Genesis 50:15-21; Romans 12:9-16; St Luke 6:36-42
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
It was premeditated. They had plotted his demise, those wicked brothers of Joseph. Strategically ganging up on him they attacked at the right moment. In their fury they conspired to kill him, but at Reuben’s behest they spared his life. Instead they tore the multicolored robe off his back, tossed him into a dry cistern in the middle of the desert, and sat down to eat lunch within earshot of his pleas for help. Finally, in order to line their own pockets, they sold him into slavery. Dipping his coat in goat’s blood they deceived their father who thought his beloved son was ripped apart by beasts and was surely dead.
So now, more than two decades after their malicious act, after more than twenty years of repressed guilt and calloused consciences, harboring anger, hatred, and contempt, refusing to come clean of their sin, the brothers who had lied to their father about Joseph’s death now lie to their brother after their father’s death.
But they were wrong. Dead wrong. Those evil, guilty brothers assumed that Joseph was like them: vengeful, hateful, merciless. That’s why they didn’t want him as their judge, even as his dreams had prophesied. But now he was. Somehow, despite their evil, God elevated Joseph to be as King in Egypt and judge of the guilty clan before him. He was in the place of God.
But they were wrong. Dead wrong. Joseph was not like them. He was like the God who placed him there: merciful, forgiving, compassionate. He did not hold a grudge or seek vengeance on his family. He fed them. Gave them drink. He was not overcome with evil, but overcame evil with good.
You are wrong, too. Dead wrong. And you have done worse. You have ganged up on your brother Jesus, the beloved Son of the Father. You sold Him for the price of a slave, stripped Him of His robe and then crucified and killed Him. You may try to wash your hands of your guilt, but you know it to be true.
But the Father raised Him up. And despite our evil, despite our sinful passions and wicked cunning, He raised Him to be King of the Universe, giving Him all authority in heaven and on earth, seating Him at His right hand to judge the living and the dead. We meant evil against Him, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be made alive.
But if you think that Jesus is a Judge like you - hypercritical, vengeful, vindictive - you would be wrong. For Jesus is a Judge like His Father: merciful, forgiving, abounding in steadfast love and generous with pardon and remission of sin.
Do not be mistaken. It is not as though He winks at your sin, pats you on the head, and laughs at your trespasses as if they were insignificant. Apart from repentance and faith in Christ your sins, even the little hidden ones, the minuscule ones you think, the private ones you daydream about, the “tiny ones,” the ones you excuse and ignore - the lying, the gossip, the slander - would plunge you down to the darkest depths of hell for eternity. And a wholly righteous God would be completely just in damning you.
But if God were only righteous and not merciful, no one could be saved. If you are a true Christian, a blessed child of your Father who is in heaven, you did not become one by your own merit, but by God’s incomprehensible compassion alone. The Lord your God accepted you, and out of pure and free grace, for Christ’s sake, made you His child. If anyone thinks they can become a Christian by some other means, that one is not yet a Christian.
But precisely because you, dear Christian, have God’s grace, His undeserved kindness and favor, His unconditional love, you cannot maintain that you are better than those still mired in their sins. And especially those who share the grace of God in Christ with you, who are your brothers, as Jesus says and Joseph exemplifies. The mercy of God the Christian enjoys is the first thing that must move him to be merciful to his erring, sinful, and thirsty brethren. Such is the meaning of Jesus’ admonition, Become merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
Not be, as the ESV renders it. But become. γινεσθε. Become describes a state of being that the Christian now possesses in Christ by faith, but also grows into according to the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit through the Word. The Father shows mercy in the Son and through Him is merciful and forgiving toward you, His sons and daughters. You are then called as Christians, not only followers of Christ, but imitators of Him, reflecting His mercy.
For whoever has experienced the bottomless love of God in Christ confidently knows that his sins are forgiven and in such joyfulness becomes merciful as his Father is merciful. So that being a Christian can never be separated from being merciful. Whatever other characteristics are found in the Christian, they are invalid if he lacks mercy.
A Christian can be weak in knowledge, unable to expound on the blessed articles of the faith. A Christian can be weak in overcoming the world, weak in restraining his old Adam, falling over again into the same sins. Yet in faith the Christian still stands in Christ. But it is impossible for God’s grace to have dawned in a person who is unmerciful.
For the Christian knows that, by the mercy of the Father in Christ Jesus, he is free from judgment. Therefore, he cannot judge his fellow sinner lovelessly. A Christian knows that, by God’s mercy, he is free from damnation. Therefore he cannot condemn his fellow sinner. A Christian realizes that, by God’s mercy, all of his sins are forgiven. Therefore he cannot remain unreconciled to those who have sinned against him. The Christian knows that not a moment goes by in which he does not offend God anew with his sins. He is in need of God’s mercy at every moment and he richly enjoys it.
In this way the Christian who is declared righteous by faith in Christ, also becomes as Christ in practicing righteousness and exercising faith through good works. In this way the Christian becomes like the Christ. The disciple becomes like his Teacher. And through repentance and faith, the Christian removes the log from his own eye and becomes of some earthly good to his brother suffering from a speck.
Here, then, you, dear Christian, are given to do as Joseph to his brothers. You are not abandoned and sold and enslaved and imprisoned as Joseph was. But persecution comes in many forms. Are you in danger of losing your job if you refuse to use transgender pronouns? Are you ridiculed for defending traditional marriage? Mocked for your chastity? Maligned for protecting your children from heterodoxy and heresy? Welcome to the new persecution.
Christians, bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Live in harmony with one another. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. Feed your enemy, give him something to drink. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Those nasty brothers though Joseph would weigh their evil deeds against them and make them pay. But they were wrong. God placed Joseph there to comfort and speak kindly to them. To forgive them. But even more. He placed Joseph there to feed them with grain and care for their families so that they might stay alive and the family tree of the Messiah might not wither.
For in the fullness of time, the Greater Joseph, our Lord Jesus, came to you, His brothers in the flesh. He came not to critically judge or condemn, but to grant forgiveness. This He did by removing the planks for your two eyes, lashing them together in the shape of a Cross, and bore them to Jerusalem where He was nailed to them and judged for the sins of the whole world. The Father condemned Him in order that you would not be condemned. The wrath of God was visited upon Him, repaying Him for the iniquity of us all.
His mercy has been pressed down, shaken together, and is poured over into your lap. The Absolution is His judgment on you - not guilty for the sake of His Son! His love is pressed down and poured over onto your head in the waters of Holy Baptism. You are clothed with the robe of His righteousness, soaked in His blood. His forgiveness is pressed down and poured over into your mouths in His Eucharist, His Body and Blood, given and shed for you in mercy. So do not fear. Come up to meet your Elder Brother. He provides for you and your little ones. He shall comfort and speak kindly to you.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
It was premeditated. They had plotted his demise, those wicked brothers of Joseph. Strategically ganging up on him they attacked at the right moment. In their fury they conspired to kill him, but at Reuben’s behest they spared his life. Instead they tore the multicolored robe off his back, tossed him into a dry cistern in the middle of the desert, and sat down to eat lunch within earshot of his pleas for help. Finally, in order to line their own pockets, they sold him into slavery. Dipping his coat in goat’s blood they deceived their father who thought his beloved son was ripped apart by beasts and was surely dead.
So now, more than two decades after their malicious act, after more than twenty years of repressed guilt and calloused consciences, harboring anger, hatred, and contempt, refusing to come clean of their sin, the brothers who had lied to their father about Joseph’s death now lie to their brother after their father’s death.
But they were wrong. Dead wrong. Those evil, guilty brothers assumed that Joseph was like them: vengeful, hateful, merciless. That’s why they didn’t want him as their judge, even as his dreams had prophesied. But now he was. Somehow, despite their evil, God elevated Joseph to be as King in Egypt and judge of the guilty clan before him. He was in the place of God.
But they were wrong. Dead wrong. Joseph was not like them. He was like the God who placed him there: merciful, forgiving, compassionate. He did not hold a grudge or seek vengeance on his family. He fed them. Gave them drink. He was not overcome with evil, but overcame evil with good.
You are wrong, too. Dead wrong. And you have done worse. You have ganged up on your brother Jesus, the beloved Son of the Father. You sold Him for the price of a slave, stripped Him of His robe and then crucified and killed Him. You may try to wash your hands of your guilt, but you know it to be true.
But the Father raised Him up. And despite our evil, despite our sinful passions and wicked cunning, He raised Him to be King of the Universe, giving Him all authority in heaven and on earth, seating Him at His right hand to judge the living and the dead. We meant evil against Him, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be made alive.
But if you think that Jesus is a Judge like you - hypercritical, vengeful, vindictive - you would be wrong. For Jesus is a Judge like His Father: merciful, forgiving, abounding in steadfast love and generous with pardon and remission of sin.
Do not be mistaken. It is not as though He winks at your sin, pats you on the head, and laughs at your trespasses as if they were insignificant. Apart from repentance and faith in Christ your sins, even the little hidden ones, the minuscule ones you think, the private ones you daydream about, the “tiny ones,” the ones you excuse and ignore - the lying, the gossip, the slander - would plunge you down to the darkest depths of hell for eternity. And a wholly righteous God would be completely just in damning you.
But if God were only righteous and not merciful, no one could be saved. If you are a true Christian, a blessed child of your Father who is in heaven, you did not become one by your own merit, but by God’s incomprehensible compassion alone. The Lord your God accepted you, and out of pure and free grace, for Christ’s sake, made you His child. If anyone thinks they can become a Christian by some other means, that one is not yet a Christian.
But precisely because you, dear Christian, have God’s grace, His undeserved kindness and favor, His unconditional love, you cannot maintain that you are better than those still mired in their sins. And especially those who share the grace of God in Christ with you, who are your brothers, as Jesus says and Joseph exemplifies. The mercy of God the Christian enjoys is the first thing that must move him to be merciful to his erring, sinful, and thirsty brethren. Such is the meaning of Jesus’ admonition, Become merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
Not be, as the ESV renders it. But become. γινεσθε. Become describes a state of being that the Christian now possesses in Christ by faith, but also grows into according to the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit through the Word. The Father shows mercy in the Son and through Him is merciful and forgiving toward you, His sons and daughters. You are then called as Christians, not only followers of Christ, but imitators of Him, reflecting His mercy.
For whoever has experienced the bottomless love of God in Christ confidently knows that his sins are forgiven and in such joyfulness becomes merciful as his Father is merciful. So that being a Christian can never be separated from being merciful. Whatever other characteristics are found in the Christian, they are invalid if he lacks mercy.
A Christian can be weak in knowledge, unable to expound on the blessed articles of the faith. A Christian can be weak in overcoming the world, weak in restraining his old Adam, falling over again into the same sins. Yet in faith the Christian still stands in Christ. But it is impossible for God’s grace to have dawned in a person who is unmerciful.
For the Christian knows that, by the mercy of the Father in Christ Jesus, he is free from judgment. Therefore, he cannot judge his fellow sinner lovelessly. A Christian knows that, by God’s mercy, he is free from damnation. Therefore he cannot condemn his fellow sinner. A Christian realizes that, by God’s mercy, all of his sins are forgiven. Therefore he cannot remain unreconciled to those who have sinned against him. The Christian knows that not a moment goes by in which he does not offend God anew with his sins. He is in need of God’s mercy at every moment and he richly enjoys it.
In this way the Christian who is declared righteous by faith in Christ, also becomes as Christ in practicing righteousness and exercising faith through good works. In this way the Christian becomes like the Christ. The disciple becomes like his Teacher. And through repentance and faith, the Christian removes the log from his own eye and becomes of some earthly good to his brother suffering from a speck.
Here, then, you, dear Christian, are given to do as Joseph to his brothers. You are not abandoned and sold and enslaved and imprisoned as Joseph was. But persecution comes in many forms. Are you in danger of losing your job if you refuse to use transgender pronouns? Are you ridiculed for defending traditional marriage? Mocked for your chastity? Maligned for protecting your children from heterodoxy and heresy? Welcome to the new persecution.
Christians, bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Live in harmony with one another. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. Feed your enemy, give him something to drink. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Those nasty brothers though Joseph would weigh their evil deeds against them and make them pay. But they were wrong. God placed Joseph there to comfort and speak kindly to them. To forgive them. But even more. He placed Joseph there to feed them with grain and care for their families so that they might stay alive and the family tree of the Messiah might not wither.
For in the fullness of time, the Greater Joseph, our Lord Jesus, came to you, His brothers in the flesh. He came not to critically judge or condemn, but to grant forgiveness. This He did by removing the planks for your two eyes, lashing them together in the shape of a Cross, and bore them to Jerusalem where He was nailed to them and judged for the sins of the whole world. The Father condemned Him in order that you would not be condemned. The wrath of God was visited upon Him, repaying Him for the iniquity of us all.
His mercy has been pressed down, shaken together, and is poured over into your lap. The Absolution is His judgment on you - not guilty for the sake of His Son! His love is pressed down and poured over onto your head in the waters of Holy Baptism. You are clothed with the robe of His righteousness, soaked in His blood. His forgiveness is pressed down and poured over into your mouths in His Eucharist, His Body and Blood, given and shed for you in mercy. So do not fear. Come up to meet your Elder Brother. He provides for you and your little ones. He shall comfort and speak kindly to you.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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