Sermon - Trinity IV 2024 - Genesis 50:15-21

The Recognition of Joseph by his Brothers, Peter von Cornelius, 1816

Being Merciful

1. Joseph’s backstory and him showing mercy to his brothers after receiving evil from them

2. Jesus shows mercy to us after receiving evil from us

3. We are to be humbly merciful towards those who do us evil

“Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” That’s really hard to do. It is very difficult to get along with other people. To be fair, it’s really tough for others to get along with us. We can all be quite insensitive, rude, obnoxious, prideful, foolish, malicious, vengeful, antagonistic, and sometimes downright wicked to each other. Yet, in spite of the fact that sometimes we want to strangle somebody or slug them in the face, Jesus tells us to be merciful, even if they deserve a punch in the gut. 

Old Testament Joseph is a good example of showing mercy to those who deserved no mercy. His brothers said to themselves: “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” You remember the story of Joseph; it’s perhaps one of the most well known Old Testament stories. Joseph was one of the twelve sons of Jacob (also known as Israel). Joseph was the favorite and everyone knew it, and his brothers hated him for it.

Joseph had a couple dreams, in which his parents and brothers all bowed down to him. His brothers hated him all the more. So one time when the brothers were all shepherding their sheep, Joseph went out to them and they plotted to kill him. Instead of killing him they saw an opportunity to sell him as a slave and make some money off of him. Eventually he wound up being sold as a slave in Egypt to Potiphar, a captain of Pharaoh's guards. 

Here we have to clear up any misunderstanding that might exist; don’t confuse 19th century American slavery with slavery in ancient times. Slaves then weren’t just doing menial labor, but they were highly educated and trained. So Joseph was apparently pretty intelligent, and he was made the manager of all Potiphar’s property and business ventures, and God blessed him in this work.

But in time Potphar’s wife became attracted to Joseph because he was handsome, Joseph refused her advances, so she accused him of attempting to violate her, and Joseph was thus thrown into prison. After some time Pharaoh's cupbearer and baker were thrown into prison, and they each had a dream. Now God gave Joseph the ability to interpret dreams, and he correctly interpreted that the cupbearer would be restored to his position, and the baker would be executed.

Two years after that, Pharaoh had two dreams, and Joseph was given the opportunity to correctly interpret them. These dreams meant that there would be seven years of bumper crops, and seven years of famine, so they needed to store up enough during the seven good years in order to withstand the seven years of famine. Pharaoh then promoted Joseph to being second in command of all of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh.

Because God worked through Joseph, Egypt stored up enough grain for themselves and the surrounding nations. Most importantly, God preserved the Israelites through Joseph, so that Joseph’s brothers came to Egypt to buy grain and unknowingly bowed down before their brother who was in charge of distributing the grain. Long story short, Joseph revealed himself to his brothers and arranged for Israel and his sons to live in Egypt so that they would be provided for during this famine. God used the brothers’ wickedness in order to preserve many people, and most especially the sons of Israel, in particular Judah, from whom Jesus eventually was born to be the Savior. Like Joseph said: “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”

Frankly, Joseph’s brothers deserved his wrath, and Joseph had the authority and he would’ve been in the right had he severely punished them for what they had done to him. However, Joseph was merciful towards them even though they were evil to him. Joseph said: ““So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.” Joseph was merciful even as his Father in heaven was merciful.

In many ways Joseph is a type or a foreshadowing image of Christ. Jesus was betrayed by one of those closest to Him, Judas, and was arrested. Jesus was unfairly sentenced to punishment. Jesus spent time in the prisonhouse of the grave, even descending to the eternal prison, hell. And like Joseph, all of the evil that Jesus endured God the Father meant it for good, in order that many people should be kept alive eternally. Although Jesus suffered, was crucified, and died because of our wickedness, He shows us mercy. Although His disciples abandoned Him on the cross, He did not abandon them in return; instead He showed them mercy.

Because of the sacrifice of Christ Jesus, God does not judge nor condemn us as we deserve, instead He forgives us. Remember this: He was crushed for our iniquities, He was pierced for our sins, upon Him was laid the chastisement which we deserved. He didn’t suffer for Himself, but He suffered for us because of all of the evil that we have done. Jesus is merciful towards us in spite of our wrongdoing. Praise be to God for His mercy!

As a fruit of God’s mercy and forgiveness towards us in Christ Jesus, we are also to be humbly merciful towards others, even those who do us evil. Jesus rebukes us: “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.” In short, Jesus is teaching us to have a bit of humility. At the end of the day all of us have something in our eyes, we all have blindspots and sins of our own to deal with, and therefore God and others have shown us much mercy already, thus we too should be merciful in confronting others in their sins.

Our first response is too often outrage. Someone does something wrong, and we lose our temper. We build up grudges against them, harbor hateful thoughts, and seek to get revenge. Instead of mercy, we show them our full wrath, or at least our seething sarcasm and mockery.

Lord have mercy upon us for our lack of mercy! May He teach us mercy and humble us. Humility is never pleasant to learn, but it’s important. Remember, the other guy has a speck in his eye, but you have a log in your own. If you think it’s hard for you to get along with them, trust me, it’s also hard for them to get along with you. So keep that in mind.

Remember these words from Colossians: “bear with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgive each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.” Or from Ephesians: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” And in turn, remember the proverb: “Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.” 

Not every fault of another needs to be remembered or is worth correcting; oftentimes we need to learn to overlook an offense. Someone habitually leaves on a light, chews too loud, repeats the same stories, whatever the minor offense may be, usually we need to learn to overlook these things and be merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful. Should we all learn to be a little more self-conscious of our actions and stop sinning? Of course! But constantly being irritated at others’ annoying habits is not being merciful.

Of course sin needs to be rebuked, of course evildoers need to be punished, and yeah jerks need to stop being jerks. But more often than not I can’t control another person’s stupidity, but I can work to control my response. God worked good out of all of the evil Joseph suffered, God worked incredible good out of all of the evil Jesus suffered, so perhaps God may also work good out of the evil we may suffer from others. If Jesus can be merciful to us after all of our wickedness, then we ought to learn to be like God and show mercy to others. “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”