Jesu Juva
“Where Did That Come From!?”
Text: Genesis 45:3-15; Luke 6:27-38; 1 Corinthians 15:21-26, 30-42
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
Love your enemies.
Do good to those who hate you.
Bless those who curse you.
Pray for those who abuse you.
To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also,
and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either.
Give to everyone who begs from you,
and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back.
And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.
All those words are true of Joseph. His brothers hated him. All eleven of them. They didn’t just curse him, they wished him dead. And they didn’t just wish him dead, they actually began plotting how they might do that. They didn’t, though. Choosing instead to take his cloak, the one of many colors, and sell him instead. To be a slave in a foreign country for the rest of his miserable little life. He worked as a slave, then as a trusted servant, but that was soon taken away from him and he was thrown into prison for a crime he did not commit. Back to square one. There he was forgotten by those he helped, forsaken by those he thought his friends. If you tallied up all the good days and all the bad days in his life, I’m not sure which would have been more . . . though on that seesaw, I’m sure the bad ones seemed more frequent and more severe.
But then one day he is raised up and put in charge of all the food in Egypt. And suddenly, those who hated him, who cursed him, who abused him, who struck him, stole from him, wished him dead, and sold him, were there before him. And not just before him, but on their knees, begging from him. How the tables had turned! You know what Joseph did, how he responded to this. You heard it again today in the reading from Genesis.
Joseph loved his brothers. They weren’t his enemies, even though they treated him as their enemy. He did good to them who hated him. He blessed those who had cursed him in word and deed. To those who had taken his cloak, he clothed them and fed them and provided for them. Far more than they had taken from him. And he demanded nothing for all this. What he had wished they would have done for him all those years ago, he did to them now. The mercy he wished for is the mercy he gave.
Time heals all wounds, some would say. But God heals all wounds, Joseph would say. The Word of God that had been with Joseph and working in Joseph all those years. The Word of God that had sustained Joseph all those years, in all the struggles, the ups and downs, the good days and the bad days.
Could you be like that? Like Joseph? Maybe yes, maybe no. Maybe sometimes you are, sometimes you’re not. Many people, maybe you, often say or think: I could never forgive THAT. I could never love HIM. I could never do good to HER. The hurt too bad, the wounds too deep, the betrayal too profound. The mercy I wished for but didn’t get . . . how can I now give it?
Perhaps Joseph had days like that, too. And so perhaps he was even more surprised than his brothers when he saw them again and didn’t hate them or want to get revenge on them, but loved them. Where did that come from!?
You know. For just as those words are true of Joseph for his brothers, even more are they true of Jesus for you and me. His forgiveness, His mercy, His love, His good given to you and me.
For when you look at your life, who are you more like: Joseph? Or his brothers? I know what the answer, sadly, is for me. How much I need forgiveness for those I’ve mistreated. How much mercy I need for those careless and reckless things I’ve done. How much love I haven’t shown. And yet . . . and yet I also know how generous people are with their forgiveness and love and mercy for me! All of you. My family. Other pastors. Friends. Where did that come from!? I know, though. How Jesus is caring for me through you and them.
So when Jesus tells us to do those things we heard today, when He tells us to be merciful, even as your Father is merciful - that’s not just command, it’s also a promise. The mercy you need, you get, so that they mercy others need, they get. From you. Or I should say, from God through you. For Jesus never tells us to do something without working it in us, first giving us what we need.
So we are the brothers who come not to the one who is Pharaoh’s right hand man, but to the one who is at God the Father’s right hand; we come to our brother Jesus here each week, desperate. In need. Ashamed. Knowing that we deserve nothing. And we are washed and cleansed and blessed and fed. And we don’t have to wonder where that came from - we know. From the cross. Where Jesus poured out His life for our life, His blood for our forgiveness, His mercy for our need. And for that He was cast into the ground, into the tomb.
Joseph had been cast into a pit in the ground, which might as well have been a tomb. His brothers had wanted it to be. And then he was also cast into the pit of prison, which might as well have been a tomb, as he was forgotten and abandoned. But God raised up Joseph, just as He would raise up Jesus, so that He raise you, too. To new life. A life not like the one which got you there, or like the ones who put you there, but like Jesus’ life. A life of forgiveness, mercy, love, and care. God giving those things to others through you.
And maybe you’ll be surprised . . . and not just at the forgiveness, love, mercy, and care you receive, but that you now give. When you thought: I could never forgive THAT. I could never love HIM. I could never do good to HER. The hurt too bad, the wounds too deep, the betrayal too profound. But you do. Where did that come from!? You know. It comes from the one who washed you in His water. It comes from the one who forgives your sins against Him. It comes from the one who has mercy on you. It comes from the one who feeds you with His own Body and Blood. All those things the fruits of His cross. All those gifts giving you the new life you need. His life. That you live a new life. Not a sinless life. But a repenting life, a forgiving life.
For as St. Paul said, as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. And we really did. Die. The life we had, that God created for us and created us for, we no longer have. We live in a world of sin and death. Of hate and cursing. Of selfishness and abuse. And born in sin, sin lives in us and we die in sin. But this, too: in Christ, we are made alive. And that’s not just a promise for the Last Day, but for THIS day. In baptism, Jesus takes us into His death and raises us to His life. So all that we need, we have. And when we need more, He gives more. For His mercy, love, and forgiveness is in good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, and put into your lap. Into you. And we now give it to others.
And when they are amazed, when they wonder: where did that come from!? You can tell them. You can tell them of a man named Joseph. You can tell them of a Saviour named Jesus. You can tell them of His forgiveness given to you, that is also for them. You can tell them you have often wondered the same thing. And while not perfect, we have a perfect God. Perfectly loving. Perfectly merciful. Perfectly forgiving. So we can be the same. Sons of God in the Son of God.
In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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