"Joseph's Redemption"
Exodus 3:1-15; Romans 12:12:9-21
Sten Maulsby
Sept. 2, 2001
If the story of Joseph being sold into slavery can be seen as an image of baptism, it can also be seen as an image of Christ's death and resurrection. Both were sold into captivity. (Interestingly, it was Judah's idea to sell Joseph, in this case for twenty pieces of silver, not thirty). But the comparison would not be worth much if it went no further than recognizing that at least symbolically Joseph also "returned to the land of the living", at least so far as his brothers and father were concerned. The clencher is that Joseph's captivity is an instrument for his people's redemption. This works out in two ways. Like Jesus, he goes before, to prepare a place for his people. And his forbearence, his capacity to forgive, redeems his people, the people who have sinned against him. The story of Joseph works out in human terms the redemption that Christ's Resurrection achieves in divine terms.
Now what does this story of Joseph, this image of divine redemption, show us about the nature of redemption? I have noticed two aspects that I find striking and important: the role of forgivness and the role of providence. Both offer great hope and comfort; it can also be very daunting to acknowledge the full scope of either of them.
We pray every Sunday for our sins to be forgiven. And we are assured that we will be forgiven. But what is the basis of that assurance? That God demands that we forgive those who sin against us. Joseph brought about the redemption of his people by a very human act of forgiveness. Unlike Christ, Joseph was not God; he was a human who understood what he had suffered at the hands of his brothers, and understood what God's purpose for his family and for himself was, understood what was demanded of him in order to fulfill that purpose. He must forgive. Like Jesus in today's reading from Matthew, he understood that he must accept his suffering in order to go before and prepare a place for his people.
It is interesting that his brothers seem to have also learned a lesson in forgiveness. When they planned to kill Joseph, and then sold him into slavery instead, they acted out of jealousy for Joseph being their father's favorite, and resentment of their father for his favoritism. But when they come before Joseph they try to protect Benjamin, their father's new favorite. If they had not changed, they could easily have been glad to use this demand from an Egyptian administrator as a convenient way to get rid of another resented favorite. Possibly seeing their father's suffering over the loss of Joseph has given them sympathy for him. At any rate, their protection of Benjamin for their father's sake would seem to show that they have accepted and forgiven his tendency to play favorites.
Forgiveness is God's way, and we know that because God demands it of us as well. In the other New Testament reading assigned for today, Paul tells the Christians in Rome, "Bless your persecutors, bless them, do not curse them." And in the same passage, "Return no one evil for evil. Have good intentions in regard to all men." Now Paul's reasons for these commandments don't match the experience of Joseph and his brothers. When Joseph forgave his brothers, when he fed his enemies who were hungry, he was not leaving them to God's retribution, as Paul would have it; he was bringing them, and himself, to God's redemption. William Blake tells us that forgiveness of sins is "The Covenant of Jehovah, which is this: If you forgive one another your Trespasses so shall Jehovah forgive you, That he himself might dwell among you, but if you Avenge you Murder the Divine Image and he cannot dwell among you because you Murder him." The divine image is forbearance. There is no covenant and no community without it. So we can say that Joseph follows the way of the cross. He blesses those who hurt him. He accepts suffering. He feeds his enemies when they come to him hungry. The fact that they were family may not have made it any easier; it might have made it harder. He also accepts the necessity of his suffering. Which means that he accepts providence. He knows full well the one side of the coin, that his brothers sold him into slavery. He also sees the other side of the coin, that he came to Egypt before them to prepare the means of their survival. His brothers did an evil thing, without which they could not have been saved. Jesus knows that Providence is working through his suffering, that God's will for humanity requires his death and resurrection. He tells the disciples that he "must go to Jerusalem, and suffer much from the elders and the high priests and the scribes, and be killed, and rise up on the third day." When Peter objects, He tells Peter, "you would put me off my way, because you do not think the thoughts of God but the thoughts of men." He then calls the disciples to the life of self denial. This is the way He will not be put off from. These are the thoughts of God. This is the foolishness of God which is more wise than human wisdom, the weakness of God that is stronger than earthly strength. This is His enacting of the covenant. This is also his making of the covenant, God using the failed and even evil deeds of humans to create redemption for those very humans.
The example of providence seen in Joseph's captivity shows us that God can twist evil deeds and evil intentions to divine purpose. His brothers find redemption; they are forgiven their sins, and their relationships, their unity, as a family, are restored. But more than that, the crime also was redeemed. God took their wicked act and turned it to their redemption. Providence can redeem not only the sinner but also the sin. God knows even of every sparrow that falls. God is all-knowing and all-powerful. Yet the world suffers great evils. The view of providence demonstrated in Joseph's captivity may help us to resolve that great problem.
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