Perspective

The Seventh Sunday after Epiphany

February 23, 2025

Genesis 45:3-15

“Perspective”

One of the things we sometimes lack in life, especially when we are young, is perspective. In our younger years, we do not yet have the life experience to realize the ramifications of our decisions and choices. We make decisions without realizing what the implications and consequences will be, both short-term and long-term. It is only with the passage of time that we come to see things in a new way. As the years go by, we come to understand what has happened to us differently, and through that, with God’s help, we come to see his gracious providence in a new way. Today’s Old Testament lesson (Genesis 45:3-15) about how Joseph revealed himself to his brothers and their reconciliation is a case in point. This passage of Scripture, coupled together with the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel lesson (Luke 6:27-38), serve to give us perspective in our own lives today. That becomes the theme for the sermon today. May the Lord’s rich and abundant blessing rest upon the preaching, the hearing, and the living of his Word for Jesus’ sake.

Dysfunctional family dynamics are nothing new. That’s the backstory to what we read in the Old Testament lesson today. Among the many dysfunctions in the family of Joseph and his brothers were parents who played favorites with their children, jealousy among the siblings, plots of revenge, terrible decisions with terrible consequences, lies which led to long-buried secrets. Sounds like a daytime soap opera, but it’s all true as recorded in Scripture (see Genesis 30ff.). We know that family dysfunction usually doesn’t happen in isolation, but is often multi-generational. What impacts one generation can impact the next generation. The upshot here is that in the family of God’s chosen people, all was not well. Many years before, Joseph’s father, Jacob, had to flee for his life after deceiving his father, Isaac, and cheating his twin brother, Esau, out of his birthright blessing as the firstborn. In his own life, Jacob favored Joseph as the child of his favored wife, Rachel, who died in childbirth after giving birth to Joseph’s younger brother, Benjamin. Understandably, Joseph’s brothers were envious of him, especially when dear old dad gave Joseph a special coat of many colors. Joseph didn’t help his situation by bragging to his brothers about how in his dreams the sun, moon and stars all bowed down to him (Genesis 37:6ff.). The brothers finally had enough and took action. When Joseph was sent out by their father to keep an eye on his older brothers, they threw him into a pit and sold him as a slave to a caravan of traders on their way to Egypt (Genesis 37:18ff.). The brothers tore up that coat of many colors, dipped it in goat’s blood to make it look like a wild animal had killed Joseph, and that is what they told their father, Jacob. How does a person get perspective on all of this? Only with the help of the Lord.

If anyone had a right to be vindictive, it was Joseph. He could have become bitter, plotting and planning on how to get even with his brothers, if given the opportunity. He could have become angry, blaming God for what happened to him. Isn’t that what we sometimes do? Joseph went through some pretty dark periods after he came to Egypt: falsely accused of assaulting his master’s wife, imprisoned and forgotten. But God wasn’t done with Joseph. He had a plan for this man’s life. Years went by, and Joseph was elevated to the second highest position of power in Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself. Having interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams that seven years of plenty would be followed by seven years of severe drought and famine, Joseph prepared for what was to come. When drought and famine came, people near and far came to Egypt to buy food, including Joseph’s brothers. All of this led to what we read in today’s Old Testament, when Joseph and his brothers come face-to-face, and Joseph reveals himself to them. Perhaps it was the passage of time, all those years, that gave perspective to Joseph, helping him to realize that God’s gracious providence was at work in his life, even during terrible circumstances. Make no mistake here: this was terrible stuff. There was deep pain and hurt. How could a gracious and loving God allow such things to happen? In the midst of it all, Joseph clung to hope that God was at work for good and for blessing, even when he couldn’t see it.

Getting perspective doesn’t mean that we sweep everything under the rug and pretend the painful past didn’t happen. Getting perspective means that we acknowledge the reality of pain and hurt, but we are not held captive to it. Take a look at verse three in the text: “And Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?’ But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence” (Genesis 45:3). The brothers couldn’t say a word; they were speechless. The long-ago sin had finally come to light and here was their brother, whom they had sold into slavery so many years before, standing in front of them. It was too painful for them to speak of it. Only after Joseph first speaks to his brothers, making clear not once, not twice, but three times that God had been behind all that had taken place (Genesis 45:5, 7, 8), meaning this for good, only then do we read in verse fifteen: “And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them. After that his brothers talked with him” (Genesis 45:15). Joseph names their actions against him; he calls out what they did to him. But he reframes all of this, putting it into proper perspective through the lens of God’s gracious providence.

What about us? When we have been wronged, sometimes in terrible ways, sometimes by those we know and love, the hurt can go very deep. How do we move beyond what has happened and put it all into perspective? Laying the words of Jesus in the Gospel lesson over this account of Joseph being reconciled to his brothers helps to give us perspective as we wrestle with thorny issues and painful histories in our own lives. We can only hear Jesus’ words through the perspective of all that God in Christ has done for us; forgiving us and loving us so that we can do the same with others. The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for us and for our salvation reframes everything, and so the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel lesson are heard in a new way: “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you… If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:27, 32-35).

As members of the Body of Christ, we live in an upside-down kingdom. Jesus, our Epiphany King, wore a crown not of gold, but thorns, and whose throne was the wood of the cross. He calls his followers of every generation to live in a way that seems upside-down to the world: loving our enemies, doing good to those who hate us, blessing those who curse us, praying for those who abuse us. Jesus didn’t say that following him would be easy. What our world needs, perhaps now more than ever, is an antidote to all of the uncertainty, fear, and distress that we see and feel. What our world needs is Jesus. The world doesn’t know this, but we do. And so we go forth from the house of the Lord to love and serve as Jesus has loved and served us. That perspective has the power to change the world one person at a time. Amen.