Forgiving Your Enemies with Love

This sermons was preached by Pastor Ted Carnahan for the Seventh Sunday after Epiphany, February 22, 2025.

Transcript

Grace, mercy, and peace be with all of you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Remarkable Story of Joseph

It's easy for us to overlook how remarkable our first reading was tonight. Genesis chapter 45. It's not something that we spend a lot of time thinking about. We tend to think when we're talking about Genesis, we talk about the creation and the fall, the ark, and the covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all of those stories. And if we think of Joseph at all, we think of the sort of his origin story. He was a snot-nosed kid who had too big a mouth and his brothers finally got sick and tired of it and threw him in a hole. And then instead of murdering him there in that hole, they were merciful and sold him into slavery in Egypt. But of course, that's not the end. He'd been having dreams. He'd been having visions. And the visions indicated that he was going to play a central role in his family's future. And yet, when this boy, this small boy, was hauled away in chains off to Egypt, those brothers thought that they would never see him again. And they never gave him a second thought.

Joseph's Journey and Faithfulness

And yet, Joseph did not weary of seeking to do good. We know the story of him being in the home of Potiphar and Potiphar was captain of the guard in Pharaoh's court and he was a servant there. We know the story of his wife trying to seduce him and a bunch of stuff like that. We know the time that he faithfully spent in prison. We know that he eventually prophesied even to Pharaoh and explained his dreams to him. And then Joseph finds himself in the position of being second in command over all of Egypt. And yet, his brothers and his father are still up in Canaan. Still up in the promised land. Still moving from place to place. And when the famine comes, the famine which God had prophesied through Pharaoh's dream and Joseph's interpretation, Pharaoh puts him in charge of all that he has. That's how he rises to become second in command of all Egypt. And he provides for the people of Egypt through his very judicious use of batteries and putting away surpluses.

Joseph's Forgiveness and God's Plan

Then his brothers come knocking and they go through some trials and tribulations with Joseph. Until finally, here in chapter 45, Joseph reveals to them his true identity. "I am Joseph, your brother. And now, do not be distressed or angry because you sold me here because God sent me here before you to preserve life."

The challenge in the story of Joseph for us is twofold. First of all, to recognize that in the difficult stories and situations of our lives, that God sometimes has for us plans of which we do not see the ending. Which means that we don't always understand that the things that are happening to us are happening for a good reason. Or that God is using bad circumstances that we find ourselves in to his good ends. Whether he would have created those ends or those situations or not, that we find ourselves with God using them in the end to bless us.

But the other thing that we have to wrestle with in the story of Joseph, and the thing that I really want to focus tonight, is that this man, Joseph, forgives his brothers. All that he had been through. Sold into slavery at a young age and mistreated. Growing up the rest of the way as a slave. Serving multiple years in prison for false accusations before finally rising to a status that no one could have imagined. Think of all the hell that he had been through. All the struggle and the self-doubt that he would have had to overcome. Think of how difficult it would be to praise God in the midst of a jail cell. In the midst of slavery.

And yet, when he sees his youngest brother, Benjamin, he is so overcome with love that he's willing to forgive. It says, and it's kind of a strange turn of phrase to our ears, but he then weeps on Benjamin's neck. Which is kind of a weird thing to talk about. You know, weeping on your neck. But they're embracing each other and they're sobbing into each other's shoulders. Because forgiveness has set them free.

Those young men, actually these older men now, at this later date in Joseph's life, when they realize the man that they are indebted to for their very lives is their younger brother, Joseph, they are completely stricken with a sense of dread and terror that there's no way to even describe. They are certain that this man who has become second in command of all Egypt, now being their brother, that they are going to be put to a terrible death. And yet Joseph weeps. Joseph weeps.

It's powerful and it's moving. Precisely because it takes our expectations of what would be just and flips them on their head. Joseph doesn't look at his time in Egypt as time misspent, but instead can look back into his life and can see where God's sovereign hand was guiding him through all of those situations, using the sin of his brothers for his good and for theirs. With the imagination, that it took to look at those circumstances and to see in them a faithful God. And so he weeps, first on his brother Benjamin and then on the necks of his other brothers, as each of them in turn is forgiven for their terrible sin and receives the release that comes from being forgiven a terrible, terrible thing.

Jesus' Teaching on Love and Forgiveness

I mention all of this tonight as a way of entering into the teaching of Jesus. Because Jesus says things here in chapter 6 that are among the most challenging things he says to anyone at any time in all of his teaching. He says, "Bless those who curse you?" Oh no. I want to curse those who curse me. Because I'm good at it. "Pray for those who abuse you?" That's hard to do and mean it.

These are the kinds of things that when Jesus says them, we tend to turn our brains off. I mean, there's like a cognitive dissonance that comes into this, where we are so ingrained in the ways of this world that when we encounter these words of Jesus, we simply look at them and say, there's no way he could possibly, really, truly, actually mean that. And what we really ought to say is, I don't want him to have meant that. Because to live that way is to live very different than the way this world wants you to live.

• "If anyone strikes you on the cheek, turn the other also." No, I'd rather return fire.
• "Anyone who takes away your coat, do not withhold. Your shirt?" No, I'd rather take it back.

But Jesus puts it to us this way in Luke's gospel. He says, "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?" Where is the spiritual discipline in loving those for whom it is easy to love? Where is the spiritual commitment to our Lord Jesus Christ to do? It's not how this discipleship thing works. Because at the heart of the word discipleship is discipline. And our Lord is disciplining us here. He's teaching us what it is to actually follow God.

So many people in our society are willing to say, "I love Jesus." You know what it means to love Jesus? It has nothing to do with how you feel about Jesus in your heart. It has everything to do about whether you're willing to obey him. He commands you to do what your heart does not want to do. "I love Jesus?" Maybe. But do you love him enough to pick up your cross and follow him?

"If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that." Any good negotiator knows that you've got to meet somebody halfway and you've got to give a little bit to get a little bit. That's not special. That's not spiritual. That's just common sense and pragmatism. To give to someone who has no means of repaying you and never ever will, that's a spiritual discipline. To love your enemies and to do good and lend expecting nothing in return. Not just money, but also kindness and mercy and forgiveness.

Would you like to be a child of the Most High? Do the kinds of things that the Most High does. For he, Jesus says, is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. If you would like to be a child of the Most High, be merciful just as your Father is merciful.

You see, for us, these are where the rubber meets the road. This is where it's difficult to be a disciple. This is where it's costly because it costs Jesus his life to save us on the cross. And where he will take nothing but us taking up our crosses in order to follow him. And yet, you and I struggle with this all the time. I know you do because some of you have shared that with me. And I know that all of you in this room have a pulse, which means that you continue to struggle with the sin that divides us from each other. And I know that I do because I examine my own life in light of the Ten Commandments and I find myself lacking over and over again.

The Love of God and Our Response

The love that God calls us to is a love that forces us to give away ourselves, to empty ourselves for the sake of others, to become little so that God may be made much of. And that's not easy. But it is faithful. And it is love. It's a different kind of love. A love that's not just about my affect, towards my God, but it's about the commitment of my will. A love that is not merely about what I give to God, but emulating what I see my God doing.

Would you like to know how it is that God loves you? Don't look to the great and beautiful things in this world, but instead look to the pain and misery of the cross. For your Lord Jesus Christ has already done all that is necessary for you to have peace and salvation with him. He goes to the cross and he accepts its shame and he doesn't deserve any of it. He is a willing, innocent victim and he goes to the cross in your place. He dies for your sins. He gives of himself and it's just not fair. And thank God it's not. Because your Lord loves you with that kind of love that is so remarkably powerful and so wonderfully self-emptying that he gives up even the prerogatives of being the son of God and goes to the cross and dies.

Conclusion

And so people of God, since you have been forgiven a terrible burden, you have been forgiven all your sin, you are made new and free in the cross of Jesus Christ, you have been elevated to a place of honor that you do not deserve, you have been filled with heavenly blessings and grace and you did not earn, could never earn, will never earn. Now follow your Lord and do what he does out of gratitude for his gift to you.

• Do not judge and you will not be judged.
• Do not condemn and you will not be condemned.
• Forgive and you will be forgiven, not just once, but over and over and over again.

And the abundance of the measure that you give and more will be returned to you. For the Lord Jesus has chosen and called you to believe and he calls you to your cross because in that cross you find true life and true peace. And may that peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds strong in Christ Jesus our Lord to life everlasting. Amen.