Joseph and Forgiveness, Forgiveness, Forgiveness……

September 17, 2017
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Genesis 50:15-21
15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?” 16 So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died: 17 ‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept.
18 His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. “We are your slaves,” they said.
19 But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? 20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. 21 So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.



Matthew 18:21-35
21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?”
22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him.
25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
26 “The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’
30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.
32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”

You all know the story of Joseph. His brothers sold him into slavery. He was taken to Egypt. But after many hardships, Joseph became like the prime minister of Egypt. At the time of the great famine, he saved both Egypt and his own family from starvation. As long as his father Jacob was alive, the brothers were safe, but after father Jacob died, the brothers were afraid that Joseph would use his power to get revenge. Then we have the beautiful story of today’s Old Testament reading. It is a story of repentance and forgiveness. It is the story of seeing God’s guiding hand in all this drama. The repentance and forgiveness become a celebration of God’s salvation in the face of calamity. But before Joseph forgives his brothers, they must repent. They must feel sorry for their misdeed and must be willing to take the consequences of their sin. And so to Joseph whom they had sold into slavery, they said, “We are your slaves.” He forgave his brothers, he took away their fear, he made them sure that they were not slaves, but family. This is what forgiveness does. It re-establishes people into a bond of love: friendship, family, comrades.

For true forgiveness, there must be genuine repentance. And today’s Gospel lesson teaches us that true repentance leads to genuine forgiveness of others.

You know, sometimes Christians tend to forgive others too easily. We want to love others, we want to have true fellowship, and we want to have peace with others. But if there is no repentance from the other person, then it is just one-way love. For a healthy relationship, there must be mutual love and respect. This is the same for the love of a man and woman and for the friendship we have with other people. It is even the same thing that we must have between nations if we are to ever have world peace. This means mutual love and respect and repentance on a grand scale, from the least to the greatest.

Jesus tells the parable of the two debtors. One owned 10,000 talents, the debt of a small country, probably bigger than a large corporation or financial institution. The other man owed 100 denarii, like a credit card debt of $5000. Both men seemed to be equally sincerely repentant, but we find that the first man was only pretending to be sorry; we know that because he refused to forgive the small debt of the second man.

In the parable, the king was fooled by the insincere repentance of the man with the huge debt. We too can be fooled. Jesus warned his disciples in Mt. 10:16, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” Christians are often taken advantage of and cheated by dishonest people. Some of us are not very shrewd, just naïve and stupid. And forgiveness is not the same as overlooking some bad deed. It might be easier not to confront someone who is wrong, but if there is no true repentance, if there is no desire to change bad behavior, any words of forgiveness are not going to heal the gap of sin, will only make us be despised by the sinner.

And yet we must not be hard-hearted. We must forgive the person who is sorry and asks for pardon. Not just seven times, but we forgive so often that we lose count.

And all of this is based on the forgiveness of Jesus toward us. The story of the cross is how Jesus took upon himself our debt. He suffered and was crucified for us. Paraphrasing the words of today’s parable, (v.34) ‘Jesus was turned over to the jailers to be tortured until he should pay back all that we owed.’ He paid it with his life blood. And then the debt of sin was paid and he was set free from death. He arose on the third day. That is forgiveness. That is salvation. That is eternal fellowship with God.

There is also a warning in this parable. The first debtor who didn’t forgive his fellow servant was brought back to the king who threw him into debtors’ prison. Jesus said, “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.” It is the old translation of the Lord’s Prayer. “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” I do not think Jesus wants to scare us; he just wants us to be good Christians. Christians are like Christ. Christ forgives, Christians forgive. It becomes natural. Like Joseph in the Old Testament, we see the guidance of God and the wisdom of God that leads us in our lives. We who have been freed from various kinds of slavery have the freedom to forgive and free others. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Amen.

Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church


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