Forgiven Forgive
Date: February 23, 2025
Passage: Genesis 45:3–15
Pastor: Pastor Horton
A 17-year-old author named Pliny the Younger watched, as a firsthand witness, as Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, burying the city of Pompei. He wrote about the event and said that a dense cloud shot up like a pine tree and the ash of eruption spread out in the air like the branches of a tree. He watched as large walls of fire spewed from the mountainside. Darkness covered over those who lived in the shadow of the volcano, and many perished. I imagine as an eyewitness to this, you had to have been awestruck, overwhelmed, and paralyzed by fear.
We aren’t often in such situations thankfully. But I imagine such an emotion had to have swept over the eleven men in the Old Testament reading for this morning. Awestruck, overwhelmed, and paralyzed by fear. Not because of what they had seen but because they had just heard. Can you picture them with their eyes fixed on the man standing in front of them? Their adrenaline pumping, their flight or flight response perhaps kicking in, maybe they were even pale in appearance as blood rushed to their muscles and brain. They were scared to death all because of what he just said.
“I am Joseph.” And you could hear a pin drop. In an unexpected plot twist, the Egyptian leader who stood before them was their brother. And you might expect this to be some sort of a happy family reunion – after all, it had been a whopping 20 years of separation from one another – but it wasn’t. More likely, is that those years had weighed heavy with the brothers’ guilty conscience.
We do know that they were haunted by the memory of selling Joseph off into slavery. They confessed their guilt to each other in a previous chapter saying, “we saw the misery of his soul when he begged us, but we would not listen.” The last time they had seen their brother, he was pleading to them for his life. What were they laughing at him? Mocking him? Were they distracted from his impassioned begging as their eyes looked over the clanging coins handed to them by slave traders? These human traffickers would get rid of their goody-two-shoes brother once and for all! Even if it meant keeping a secret from their loving father. But as the years went by, the memories remain. As they grew up, and got married, and had their own families, what they did to their flesh-and-blood brother was guilt they couldn’t shake. And that must have made them miserable!
But now Joseph, through incredible turns of events directed by God’s merciful hand, had been raised up and stood him before his brothers. This was far more than family members bumping into each other at the local McDonalds. They were in a palace, and it was Joseph’s palace. Maybe you have met a famous person or even a powerful politician, but probably not one with the authority of Joseph. He was now the right-hand man to the king of Egypt, a senior statesman in this world superpower, and overseer to feeding the western world as the living God personally aided him in planning for the famine. This power is that kind of power you find in regimes or dictatorships. What Joseph says goes. And if he wants you gone – it is so. Object to his decision, and you will soon disappear as well. As they looked up to Joseph, they knew that the full vengeance backed by the might of Egypt could rightly come crashing down upon them worse than a wall of fire from Mt. Vesuvius. It’s no wonder the Bible tells us that “His brothers could not answer him, because they were terrified by his presence.”
But then Joseph did the unbelievable, he forgave them. Again, cue the pin drop. He forgave them. And he promised to take care of them. And he promised to give them land in Egypt so that they could be safe and close to him. And this promise of providence extended to their families and to their grandchildren. What is happening? They stood speechless. But maybe some of the color slowly returned to their faces as Joseph repeats his message of forgiveness and blessings. And twenty years of guilt slowly begin to melt away. Forgiven forgive!
This is what God wants for you. In fact, this is what God has given to you in Christ Jesus. Forgiveness. It should amaze us every single night that we have been forgiven in Jesus. Why? Because every single day we sin against God. Maybe it’s using his name in vain, or neglected time with his word, or reacted with petty thoughts towards someone else’s blessings, or you name it – and we have sinned it. Especially when it comes to the relationships we have with one another. Sometimes we have the biggest issues with those closest to us in life and have a hard time forgiving.
How could Joseph do it? How could he forgive his family who did him so very wrong? His relationship with God impacted his relationship with others. He knew where he stood with the Almighty God, and that he had been treated far better than his sins deserved. As we approach the cross of Christ, we underserving believers see, appreciate, and reflect the love of God found there in our relationship with other, fellow, undeserving individuals.
Real forgiveness is hard. It’s more than being nice to someone. It’s more than getting along with a difficult person. It involves being wronged – being sinned against – and letting our right to be mad melt away so that soothing and healing might take place. That’s hard because we want that self-seeking right to be mad. We sinful humans want our anger to burn red hot and we want to extract volcanic vengeance for years – maybe even for a lifetime. It is hard to forgive and to be at peace with whatever issue may be. It involves resisting the temptation to go and pull it back out of the dumpster at a later date. Forgiveness from Jesus is full and free. With him our wrongs are gone forever. “Help me Lord Jesus,” could be our nightly prayer, “to fully and freely forgive ________ (you fill in the blank) as you have first forgiven me.” Forgiven, forgive.
Was it easy for Joseph? After all he was now the one with power and authority. It may not have been easy. There may have been trauma from all those years of being unfairly treated. There may have been moments of doubt, certainly questions of God while unfairly suffering during those prime-of-life years. Was there some temptation to extract some degree of payback for his brothers?
What we do have is the example he gives us. Jospeh speaks nothing but gracious words to his brothers. We find Jesus’ instruction from our gospel lesson on display in this account: “I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you…Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
Another example is the simple trust in God’s control over his life. Forgiveness understands and believes God’s promise that “all things work together for the good of those who love God.” Joseph believed that. Three times he said this about his slavery and prison term: “God sent me ahead of you.” Those lost years were not his brother’s doing, but God’s doing. Forgiveness becomes easier when we trust God to use our lives – the good and the bad – to ultimately serve his bigger plans.
One more lesson, we find in this reading that forgiveness is loving and also honest. Not all the deaths caused by Mt. Vesuvius were from giant boulders falling on people. Some deaths were from lots of little soot, ash, and pebbles building up on roofs until they collapsed. When there is sin committed, forgiveness does not sweep it under the rug, but addresses it. Joseph did that. He doesn’t say let’s not speak of this ever again, but tells his brothers “do not be upset or angry with yourselves for selling me to this place.” Naming the sin, even as lots of little ones build up upon an issue, helps the forgiveness process address and remove the issue, and allows both sides to move on in peace.
Often after a disaster there is some calm. For the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, it would take time to clean up and rebuild in the region. Sometimes forgiveness takes time as well. Sometimes that time is at the end of a loved one’s life when a family is able to talk honestly and lovingly – forgiving and lifting guilt off of hearts. Joseph and his brothers would take time and patience to rebuild the trust in their relationship. Why not start today for us? Let’s return to the cross of Jesus to find forgiveness for us. And with God’s help, may we Forgiven, Forgive. Amen.
