Naming the Evil: February 23, 2025

 Year C, Epiphany 6                                    Genesis 45:3-11,15                                                                                                          

          I have three older brothers. The oldest is 13 years older than me, the youngest is 8 years older. We were on very different levels when I was young. They were always doing something interesting and I was talking to my dolls or trying to get someone to play with me.  Once when I was pretty young, they were trying to create booby traps in a wooded area near our house.  They dug a large hole and covered it with branches. I was looking for them and fell right into the hole.  They thought this was hilarious.  But when they were done laughing they pulled me out.  I wasn’t hurt, but it was mildly traumatic.

However, this can’t compare to what Joseph’s brothers did to him.  Joseph was one of the youngest in the family, a family of 12 boys. His father Jacob was not shy in showing that Joseph was the favorite, which caused resentment with his older brothers. To make things worse, Joseph was a little obnoxious.  He liked to tell his brothers about his dreams, dreams where they were bowing before him.  So they decided to get rid of him, which I think we can agree was a bit of an extreme way to handle an annoying younger sibling.

When they were very far from home, they decided to throw him in a deep pit and leave him there, with no water or food. This way no one could say that they actually killed him, because he could have possibly escaped.  While Joseph sat at the bottom of the pit, they took a break and had lunch.  Some traders came by on their way to Egypt and the brothers thought, hey we might as well make some money on this whole thing and sold their brother to the traders.  They went home and told their father that Joseph was killed by a wild animal. Now, I think we can all agree that these brothers were horrible and Joseph would have some good reasons to carry a grudge.

          There are a lot of things that happened to Joseph when he got to Egypt, but eventually he was given the opportunity to interpret the dreams of the pharaoh and he predicted a 7 year drought and famine that would be preceded by 7 years of plenty.  The pharaoh was so impressed by this prediction he put Joseph in charge of the land so that they would be prepared for the famine.  Joseph did a great job preparing for the famine and when we come to our reading for today, they were 2 years into the famine. 

People from all around were coming to Egypt to beg Joseph for food because Egypt had prepared (thanks to Joseph). That’s how Joseph’s brothers ended up appealing to Joseph.  At this point, it had been about 20 years since he had seen his brothers, which is at least one of the reasons why they didn’t recognize him until he told them who he was. 

          In our reading for today, we see this beautiful encounter between Joseph and his brothers.  While the word “forgiveness” is not used in this part of the story, Joseph’s words and actions demonstrated radical forgiveness to people who considered murdering him and then compromised by selling him into slavery. In our reading for today, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life.” He then promised to provide for them and their families for the next 5 years of the famine. 

          It seems astounding, even divine. From what we can see his brothers have not apologized or given him any reason to provide for them after what they did. This seems to align with our Gospel reading where Jesus said, “Forgive and you will be forgiven.”  Jesus also told us to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us. Is this what that looks like? Did Joseph just provide forgiveness without asking anything from his brothers?

Remember there are 7 chapters before this dramatic moment.  This is a long story arc for the Bible.  The brothers first showed up 3 chapters before.  Joseph gave them food but not before he accused them of being spies. Then while they were not looking, he instructed his servants to put the money they used to buy the food back in their bags so he could accuse them of stealing.  He didn’t, but when they found the money upon their return home, you can imagine it made them a little anxious. 

The next time they came to Egypt, Joseph planted a silver cup in the youngest brother’s bag and then sent people after them to accuse them of stealing the cup.  He said that the youngest brother, Benjamin would have to be detained in Egypt.  The brothers knew this would kill their father, who had already lost one son. And Benjamin was the one brother who had not been part of the plot to kill Joseph. He was the only innocent one.  So an older brother, Judah, offered to stay and be a slave in place of him.  It was only then…when Joseph saw that they were willing to sacrifice themselves for the one innocent one, when he finally admitted who he was.

And notice how he introduces himself.  He doesn’t say, “It’s Joseph---your long lost brother.” He said, “I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.”   He reminded them of what they had done.  He named the evil that they had perpetrated and then added that God had allowed good to come out of it.  He named the evil and also the redemption that God had made possible.  It was only then when they could start the process of reconciliation. And it was a process.  It wasn’t until their father Jacob had died that the brothers finally asked for Joseph’s forgiveness.

I think sometimes when we consider our faith, we think it should be easy.  We say, well Jesus told us to love our enemies, but that is totally unrealistic. We don’t need to even try.  Joseph gives us a model for loving those who hurt us…and he shows us it can be painful, gut wrenching. I don’t have definitive proof of this, but I am pretty sure that no one weeps as much as Joseph does, in the entire Bible.  Over the course of the story, he broke down weeping 7 times…and that was after seeing his brothers.  The author of Genesis doesn’t even mention him weeping when he was sold into slavery…only after being reunited with his family.  That was when the really hard work began.  Both sides had to do the work.  When Joseph’s father died, the brothers were terrified that Joseph would now punish them. They were incredibly aware of what they had done wrong, how it affected their father, and of course Joseph.  Love and reconciliation is hard work, for everyone.

Another thing I love about this story is that not only does it show what forgiveness can look like, it shows us what leadership and the proper use of power looks like.  Joseph saved a nation from starving by being a good steward. When people came to him begging for food, he didn’t make them grovel. He didn’t take more from them then he needed. He helped them. 

In a later chapter, there is a story of people having to sell their animals and their land to Joseph so they could have food. That meant that when the famine was over, they would have no way to provide for themselves.  Joseph bought the land, but told them that when the famine was over, they could keep 4/5 of the yield and share 1/5 with the pharaoh. 

Joseph did this because he knew that he had all this because of what God had given him, so of course he wasn’t going to hoard it all for the pharaoh.  We have all seen examples of how power and money can corrupt people, but this story shows us that it doesn’t have to be that way. There is always room for mercy and forgiveness. It might make things a little more difficult, but it’s worth it. It’s always worth it.