In the book of Genesis there is a story about a young man from Canaan named Joseph.
Joseph was one of twelve brothers. Their father, Jacob, considered Joseph to be his favorite of the twelve.
The other brothers resented Joseph for this (and other reasons)... So one day when they were out, they sold Joseph as a slave to a group of wandering Ishmaelites.
The Ishmaelites took Joseph their new slave to Egypt, where they in turn sold him to a man named Potiphar. Joseph obediently served Potiphar and Potiphar liked Joseph, until one day when Potiphar’s wife falsely accused Joseph of making sexual advances on her. Outraged, Potiphar threw Joseph in prison.
There, Joseph languished, until his ability to interpret dreams came to the attention of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.
God allowed Joseph to successfully interpret Pharaoh’s dream, which made Pharaoh extremely happy; so Pharaoh took Joseph out of prison and exalted him to a very high position of authority, second only to Pharaoh himself.
I know that many of you know this story. So you know I’m giving you the condensed version. There are a lot of other fun details I’m leaving out, because the story stretches out over some 12 chapters in Genesis.
You’ll just have to go read it for yourself.
Eventually, a famine arises, affecting all of Egypt, as well as Joseph’s family (his brothers and his father) back in Canaan. There was no food in Canaan, but in Egypt there was food, thanks to Joseph’s ability to interpret dreams, and his wise management skills.
So Joseph’s brothers leave Canaan and head to Egypt in search of food.
They end up being brought before Joseph himself, their brother. They don't recognize Joseph, but Joseph recognizes them. With all his new power and authority, and remembering well how his brothers treated him, how they sold him into slavery, how do you think Joseph treated his brothers?
When they sold him into slavery, they had treated Joseph cruelly. Viciously. Atrociously.
Many people would say Joseph now had every right to use his power and authority to pay his brothers back for what they had done. Their cruel act had not been punished, had not even been found out. At the time they had told their father that Joseph had been attacked and dragged away by wild animals. They lived with that lie all those years. No one knew the truth, but them.
They never expected - never could have anticipated - that their annoying little brother, the brat that they had sold into slavery, would eventually rise to such a position of power and authority.
When they came before Joseph - even though they didn’t know it was him - they stood in his presence with a great deal of anxiety and trepidation. Who knows how this person of power and authority would treat them?
Then when Joseph revealed his identity to them, his brothers were terrified. It was widely expected that those who were mistreated would seek revenge. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. At the very least.
They had sold their brother into slavery. They had treated him awfully. How would he treat them in return, now that he had power over them?
Well, at first, Joseph couldn’t resist playing a little trick on them. How could he not, right? And maybe he was tempted, for a moment, to take revenge on them.
But then he said to his brothers: “Don’t be angry and upset with yourselves. If you had not done what you had done - if you had not sold me into slavery - I would not be where I am today, and then how would you acquire food for yourselves and for our father?”
And Joseph treated them well. He did not treat them as they had treated him. He treated them with love and compassion.
This is how the cycle of hate and violence ends.
The temptation to treat others as they have mistreated us is strong. You hit me, I’ll hit you back.
But the cycle of violence ends when someone decides that they won’t hit back. The cycle of violence ends when someone recognizes that there is a better way.
That’s what Joseph did.
And the world was shown a different way of behaving. A way that ended the cycle of violence. A way of behaving that led to love and reconciliation and peace.
The Bible doesn’t tell us to treat others the way they treat you.
When God gave numerous instructions through Moses, one of them was that punishment was to be an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. But most scholars recognize this as a restriction or limitation. In other words, no more than an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth.
And Jesus takes that limitation and expands on it. Instead of an eye for an eye, Jesus says, don’t take any revenge at all. Don’t treat others the way they have treated or mistreated you. Instead, treat them the way you would like to be treated. Show them the same compassion and understanding and love that you would like them to show you.
If they disrespect you, well, you still respect them.
If they hate you, you love them.
If they treat you poorly, you treat them well.
If they curse you, you bless them.
If they cheat you, you act fairly toward them.
If they steal from you, do not steal back from them.
This is quite a radical teaching that Jesus gives.
And when you think about it, for Joseph to have not given his brothers what they deserved - that, too, is quite remarkable. One could have easily expected Joseph to have thrown his brothers in jail, or made them all his slaves. He could have easily done that.
But perhaps it was his love for God, or his love for his father Jacob, or even his love for his brothers who had mistreated him, which led him to instead act with compassion.
Violence and revenge are so unsatisfying, anyway. We expect violence and revenge to make us feel good. And maybe for a quick moment, they do. Someone hits you, and you hit them back, and you think, “Yes! That felt good!”
But very shortly, you realize nothing has changed. You still have this animosity toward one another, this hatred, and the cycle of violence is bound to continue. What then? Your happiness quickly dissipates.
On the other hand, it seems so wrong, or so difficult, or so ridiculous, to not seek revenge. In the movie The Princess Bride, there is the mean, evil Prince Humperdink, and his loyal, equally mean advisor Count Rugan. In the end, County Rugan is killed in revenge. Of course he is. I mean, can you imagine how lame it would be if the revenge-seeking swordsman went up to Count Rugan and said, “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father; but don’t be angry or upset. Let’s find a way to live in peace, shall we?”
Pfft.
What a lame ending that would be. We want the evil Count Rugan to get it in the end, and he does…
But evil Prince Humperdink doesn’t get killed. He lives. And if you’ve seen that movie, you know that the grandson listening to his grandfather tell the story is very upset by this. How can the evil Prince Humperdink live? What kind of story is that?
Well, The Princess Bride isn’t exactly based in the real world, is it? And in the real world, Jesus says to love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who abuse you.
Do to others as you would have them do to you.
What exactly does that mean in real life? What does that look like? How hard is it to actually live by these teachings?
We can say the words; but can we live them out?
It’s harder than you might think. To live by these teachings requires great courage and strength.
Ray Buckley is a storyteller of Lakota, Tlingit, and Scots descent. I once heard him tell the story of a boy and his grandmother, walking through the woods beneath a cold December moon. It is his story, not mine, but he has published it in a children’s book called Christmas Moccasins…
As they walked through the woods, the boy wondered if the trees remembered that months before the two of them had walked that same path, and were met by three drunken youths…
The boy wondered: “Did the trees remember that those youths had hit us? That they had knocked us down, and, laughing, had taken our coats and my grandmother’s moccasins? Would they know that my grandmother had walked home barefoot in the snow, and that frostbite had taken two toes?”
On that occasion, when the boy and his grandmother made it back to the grandmother’s house, she prayed. Then, “with Czechoslovakian beads so small they strained the eye,” she began to make three pairs of moccasins.
Now, they were on their way to the home of those youths, with those three pairs of moccasins finished, and carefully wrapped. The boy asked, “Why are we here? Why are we going to see them?”
What they were doing was very hard for him… and very hard for the grandmother, too. Yet she answered, “We are here to do the Creator’s work.”
Ray Buckley continues the story like this: “The door was opened by a large man… ‘I have presents for your sons,’ my grandmother began. ‘May I give them?’ She handed each a package carefully wrapped. To each she said, ‘I wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas. God bless you.’”
Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who abuse you.
Do to others as you would have them do to you.
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