One could say that this Sunday is officially “The end of the beginning” since we have reached the end of the book of Genesis! It’s not exactly true though: We’re in Chapter 45 and there are actually 50 chapters in Genesis, yet for us it’s indeed the last lesson from our lectionary. Next week, we will start the book of Exodus. I think we have come a long way since we started on the last Sunday of May, two months and a half ago, and I hope this study was an opportunity for us all to dive deeper in the stories of the fathers (and mothers!) of our faith. Now there is no pop quiz at the end of this term, but I still have a question for you: If you were asked “What is the Book of Genesis about?”, what would you say? It seems to me that there are obvious answers that aren’t wrong for sure: Genesis is indeed about the beginnings, the beginning of the world, the beginning of the human race and civilization, and more specifically it is indeed about the beginning of Israel, which is the focus of the lectionary: Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob with Leah and Rachel. But saying this only answers half of the question. More deeply, we may wonder: What does Genesis have to say about the beginnings, and what are we supposed to learn from that? But in fact, I don’t think we can know that until we come to the end of the Book, and more precisely to the end of the story of Joseph we have started reading last week.
So let’s take one last detour and go back to Joseph.
If you remember from last week, the story of Joseph takes up one third of the whole Book of Genesis – so we’re already know it’s important. We only have two lessons about him in the lectionary, but the story is quite well known: Joseph is the beloved son of Jacob because of his mother, Rachel, and it occurs that the sons of his first wife, Leah, and the sons of his concubines are jealous of Joseph and rebel against the authority their father has given him. They get rid of Joseph by selling him into slavery to passing merchants headed to Egypt, but what happens is that Joseph ends up doing extremely well in Egypt because, the story tells us, he remains faithful to the Lord, adjusts to his circumstances, works hard, resist temptations, and in the process gains a lot of wisdom that is finally noticed by Pharaoh himself, who will raise him to the rank of prime minister after Joseph foresees a famine as well as the ways to prevent it. Joseph then marries and have two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, names that mean that the Lord made him forget all his hardships and had made him fruitful – which indeed summarizes very well his new life.
And that could be the end, a happy end, a just end, where the good guy is rewarded and finally at peace but it is in fact only the middle of the story, and it goes on to the next thing.
What happens afterwards is that we learn that the famine has spread to Canaan where Joseph’s family still lives, and Jacob has heard that there is grain in Egypt so he sends his sons to buy food. They meet with Joseph without recognizing him, now he rules the country, dresses and talks like an Egyptian, but of course Joseph recognizes them and decides to put them to the test. He asks them to go get their little brother Benjamin, who was the youngest after him, and when they come back with them, he accuses Benjamin of stealing and declares he will keep him as a slave. The brothers realize that the story is repeating itself, and as they carry the guilt of the deep sorrow Joseph’s disappearance has caused their father, they now become very afraid that losing Benjamin will be the death of Jacob. And that’s when something extraordinary and very unexpected happens: Judah, who was the one who sold Joseph into slavery, offers himself as a slave in place of his brother Benjamin so his father’s heart would not be broken a second time. And that’s where we pick up this morning: Joseph, realizing his brothers have completely changed, and are now ready not only to do the right thing but even to sacrifice themselves out of love for their father and to protect his youngest, Joseph decides to reveal himself and offer his forgiveness, to reconcile and bless his family with all the riches he has acquired in the land.
And so finally all is well that ends well. Not just for Joseph and the land of Egypt, but also for his whole family and the survival of Israel. Joseph declares to his brothers:
Do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sent me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life (…) God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. Joseph’s interpretation is that God let these bad things happen to him so he would be in position to protect his family when the time comes, and indeed he will save them from the famine by providing not only a large food supply but even a land where they will be able to settle for the time being. For this reason, a lot of people have concluded that this story is about God’s providence and how God works to provide good outcome in the midst of our brokenness. That’s actually one of the last sentences of the book of Genesis, in Joseph’s words:
“Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as He is doing today.” (50:20)
But what does it mean exactly, that God perseveres God’s people, save them, and takes them out of death into life? Maybe it strikes you ear because that’s words we use in our Eucharistic Prayer B which we have been also using in the past weeks: In [Christ], you have brought us out of error into truth, out of sin into righteousness, out of death into life. We know that the bread Jesus provides is not just for the life of the body, but for the life of the soul and reconciliation through his suffering and death. And so when we read Joseph’s story we cannot remain at the literal level, as beautiful as it is. We’ve already noticed last week that for us Christians, Joseph’s story is a foretelling of Jesus’s story, and we see that Joseph saves his brothers not only physically, by providing food, he also save them spiritually by giving them an opportunity for repentance, he forgives them for his sufferings, he reconciles them to himself and mainly to their father by taking their guilt away.
The passage we have heard today has often been connected to the appearance of the Risen Christ to his disciples, and how Jesus offered peace rather then condemnation for the way they betrayed him. This is the parallelism that’s once you’ve seen, you cannot un-see: The beloved son is rejected by his brothers, humiliated, apparently lost, he is raised to authority and becomes the means of life to his enemies who come before him, he has the power to destroy them but instead he gives them life.
Our passage is about Providence, for sure, but I don’t think it is about “How God saved Jacob’s sons us from hunger” because if you think about it, God has probably the power to prevent a famine altogether, and so Joseph could have remained in his land for ever and enjoyed his life. But this is not what providence is about, like when we say: Everything happens for a reason. It does not mean much because God can make happen whatever God wants, so why bad things then? But Providence is much more about God’s biggest plan of forgiveness, of reconciliation: Of humankind with one another, and with God through God’s son. The real intent was to heal Joseph’s family, not to provide grain. God allowed the brothers to go to the bottom of their hatred for Joseph so they could see the darkness of their hearts and come to repentance. And I think this is what God still does: He lets us use our freedom with all its consequence but God will work through our lives so we can finally take responsibility for our deeds and come to repentance and reconciliation.
And so, that could be what genesis is really about: It’s about the way God works to bring back God’s people together. Genesis is about the way people rebelled against God and turned against each other, and it’s about how, from the first murder, Cain killing Abel and declaring that he isn’t his brother’s keeper, we finally land at the end of Genesis and we learn about how the family is brought back together with a brother offering himself to save another brother and reconcile with the father. Genesis goes from brokenness to wholeness and that’s what God’s plan is all about. In many ways, Genesis already announces the Gospel and prepares our heart for Jesus’s story.
But now I have another question: Is the journey from brokenness to forgiveness really is what our lives are all about? Does our plan for our lives matches God’s plan for the world? Sadly most of our lives’ journeys resemble more a journey towards self justification rather than repentance, self absolution rather than forgiveness, self preservation rather than mutual healing. And it’s hard right? Forgiveness is at the heart of God’s plan for us, but we also know that it’s the hardest thing to do!
The good news is that if we want to work according to God’s plan, there is a lot to learn from Joseph’s story we can also apply in our own lives:
– When we are offended and hurt, forgiveness is a process that may take years. It’s okay not to be able to forgive right away. Joseph had the willingness to let go (By calling his first son Manasseh he says: God makes me forget), and that’s a first step in the process we may want to take to protect our own hearts from bitterness and being stuck in our lives (By calling his second son Ephraim: Joseph says he has been able to be fruitful, in spite of the hurt), yet Joseph will only be able to forgive when he finally sees his family again and they show some repentance.
– And so we see that yes Joseph is willing to forgive but he also wants to have proof that his brothers have changed. He is not willing to be deceived and abused a second time. He takes the offense seriously does not deny the way he hurt, he even cries many times. It also means for us we don’t have to allow people into our lives if they are still a threat for us. Repentance is not just about words, good will, even though it matters, repentance is shown when the offenders start acting differently, especially if they are brought back in the same situation.
– Lastly, if we read until Genesis 50, we will see that the brothers will ask again for forgiveness. Forgiveness can be given several times, relationships take time to be completely healed. We may still feel resentment after forgiveness have been granted or fear after forgiveness has been received. We sometimes need to “repeat” the process “as needed”.
In the end though, the story of Joseph shows us that it does not depend on us to get there, God works to get us there, in this place of reconciliation and healing, in this place of life. The best we can do is to show our good will so God can work through us. It’s all about being willing to “embark on God’s journey”.