Forgiver and Forgiven
"Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good..." Genesis 50. 15 - 21
We come to the end of the saga of Joseph and his brothers in today's Genesis reading, and the brothers are terrified now that their father has died. They fear that Joseph's wrath might now be unleashed, and he will seek vengeance for the unspeakable things they did to him. They come to Joseph begging forgiveness and even say that Jacob their father told them to tell Joseph to forgive them for their crime. If their forgiveness relied on their confession and Joseph's acknowledgement of it, Joseph would be the forgiver and only by his grace would their personal dignity be restored. They would be spiritually inferior to him and an awkward hierarchy would be established. But the passage tells us that God can create a condition of forgiveness that does not cast a hierarchy on the relationship. As Walter Brueggemann says
What the brothers have done, God has been able to transmute into
good, so their guilt no longer remains...all parties to the dispute maintain their self-respect as moral equals
and as the author of Genesis says what was intended by man to do harm, God used for good. I wonder if even Joseph was astounded at those words he uttered and the way God used him for good. I think the look on Joseph's face below in Marc Chagall's sketch suggests amazement!
How often in our lives have relationships been restored by the Grace of God in conditions that seemed insurmountable. Oh that we might see more and more in our world today this same kind of restored dignity between forgivers and forgivens...only dignity that can be restored by the Grace of God, where there is not hierarchy, only peace that passes all understanding.
I have never seen this Chagall sketch. Forgiveness is the key in every relationship, I have come to learn.