to Egypt. They’d hoped to find bread. But they’ve found guilt and the end of a story they didn’t realise was still being written. What would Joseph choose to dispense? Life or death? Bread . . . or revenge?
So often, what I would wish for, my brothers and sisters in Christ, is that we’d all be able to stand in the shoes of these biblical figures. You, me, all of us. That we could hear the sound of the silence that follows a stilled storm, that we could see the joy on the face of a healed leper from up so close that it would feel dangerous to be there, that we could stand where the disciples stood that near to Jesus, place our feet in their shoes, and watch God work. But here’s the thing: we aren’t ready this day to stand in Joseph’s shoes. Not yet anyway. And, trying too soon—well, I don’t mean to make a big deal about it, but standing in Joseph’s shoes if you aren’t ready could lead us astray. And this might all just sound silly to you, but I believe truly that whether you know it or not, we’ve secretly longed to be in his place. This place, as described in our reading.
And his place is this: Joseph, the de facto ruler of Egypt, one of the most powerful men in the world, stands before his brothers, holding their well-being in his hands, the power to give life or the power to take it away. Clothed in the finest that the world had to offer. His hands are heavy, but not with work or tiredness. Heavy with jewellery. A gold signet ring wraps around a finger on his tanned hand, a signet which means he can make decisions in the Pharaoh’s name. Could command his army, sign a treaty, give life and give death with just a word. That ring gives power.
And maybe you don’t covet Joseph’s power (Some of us do!), but those who don’t aspire to power, might still be inclined to wish for his prosperity and privileged circumstance. Other rings on Joseph’s fingers say, “I’m rich enough for this; my life is lavish enough for that.” Joseph, he wants for nothing, and those shoes I mentioned earlier—shoes that we aren’t yet ready to stand in—they’re the best that money could buy. Whatever was fashionable that year in the Nile River Valley—crocodile skin or alligator or whichever might swim there.
And maybe none of that means anything to you; you’re preferring just power enough over your own life and concerned with only living simply and humbly. But even if we covet none of those things, here’s something for which I think we’ve all wished humbly and constantly: Joseph sees clearly the plan of God for his life. While his brothers watch his face begging for a response, Joseph thinks back over a life and sees God’s hand in every place, each crevice he tripped on, each darkness he hid in. In each and every place, he sees the hand and the guiding of God. God has a plan for Joseph, and though we all know that’s true for him and for us, Joseph sees it, the plan of God. And wouldn’t we like to know what it is for us?
Do you covet that about him? Wouldn’t you like to replace all that angst and all that stress and all that wondering of “what if” and “maybe I could have”? Wouldn’t you rather sleep soundly, knowing that you stand today exactly where God wanted you to be? Wouldn’t you wish that you could look back on your life this moment and see God’s hand, how he guided you to be the woman you are or the man you are and how he brought you to this moment for a reason? Maybe you think you do know, but my guess is that if you’re being honest with yourself, you’d have to admit that when you’re caught saying that something you’re involved in is God’s plan, you really mean it’s your plan and you’re praying it’s his too, because God’s plan can seem complicated and annoyingly unclear at times—for you, for me, but not for Joseph. For Joseph, it’s now clear.
The reason, of course, that Joseph’s brothers wondered about their fate, standing there when Joseph reveals himself—guilty and desperate as they were—is because many years ago they were so mad at Joseph, and so frustrated that he was their father’s favourite, that they decided to kill him. They tossed him into an empty pit, and while they plotted how to murder him, they found what struck them as a better option. They sold him into slavery—dragged behind a cart off to Egypt, hands tightly bound, sand burning his feet.
Joseph then worked in the home of a rich Egyptian, as a servant. Potiphar was his name. Soon enough, Joseph caught the attention of Potiphar’s wife, but he didn’t return her attention, choosing character and honour over comfort or desire. She wasn’t fond of being turned down, and so she lied and destroyed his name and any shred of reputation he might have had left. And so he who was once the favourite of the father had lost everything. His family, his freedom, his reputation.
There he was, sitting in prison. Maybe etching the days in the wall, who knows? But he makes friends of any he can around him, and he guides them by means of a God-given wisdom and ability to interpret their dreams and see the future. When, as he advised them, they move up and out of that dank dark place, sadly the one who returns to Pharaoh’s service neglects any memory of him. All it would’ve taken was a mention to the boss, and he might be free. But he forgot him there. Abandoned, despised, his character crucified, and forgotten in a prison that might as well have been a tomb. But for some odd reason, even in the dark, Joseph always seemed to sense the flicker of light and hope, so he didn’t give up the faith.
And one day he finds himself standing in front of Pharaoh himself, the most powerful man in the world, and Joseph’s gift of interpreting dreams makes him indispensable. He sees these times of goodness as moments when laurels shouldn’t be rested upon, but rather stashed away because a downturn was coming. He led an amazing food program in Egypt where the plenty of today was stored for the coming days of none.
And soon enough, who should come a-knocking’ to Egypt? With longing in their mouths and hunger in their stomachs? None other than those brothers who began this whole course of pits and prisons and false allegations of impropriety. “Joseph, remember us when you come into your kingdom! For the sake of our father, pity us and help us!”
And Joseph, what will he do? Well, he gives them life, and the scales didn’t tip that way by just a grain or two; they were fully tipped, by mercy. And more than mercy, it was the result of Joseph looking back on all the places he’d been and realising that all of it led to now. “You needn’t fear me,” Joseph says. “I’ll take care of you. What you did, you meant for evil, but God, he meant it for good. God sent me here to preserve life,” Joseph says, “not to take life away.”
And the reason why it’s important to remember all this, as Joseph remembered all this, is because if you were to desire to stand in his shoes too soon, you might not recall that hardship has first calloused his feet. Beatings and imprisonments—imagine that they’ve caused him to limp. Likely under those robes are the scars of slavery. And that isn’t just the cost of knowing God’s plan; it’s the steps taken to live God’s plan. And the necessary hurts to take him from a bratty child who thought he held the world in his hands to an instrument of life in God’s hands. All of which is to say that if you wish to know as Joseph knows, to know God’s plan for you, to stand with him in this moment when all things make sense, and you see God’s weird and complicated way of working on you to bring good, you need to know that only years of struggle gave him the eyes to see, in faith and with character, what God was doing.
In our eyes, so many times Joseph could have claimed victimhood. Life and those who were supposed to care for him had beaten him down. But instead, Joseph chose to wait patiently for the day when God’s victory would be revealed to him. That’s faith and character at work there.
And if we squint when we watch Joseph limp victoriously through life, we might be reminded of another who was despised by his brothers, the favourite of the Father. Who entered the pit and proclaimed in prison, who had his righteous character publicly crucified along with the rest of him, and who chose to give life instead of death, to give his bread for our hunger, and offers mercy rather than revenge, who tips the scales in our favour by his favour. And, of course, he asks nothing of us who’ve been the recipients of that grace other than the impossible, which is to forgive others as he forgives us. (No one forgives as perfectly as he does!) And as wounded as we’ll be from forgiving, from humbling ourselves and how you feel lowering ourselves before another, in the end we’ll be able to hold our head up high, because through the agony of It all, like Joseph, in Christ, we’ll be living God’s real plan for us.
Not intent on climbing ladders toward the top, but ones, like Joseph, lying at the bottom of the pit, with trust in our heart and a patience born of faith, that God can lead us through whatever challenge each day brings too, and like Joseph glorify us in His eyes according to His will for us. Amen.
The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen
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