Genesis 45:1-15: a reflection

1Then Joseph couldn’t control himself before all those who stood before him, and he called out, “Cause everyone to go out from me!” No one else stood with him, while Joseph made himself known to his brothers. 2He wept aloud. The Egyptians heard, and the house of Pharaoh heard. 3Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Does my father still live?” His brothers couldn’t answer him; for they were terrified at his presence. 4Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” They came near. He said, “I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. 5Now don’t be grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are yet five years, in which there will be no plowing and no harvest. 7God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on the earth, and to save you alive by a great deliverance. 8So now it wasn’t you who sent me here, but God, and he has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his house, and ruler over all the land of Egypt. 9Hurry, and go up to my father, and tell him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says, “God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me. Don’t wait. 10You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you will be near to me, you, your children, your children’s children, your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. 11There I will provide for you; for there are yet five years of famine; lest you come to poverty, you, and your household, and all that you have.”’ 12Behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaks to you. 13You shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that you have seen. You shall hurry and bring my father down here.” 14He fell on his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck. 15He kissed all his brothers, and wept on them. After that his brothers talked with him.

This is the emotional peak of the Joseph story. After years of being sold into slavery by his own brothers, imprisoned, forgotten, Joseph, now ruler of Egypt, finally reveals himself to them, and he cannot control his weeping. His brothers are terrified, certain that now comes their revenge. Instead Joseph says something astonishing: do not be distressed or angry with yourselves that you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.

Notice that Joseph does not pretend the wrong away. He names it plainly, you sold me. He does not say it did not happen or did not hurt. But he sees over it and through it to something larger: God was at work in it, redeeming even their betrayal toward the saving of many lives. So now, he says, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He holds their real guilt and God's real purpose together, and it frees him to forgive.

That is a hard and deeply freeing kind of forgiveness. It does not require pretending you were not wronged; Joseph knew exactly what his brothers did. It comes from seeing that God's hand was over even the wrong, working it toward good you could not have seen at the time. If someone has genuinely wronged you, you may not be able to say why God allowed it. But Joseph's faith opens a door: to trust that God was not absent even in that harm, and to let that trust free you to forgive. God can weave even what was meant for evil toward the preserving of life.

Lord, like Joseph, help me forgive those who have truly wronged me, not by pretending it did not happen, but by trusting that your hand was over even their harm, working toward good. Free me to say, it was not only they, but you, at work, and let that trust release me to forgive.