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| Joseph presents his brothers to Pharaoh. Watercolor by James Tissot (1900) |
“Even though you intended to do harm to me, God
intended it for good…” (Genesis 50:20)
I’ve always been slightly irritated by the
Joseph story in Genesis. I mean, this kid is just so freakin’ virtuous I almost
hate him. For real. Is anyone that
good of a person?
Joseph’s only flaw is that he’s his daddy’s
pet and he acts pretty cocky because of it. He loves to tell his big brothers
about his prophetic dreams in which his older siblings will end up kowtowing to
him. This get the boys pretty pissed off, so they decide to throw him into a
hole, sell him to Arab traders as a slave, and tell their old man that he’s
been eaten by a wild animal—not exactly a sign of brotherly love.
But Joseph always manages to come out on
top. Personally, if I were sold into slavery, I don’t know that I’d be so optimistic
about it. But Joe turns out to be an A+ slave for the Egyptian general,
Potiphar, and gets promoted to head of the household. This would be great for
him, except Potiphar’s horny scuz of a wife gets a thing for him, and when he
won’t play footsie with her she accuses him of attempted rape and has him
thrown in prison. Once again, the kid turns out to be a model prisoner, and
soon becomes a trustee. When he uses his prophetic ability to give good news to
the Pharaoh’s butler, that ungrateful slob forgets to help him out, and Joseph
languishes in the joint for another two years. But Joseph still manages to keep
his chin up. He’s so perfect it’s almost sickening.
Finally, Joseph gets a chance to use his
prophetic gift of dream interpretation to help out the Pharaoh (the ungrateful
butler finally comes through for him), and gets released from prison, made
Prime Minister of Egypt, and is given a company car and a bunch of other
executive perks. Then, as only this kid’s luck would have it, his rotten
brothers come down to Egypt in search of food during a famine. Joseph has the
perfect opportunity to get revenge on them for what they did to him, but,
instead, he forgives them. The family
gets reunited, and all of the children of Israel come to Egypt and get saved
from starvation.
You’ll have to admit—betrayal, slavery, and
prison are not particularly great experiences for cultivating a forgiving
spirt, but Joseph seems to have a faith that somehow God is going to turn all
of this around. What strikes me about this story today is the fact that Joseph
is not powerless in the situation. He has the ability to screw his brothers as
bad or worse than they screwed him. His forgiveness comes out of strength and is
the more genuine because he has the option not to grant it.
But where would it get him if he didn’t
grant it? Where does it get any of us? In the gospel lesson appointed for
Pentecost 15 Year A (Matthew 18:21-35) Jesus teaches about the torture of an
unforgiving spirit. Matthew, as I pointed out in a recent post (Sept. 17,
2017), lived in a time when the church was under great persecution and unity
was essential. There was no place in the Christian life for resentment of any
kind.
I generally like most people. Given the life
I lead, that’s a pretty good thing. But I remember back in my grad school days in
the early ‘80’s at the University of Wisconsin I had a run-in with my
department chairman. I was on a teaching assistantship, teaching undergraduate
courses while I studied for my Masters of Fine Arts degree. The department
chair and I didn’t exactly hit it off initially. I made matters worse when I
decided to give a reprieve to the cornerback of the Wisconsin Badger football
team who was failing my class and would be dropped from the team and the
university if I gave him the “F” he deserved. I felt sorry for the guy and,
being the complete wuss that I am, elected to give him a second chance. The
boss was furious over what he considered to be my pusillanimous act of mercy.
He called me into his office and chewed my ass to hamburger in front of my
supervisor. He later embarrassed me by bringing the matter up in front of my
peers during a lecture. I hated his guts for that—and deeply despised his
liver, spleen, and pancreas too!
But I needed a role in a show for my master’s
thesis project, and the chairman needed a student actor to play the lead in his
German expressionist project. We both agreed to put our mutual dislike and
distrust on hold for the sake of the production. Looking back, I realize that
the cautiousness with which we treated each other allowed us to step back, see
where the other was coming from, and gain a new appreciation of each other
apart from our past disagreement. I don’t think we ever got to the point where
we wanted to hug each other, but we did end the show on much better terms.
(The production, by the way, got great
newspaper reviews, pulled in pretty good-sized audiences, and even got written
up in a national theatrical journal. It is permanently archived on video at the
UW. Best of all, it helped me to grow up and get over myself!)
Resentment doesn’t get anyone anywhere. In
today’s polarized America, we need compassion, empathy, and forgiveness more
than ever. As Christians, we can’t repay hate with more hate. The example of a
crucified Jesus calls us to criticize in love, praise and appreciate when
praise and appreciation are due, and to see our own sinfulness mirrored in
those we dislike. As Joseph did, we’re also called to look to what God can do
with our wounded feelings. Every case of alienation is a possibility for
greater reconciliation with both our “enemies” and our own souls.
Hey. We can’t control how others behave or
how we are perceived by them. We can, however, control how we respond.
God bless. Thanks for checking me out this
week.
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