Realizing that their father was dead, Joseph’s brothers said, “What if Joseph still bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong that we did to him?” So they approached[a] Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this instruction before he died, ‘Say to Joseph: I beg you, forgive the crime of your brothers and the wrong they did in harming you.’ Now therefore please forgive the crime of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. Then his brothers also wept,[b] fell down before him, and said, “We are here as your slaves.” But Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? 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. So have no fear; I myself will provide for you and your little ones.” In this way he reassured them, speaking kindly to them.
Genesis 50:15-21
My sermon from the 16th Sunday after Pentecost (September 13, 2026) on Genesis 50:15-21.
It’s never easy to jump into the end of a story but that’s sort of what we’re doing today in our first reading from the book of Genesis. The entire arc of Joseph’s life is thirteen chapters long and a lot of stuff happened before he made a promise to his brothers and their children. Any summary of this story is going to leave out a lot of details. But when we put these verses back into scripture, their meaning becomes a little more full. Joseph was the 11th son of a man named Jacob and his great-grandfather was Abraham. Abraham grew up in modern day Iraq and was called by God to build a home in what is now Israel, Syria, Jordan, and parts of Egypt. Abraham’s household was nomadic, traveling from place to place with large herds of sheep and goats. Abraham was the one who received from God the promise that his descendants would outnumber the stars and it would be through his family that the entire world would be blessed. Abraham, though, also tried to sacrifice his own son which reminds us how the holiest of families can be pretty messy. This drama continued two generations later when it became obvious to everyone that Joseph was Jacob’s favorite. One of Joseph’s talents was the ability to interpret dreams and so when he shared with his older brothers a dream where they all would bow down to him, they conspired to murder him. They took him out into the desert and threw him into a pit. But instead of ending his life, they chose to change his future by selling him into slavery to a merchant traveling by. The brothers told their dad that a wild animal had killed his favorite son. Yet Joseph, at the time, was being brought to Egypt and he was sold to an official working for the Pharoah. His time within that household was full of its own kind of drama and he was eventually tossed into prison. It just so happened that at that time the Pharaoh was tormented by dreams no one could explain. He heard about Joseph and demanded he tell him what these dreams might mean. Joseph did exactly that and the Pharaoh soon trusted Joseph’s words. The Pharaoh kept Joseph as his own personal slave but gave him the power and authority to tell others what to do. After interpreting another of the Pharoah’s dreams as a plan for how the kingdom could thrive during an upcoming famine, Joseph became the Pharoah’s second in command. Joseph was still enslaved and he couldn’t do whatever he wanted. Yet it wasn’t uncommon in the ancient world for those enslaved to be given all kinds of power. When the famine came, Joseph’s brothers soon ran out of food. They heard, though, that Egypt was full of food. They arrived in the kingdom as a kind of refugee and they went to see the important official in charge. They didn’t recognize the one who was giving all the orders but Joseph recognized them. After some back and forth, he finally revealed who he was. Joseph reunited with his father and invited everyone to build a new home for themselves within Egypt’s borders. It appeared as if everyone was going to be okay and that their relationship had been repaired. But when their father died, the brothers weren’t sure if Joseph’s friendly behavior would last. They were worried Joseph would seek out the righteous justice he deserved. Joseph, though, forgave them and invited them into the kind of future they tried to take away from him.
Now it sounds as if Joseph’s story turned out okay. And even though his brothers turned on him and he ended up spending years as someone else’s slave, he became incredibly successful. Not only was he Pharoah’s right-hand man, he even convinced all free Egyptian citizens to pledge their loyalty to him. His years of suffering were capstoned by an incredible abundance he was allowed to share. His words to his brothers – that even though they intended to do him harm, God intended it for good – can feel like an appropriate summary for everything that had come before. And these words have sometimes been a source of comfort when we are going through all kinds of terrible moments too. When life gets hard and tomorrow looks bleak, we want to trust that there’s a holy purpose behind all the grief and sadness. This is one of the ways we try to find meaning out of all the things that happen to us. When we step back and look at the bigger picture of our lives, we look for the ways God leads us through all the good times and the bad. We might not end up with the kind of wealth, power, and prestige needed to change our family’s future but we hope to find a reason for why our life was lived. And that reason is often defined by the various outcomes for those we love. When we say things like “God is love” or “God is good,” we want these proclamations to be visible in our lives and in our world. And so our words about God can grow into being very focused on the outcomes we want with God. And when these outcomes become what we assume faith is all about, we might begin to wonder what our life might be like if we truly believed.
I wonder, though, if this focus on outcomes might make faith way too small. Joseph’s story is powerful but it can be used to act as if suffering, pain, and grief is God’s plan for our lives. I’m not sure if those in Joseph’s story who ended up in prison and who suffered and who died would be perfectly okay with their outcomes even though Joseph’s family was saved. I don’t believe God views life to be that expendable as long as the right outcome takes place. A God who treats creation and human beings as merely pieces in some kind of game isn’t the God who would choose to experience the outcomes that show up in our lives everyday. The outcome of having friends abandon us while we’re harmed or in pain; the outcome of noticing how much pain is in the world and weeping at a loved one’s tomb; the outcome of being met by a divine silence while seeking a sign we’re not alone; and the outcome of being truly human while doing everything we can to pretend we are not. If God only looked at our outcomes, then the outcomes that break our heart would be meaningless to God. God, though, truly cares and God knows that the outcomes from our relationships, our career, our families, and everything else won’t always match our hopes and dreams. You are not expendable to God nor does God love you less just because you don’t have access to Joseph’s power, authority, or wealth. God did not force his brothers’ to try and end his life nor does the outcome of his story justify all the pain and suffering within it. God, instead, refused to let us be the limit of what our future can be. And the vision God has for our lives is one that is always more life-giving, more compassionate, more merciful, and more true. You, through baptism and in faith, are already wrapped up in the new chapter that’s still being written through Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. And while our lives are filled with outcomes that tear at our souls, the promise we have in God and through Jesus Christ knows we really will make it through.
Amen.