St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church -- Watertown, WI
Pastor Mark Gartner
Sermon for Pentecost 17 -- September 8^th and September 11^th, 2005

Dear followers of the God who leads us to our eternal home. Amen

I enjoy baseball. I played baseball and have watched enough baseball to know what is going on. Baseball is like many other sports. There are many unwritten rules that each team holds to. These are rules that are not written down, but tradition tells everyone this is a rule. Some of these unwritten rules are good and some of them are horrible. One of these so-called written rules that is found in professional baseball that is horrible is the payback rule. If a pitcher from the other team hits one of your batters, it is an unwritten rule that your pitcher will hit one of their batters in the next inning. It’s an eye for eye type rule. They say that you need to defend your players. You need to cover each other’s back. There is no room for forgiving someone in the heat of professional baseball.

As we go through life we realize that there are many times where things are done that are hurtful to us. People say things and people do things to us and we sometimes feel like we need to get even. We feel it is our choice whether to forgive or take revenge. As we will see from today’s text, God reminds us through Joseph and his brothers that we are not the one’s in charge. It is not an unwritten rule that we have the right to get even. The life of the Christian is exactly the opposite. We are to realize that we are no better than any one else. We are sinful people who deserve God’s righteous anger for all our sins. That is why realize that we need to repent of our own sins and see God’s forgiveness. But what exactly is repentance? That is what our theme for today will help us to learn.

This text selection marks the end of one life’s and the beginning of another. Jacob, the last of Israel’s patriarchs, the man who fathered the 12 tribes and whom the Lord renamed Israel, has died. His sons would become the 12 tribes that would form the nation of Israel. All had not gone smoothly for Jacob in his life. His father had favored his brother, Esau. With the aid of his mother, Jacob had deceived his father and stolen the birthright. The anger of Esau had caused Jacob to flee for his life. He had been cheated by his father-in-law, both in his choice of a spouse and in his wages.

Jacob also had made the mistake of favoritism that his father had made. Joseph, the son of Jacob’s favorite wife, was favored over his brothers. Together with Joseph’s dreams, that favoritism had resulted in the hatred from his brothers toward him and ultimately in their plot to sell him into slavery. Jacob had virtually been in mourning over Joseph’s apparent death through all the years that Joseph was in Egypt.

Jacob was then reunited with his son in Egypt and rejoiced in spite of the sad years that had passed. He saw Joseph’s sons and blessed them both, thus designating them as the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. It is Jacob’s death that brings about the striking events our text records.

"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?" So they sent word to Joseph, saying, ‘Your father left these instructions before he died: ‘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." Joseph’s brothers are certainly grieved by the death of their father. But for them the realization of what his death might mean was even more disturbing. Their past sins weighed very much on their minds. Their early unbrotherly action toward Joseph, when they had sold him into slavery, and how that had ruined much of their father’s life were very much on their minds and on their consciences. Their past sins could present consequences that ! terrified them. The brother they had wronged was no ordinary citizen. He was the second in command of all Egypt and had the influence and the power to impose upon them any sort of retaliation he might desire.

As we look at our lives we don’t need to search too far and too hard to find things that we have done that have hurt others. The hurtful comment about one’s appearance. The words said in anger that hurt so very deeply. The actions that have showed such a lacking of caring for someone else. As we look back at our lives, we soon realize that we have left behind us large path of hurtful words and actions. We may not have sold our brother into slavery, but the hurt and harm we cause can hurt just as bad or even worse at times. And this do4sn’t even begin to point out the hurt we have caused our heavenly Father each and every time we sin and break his holy Law. Each and every time we sin we are bringing hurt upon the God who has given us everything. We can’t pass this off on anyone else. We are to blame. That is what the first part of repentance is all about. We have sinned and we need to take full blame for what we did.

To be sure, nothing in Joseph’s past actions gave them any cause to anticipate a change in his attitude and actions now. From their first journey to Egypt to purchase food to the day Joseph finally revealed his true identity, there had been no hint of Joseph holding any animosity toward them. Throughout their years in Egypt, Joseph had not harbored any ill feelings at all toward them. He had seen them through the years of famine, provided for their every need, arranged for them to settle in one of the most fertile of Egypt’s lands, and shown them only kindness and love.

What they fear is that Joseph’s true feelings toward them might have been suppressed out of respect and love for their father. Now that Jacob had died, Joseph’s kindness and generosity might have also died. They feared that Joseph would no longer be restrained by his father’s presence. They wondered if his true feelings toward them might flame up in harsh retaliation. They knew how deeply they had hurt their brother. They knew what they deserved and what they might do if they were Joseph. They had chastised themselves many times through the intervening years for what they had done to him. But now the ball was in Joseph’s court, and they were at his mercy, which they feared might be nonexistent.

They supposed their only hope was to appeal to Joseph on the basis of his love for his father, so they sent a message to him, telling him of one of their father’s last wishes. They did not come on their own, but sent a messenger. Some commentators speculate that Benjamin, Joseph’s only full brother and the youngest in the family, would have been a good choice, but Scripture does not give us the information about who bore the message.

The message itself is a plea for Joseph to forgive his brothers for the wrong they had done to him. When Jacob gave this instruction to the ten oldest brothers is not recorded, but there is no reason to think it was not a genuine message but their own invention. In the message is a plea for forgiveness as well as a description of them as servants of the God of your father. That would indicate a change in heart among the ten, as would their attitude of love for and protection of Benjamin, the youngest and now favored brother. Judah’s offer to exchange himself as a slave to spare Benjamin also demonstrates how the brothers had changed in their attitude. Many feel this selfless offer was the reason Judah’s tribe was blessed as the one through whom the Messiah would come. Finally, their message is, of greatest importance, a confession of their sin and a plea for forgiveness. It demonstrates that the ten who had so callously mistreated their own brother had been convicted by G! od’s law, had found the Lord’s forgiveness, and now sought also to be reconciled to the one whom they had so grievously wronged.

As we sin we soon realize that our only hope is in Jesus. We can’t appease God. We can’t earn his favor. We can only humble ourselves and look for the hope that Jesus offers our love and mercy to all sinners. This is also a good reminder for us as we go to our fellow Christians when we have hurt them. We can trust that in love they will forgive us.

Their message had the desired effect. Joseph’s tears revealed his heart. His reaction to their message gave them the confidence to come before him face-to-face, "His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. "We are your slaves," they said. But Joseph said to them, "Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children." And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them. The brothers’ demeanor of throwing themselves down before Joseph and their words, which are very similar to those of the lost son, demonstrate that their repentance is genuine. They bring forth fruits appropriate for repentance. They are now ready to make restitution by offering themselves into slavery, just as they had once sold Joseph into bondage. Repentance that demonstrates no willingn! ess to make restitution is no repentance at all.

Joseph is presented with two alternatives. He can react like the unforgiving servant that we read about in our Gospel reading for today and bring his own vengeance, or he can react as the forgiving father who restored the lost son. He chooses the latter, not willing to take vengeance where God had shown mercy. His own deep faith and his own experience of God’s grace move him to forgive the past and to build for the future. Not only does he forgive, but he promises to provide for and protect his repentant brothers and their families. His maturity in faith is shown by his ability to see the Lord’s mercy and grace working even through the most seemingly evil of circumstances. He trusts that God will turn evil to good for those who love and trust in him. In a final reassurance, Joseph speaks only kindly and comfortingly to those whom he had tota1ly forgiven. If the Lord can stay his hand of vengeance and provide forgiveness to those who have sinned against him, so also could! Joseph, and so also can we all.

As sinful people who have nothing to look forward to we, we know through faith that God has offered to us his full an complete forgiveness. Just as Joseph forgave his brothers with no string attached, so also in a perfect way our Father in heaven says that we are pure and clean because of what Jesus his Son did on the cross for all people. This is hard to imagine in world where hatred and vengeance are the name of the game. God in love offers us something that no one else can offer. He offers us a pure heart and perfect forgiveness of all our sins. In love he gives us more than we can ever deserve. For this we are forever grateful to our Lord and Savior. Amen