Genesis 33:6-11: in context

Jacob, returning home after twenty years, dreads meeting his brother Esau, whom he had wronged and who had once vowed to kill him. But when they meet, Esau receives him in peace. Jacob presses on Esau the gift he had prepared, and says, I have seen your face, as one sees the face of God, and you were pleased with me. Please take the gift, because God has dealt graciously with me, and I have enough. The dreaded encounter had become a reconciliation.

This is a scene of reconciliation between estranged brothers, and Jacob is the one who had done the wrong. He had cheated Esau of his blessing and fled; for twenty years the breach had stood, and Jacob came home fearing his brother's revenge. But Esau met him with embrace and tears, and the enmity Jacob dreaded gave way to peace. So moved is Jacob that he says seeing Esau's peaceable face was like seeing the face of God, a grace beyond what he deserved or expected. The reconciliation was a gift, the healing of a breach he had caused, the turning of dreaded enmity into peace. There is a picture here of the grace and relief of reconciliation. Many of us carry broken relationships, breaches we have caused or suffered, estrangements that stand for years, dread of the ones we have wronged or who have wronged us. And Jacob's story holds out the hope of reconciliation: that the breach can be healed, the enmity turned to peace, the dreaded encounter become an embrace. When it comes, reconciliation is a grace, a relief so deep that Jacob likened it to seeing the face of God: the lifting of a long-carried dread, the healing of a wound, the restoring of what was broken. This encourages us to seek reconciliation where we can. If we have wronged someone, as Jacob wronged Esau, the path is toward reconciliation, however much we dread it, seeking to heal the breach we caused. If we have been wronged, the grace of reconciliation is worth pursuing over the nursing of enmity. First be reconciled to your brother, Jesus says, and then come and offer your gift; reconciliation matters to God, and the healing of breaches is his work in us. And Jacob's story assures us that God can turn even dreaded enmity into peace, that the encounter we fear can become an embrace, that the grace of reconciliation, when it comes, is like seeing the face of God. Where a breach stands between us and another, we are called toward the peace Jacob found, seeking the reconciliation that heals what was broken and turns dread into embrace.

Where a breach stands between me and another, an estrangement I have caused or suffered, do I nurse the enmity and avoid the dreaded encounter, or can I seek the reconciliation that Jacob found with Esau, moving toward the healing of what was broken, trusting that God can turn dreaded enmity into peace and that the grace of reconciliation, when it comes, is like seeing the face of God?