What a great story when Joseph finally reveals himself to his brothers! Remember the first part. Joseph dreamed that someday he would rule over his brothers and parents. His brothers hated him so much they planned to kill him. They ended up selling him into slavery and he spent years in Egypt, first as a slave and then as a prisoner but finally as the second-in-command of all of Egypt. Now, with nearly unlimited power, those wicked brothers stand before Joseph begging for food and he finally reveals himself. When they realize who it is and what they've done, they are terrified because they know Joseph has the power to punish them and not just that but to really make them pay! And so what does Joseph do? Does he punish them? Throw them in the dungeon and have them tortured? Laugh at them as he inflicts payback for his pain and suffering? Nope. None of that. He forgives them. These brothers, who have done nothing but evil to Joseph are now completely in his hands. And he tells them that he is not going to hold any of it against them. Here is a batch of men who DESERVE to get what's coming to them. Here's Joseph who has all the power and authority to let them have it! And He forgives them. He has mercy upon them. He doesn't count their sins against them. He doesn't lord it over them. He doesn't judge them. He lets it go. He forgives them. He has mercy.
So Jesus says, “Be merciful as your Father also is merciful.” How about you? Do you forgive like Joseph? Even when it's been years of anguish and hurt, do you comfort them and speak kindly to them or do you hang on to their sins and bear them a grudge? Do you wait for your opportunity to strike back and do something in retaliation or to say that perfectly hurtful thing that shows them what you think of them? Husbands: are you merciful to your wives? Are you patient and do you overlook their faults and forgive them? Wives: are you merciful to your husbands? Do you hold over their heads their failings and bring them up whenever you argue? Or do you let them go and forgive them? Parents: Are you merciful to your children? Do you discipline them but then offer forgiveness? Or do you make them work off their sins? Do you treat them as if the least little offense will cause you to be done with them? Children: are you merciful to your parents? Or do you hold up their mistakes, piling them up until the day you can shout in their face what awful parents they are and how you're not going to have anything to do with them any more? Christians: Are you merciful to one another? Or do you not speak to this person or that person because of something they said or did years ago? Are you merciful? Or are you quick to point out what is wrong with someone else? Something they've done. Some mistake they've made. Why is it that so often when we open our mouths it's to complain about others rather than confess our own sins? Why are we so eager to point out that little speck in someone else's eye when we have a 2x4 sticking out of our own? The answer, brothers and sisters in Christ, is because we are not merciful. May the words of Jesus bring us to repentance for this!
“Be merciful as your Father also is merciful.” How is that? How is God merciful to you? He is merciful to you in the way that Joseph was merciful to his brothers. That is, He doesn't hold your sins against you. He doesn't put them on your account. He forgives them. But mercy comes at a price. It costs. If someone owes you money and you tell them they don't have to pay it back, your are the one who must still be out that amount, taken from your own account. Just so, the Lord's forgiveness comes with a price and a cost. But the Good News is that the cost is His not yours. The cost is paid by His Son. God the Father is merciful to you when He charges your sins to Jesus' account. He takes away your sins by laying them on His Son. You are not punished for your sins because Jesus is punished for you. The Lord takes away the speck in your eye by His Son being nailed to a couple of planks in the shape of a cross. On Calvary, God the Father measures out to you an infinite mercy by pressing down and shaking Christ until blood and water flows to you at the font and in the cup. “As your Father in heaven is merciful.” His mercy, His overlooking your sins, is in Jesus dying for them and taking them away. His mercy continues in Jesus' resurrection which is our promise that our sins are indeed gone for certain.
“Be merciful as your Father also is merciful.” So we see how God the Father is merciful to us, has compassion on us in Jesus. But how do we learn that? We learn it in the very places where He displays His mercy and grace: His church. Brothers and sisters in Christ, look around? Every one of us has logs and planks and specks in our eyes. Each of us is a sinner who neither loves God nor loves our neighbor as God's law commands. So where do you go to have the Father's mercy take the 2x4 out of your eye? He does it right here in His church by His Word and gifts. Here the Lord washes us clean at the font. He absolves us of our speck-finding and all our other sins. He replaces the planks in our eyes with His Son's body and blood in us. Here the Lord gives to us who do not deserve to be given to. Have you been so holy this week that God must take notice of you? Have you been merciful? No. Here God brings us sinners and gives us gifts that show His mercy. Forgiveness of sins. Life. Salvation. Rescue from death and the devil. Here we have given to us in real and tangible ways that mercy that Christ speaks of and of which He Himself is the basis. God the Father is merciful to us in Christ and it is here in His church that His mercy is displayed and given out. Here sinners are not treated as the Law says they deserve but rather they are forgiven. Here you stand before the Lord as Joseph's brothers stood before him. And here, just as Joseph spoke kindly to his brothers and comforted them, the Lord speaks kindly to you, says, “Your sins are put away. Don't be afraid. I will provide for you and take care of you.”
“Be merciful as your Father also is merciful.” So here we learn to exercise mercy and compassion on others. Joseph knew that in all the awful things that happened to Him, the Lord spared and protected and blessed him. How then could he have revenge on his brothers. He had to pass on to them what he had received, namely, mercy. So that's what we learn for our neighbor's sake. Brothers and sisters in Christ, learn from Christ. Learn how God has mercy on you so that you may practice it on your neighbor. Husbands and wives, children and parents, Christians: learn to have mercy, not to hold things against others, not to bear grudges but to overlook one another's trespasses. If someone has wronged you, don't start arguing about how you're right and they're wrong. Don't go blabbing about what so and so did and “can you believe it?” Remember: You would not want the Lord to hold your sins against you and call you to account for them, would you? But He has not. He has forgiven them for Jesus' sake. Therefore with Christ living in you, you can do nothing less for your neighbor. If someone has wronged you, then go to them, tell them not to be afraid and speak kindly to them.
Our sinful flesh loves a good revenge story until it's revenge on him! But thanks be to God that's not the story the Lord tells. The Lord tells the story of sinners who have been shown mercy. Of Joseph's brothers who were not treated like they deserved but given kindness and comfort. It is the story of you and me, who have not been treated as our sins deserve but given mercy and forgiveness in Jesus Christ. It is the story of Christ living in us, showing mercy to and forgiving others around us as we live together in the body of Christ. And such mercy, given to us and given through us is a good measure, pressed down, shaken, and overflowing to our joy and blessing. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
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