Genesis 45:3-15 and Luke 6:27-38
February 23, 2025
I think one of the most difficult things to do in life is to forgive someone. Now, we talk about it all the time, especially here in worship each week when we confess our sins, we receive forgiveness; and as we pray the Lord’s Prayer saying, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” But it’s not easy. Someone hurts you and you’re supposed to forgive him. Someone destroys your reputation by spreading lies about you behind your back, and you’re supposed to forgive her. People hurt your mom, your dad, your spouse, or even your own child and you’re supposed to forgive them. But that’s hard, because God forgives unconditionally, and we don’t forgive in that way no matter how hard we try.
I once had a pastor tell me that when God leads you to forgive someone, you will see a real-life miracle. Now you won’t see Jesus changing water into wine or raising someone from the dead; but you will see Him change the attitude of your heart and fill you with a sense of peace that only He can give.
A miracle is when something supernatural happens, and to totally forgive someone is supernatural. In other words, to forgive goes against the laws of nature that are at work in our sinful hearts. It is not natural for us, as sinners, to forgive someone. Our sinful nature would rather seek revenge. Our sinful nature hopes for the day when we’ll be able to see the offending person suffering and say, “You got what you deserved. What goes around comes around.” That is not forgiveness, but the good news is God teaches us how to forgive in His way through His words so that we can experience this miracle in our own lives.
The Bible has quite a bit to say about forgiveness, especially in our Old Testament lesson from Genesis and our Gospel reading from Luke. In our Old Testament text we see the climax of the story between Joseph and his 11 brothers. When Joseph was a teenager his brothers hated him, because he was their dad’s favorite. Their hatred reached a boiling point when Joseph told them about a dream he had in which his brothers would bow to him. So they lured Joseph into the wilderness where they planned to kill him. But they changed their minds and decided to sell him to a group of strangers, who took Joseph away to a foreign land. The brothers went home and told their dad that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal that attacked him in the wilderness. Meanwhile, Joseph becomes a slave of a government official in Egypt. Later he is accused of attacking the official’s wife and is thrown into prison. Imagine how angry Joseph must have been, sitting in jail in a foreign country knowing that it was because of what his brothers did to him. Would you forgive them if you were in Joseph’s shoes?
A few years later, while still in prison, Joseph is called before the Pharaoh and asked to interpret his dreams. Joseph does so and gives the Pharaoh some practical advice on how to prepare for a famine that would be coming in 7 years. The Pharaoh was so impressed that he elevated Joseph from one of his slaves to being the second in command over the whole nation of Egypt. So now, in our text, about 20 years have passed since Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers and a famine has hit the land. Joseph’s father heard that there was grain in Egypt, so he told his sons to go to Egypt to buy some grain. Joseph was in charge of selling grain to the people, and when his brothers arrive and stand before him requesting to buy grain, so much time had passed since they last saw Joseph that they didn’t even recognize him; but Joseph recognized them. Now, what a great opportunity for revenge, right? Joseph was in a position of absolute power over his brothers. He could have sent them away with no food, he could have viewed them as his enemies and had them arrested, or he could even have had them killed.
Instead, Joseph wept for joy that he had seen his brothers again and told them that he was their brother. God had worked forgiveness in Joseph’s heart as there was no sign of any anger towards his brothers. And to assure his brothers that they were forgiven, Joseph tells them that God was the one who sent him there to Egypt in order to preserve their lives and the lives of others from a terrible famine that God knew was coming. Now Joseph was not saying that his years of suffering, caused by his brothers’ awful behavior, were part of God’s plan for his life. In spite of their horrible behavior, God found a way for His will to be done. Joseph forgave his brothers and in that forgiveness Joseph’s relationship with his brothers was restored and he was reunited with his father.
Jesus addresses forgiveness in our Gospel reading from Luke as He gives us what appears to be some rather unrealistic advice. Jesus says we are to love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, turn the other cheek when someone strikes us, and give the shirt off your back to the person who steals your coat. Now that seems ridiculous, because that’s not natural. The thought of giving offenders the opposite of what they have given to us just doesn’t make sense. If we were to do that, we reason, people would walk all over us and take advantage of us.
But what Jesus has in mind here is to break the chain of hostility and He demonstrated this with His own life. On His way to the cross, Jesus allows his cheek and his body to be struck and beaten, but He does not retaliate. All of His clothing is taken from him and divided among his executioners. But on the cross Jesus puts His words into action as He prays for His enemies and shows love for them saying, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
By dying on the cross, Jesus breaks the chain of hostility. He accomplishes forgiveness of sins for all of humanity and He restores our relationship with God. So Jesus invites us to be agents of grace with Him. With God we can break the chain of hostility that is present in our world; and when we do, the blessings we give to others will be returned to us.
In a book titled, “On Grief and Grieving,” the authors tell the true story of a father’s deep grief. A man named Keith has a 17 year-old son, Alan, who is shot and killed by a gang member while walking back to his car after a basketball game. Keith and his wife, Donna, were angry and bitter, as you can imagine, by the senseless murder of their son. To their friends, it seemed like Keith and Donna could not get over their grief.
Keith was consumed by the trial of the gang member who killed his son. The jury found him guilty and sentenced him to life in prison. While that seemed to bring some comfort to Keith and Donna, as they tried to go on with their lives, the absence of their son and the end of the trial left a big hole in Keith’s heart. Five years later, Keith learned that the man who killed his son was up for parole. As a result, his anger and bitterness came back. Keith attended the parole hearing and parole was quickly denied. However, the father of the shooter was there and when his son was denied parole, he began to weep. What Keith saw was another father grieving for his son.
Keith walked across the room and extended his hand to the shooter’s father. He wanted to get to know this man, because he realized this father was also hurting. The two grieving fathers established a connection and over time they channeled their grief into something productive. The two fathers started to help other gang members escape their situation and find a new path in life. They visited inner city schools and shared their common story. They became instruments of forgiveness as God worked through them, and in doing so they found healing.
While God allows evil or bad things to happen in this world, He can work through those things so that the good of His will can be done. If you don’t think God can turn your life around, if you don’t think He can work through evil so that something good can be produced, just look at Joseph’s life in our Old Testament lesson; look at what Jesus said in our Gospel lesson knowing He was going to be nailed to a cross, and trust Him. His words matter, as He will change you, comfort you, and will enable you to do what may seem impossible – to forgive others who have hurt you in the same way that you have been forgiven by Him.
