“But God Intended It For Good”      2010

Genesis 45:4-8, 50:20    Luke 24:1-12

 

Genesis 45:4-8, 50:20

4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, ‘Come closer to me.’ And they came closer. He said, ‘I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. 5And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. 7God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. 8So it was not you who sent me here, but God; he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. 20Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today.

 

Luke 24:1-12  The Resurrection of Jesus

24But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. 2They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3but when they went in, they did not find the body. 4While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. 5The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. 6Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.’ 8Then they remembered his words, 9and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. 10Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. 11But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 12But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

 

There is a story in Genesis about Jacob, a man who had eleven sons.

                As a father,  he didn’t even try to disguise the fact

                        that            his youngest son, Joseph, was his obvious favorite.

 

            Joseph’s bragging and boasting, and his father’s favoritism,

                        caused his brothers to be resentful, angry and jealous.

 

They hated Joseph, and one time,

            when his father sent him to check-up on his older brothers,

                        the brothers decided to get rid of Joseph once and for all.

 

So they sold him to a caravan of merchants traveling to Egypt.

            Then the brothers dipped his coat in the blood of a lamb,

                        which they took home to their father, suggesting that ---

                                    Joseph must have been killed by a wild beast.

 

Joseph was sold as a slave to an Egyptian officer named Potiphar,

            but because of Joseph’s abilities and hard work, he advanced,

                        and in time was put in charge of all Potiphar’s property.

 

The Bible describes Joseph as a handsome and winsome young man,

            who caught the wandering and lustful eye of Potiphar’s wife.

 

A young man of integrity, Joseph rejected her immoral advances.

            He fled, leaving his cloak behind, still clutched in her hands.

 

When Potiphar came home, she accused Joseph  of sexual impropriety;

            and showing his cloak as evidence, and on the word of his wife,

                        he had Joseph, though innocent, sent to prison for life.

 

Through an amazing turn of events, Pharaoh released him from prison

            and put Joseph in charge of all the food resources of Egypt.

     He was responsible to store food during seven years of good crops

            in preparation for the coming 7 years of a worldwide famine.

Joseph rose to become the chief administrator over all of Egypt,

     second in command to Pharaoh, and in charge of food distribution.

 

The famine spread worldwide,  even up into the land of Canaan,

            and it became necessary for Joseph’s brothers to come to Egypt,

                  necessary for them to buy food for their starving families.

 

Joseph recognized his brothers, when they came to buy food,

            ironically, from the brother they had so brutally mistreated,

                  the brother they had sold into slavery so many years before.

 

Our text is describes the marvelous scene in which

            Joseph reveals his true identity to his brothers.  vs. 4,5, 50:20

    He said, ‘I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. … God sent me before you to preserve life. … Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today.

 

            Shockingly,   Joseph, the one they thought dead, is alive.

When he discloses his identity, Joseph rejects retribution,

            he puts the painful past behind by choosing reconciliation,

                  and now they can begin again with hope & new possibilities.     

Had we read through all eight chapters of this story about Joseph,

            we'd notice a remarkable lack & absence of any mention of God.

 

            God’ role is not described at all in the telling of this story,

                        not until at the very end , just here in these few verses.

It is as if God vanishes from this part of Genesis,

      and has no participation in the working out of these events.

 

I believe that this perceived absence of God is the story teller's technique.

            It's a device for telling the story from Joseph’s perspective,

                to whom it seemed   as if   Gad had vanished and abandoned him.

 

It infers a question Joseph must have wondered along the way:

    Why is God allowing all this horrible stuff to keep happening to me?

  Where is God in all of this, and I wonder what is God really up to?

 

Actually, though God seemed silent and invisible  to Joseph,

            yet God had been at work and orchestrating events all along.

In bringing him through all of his troubles, losses and suffering,

            in the end we see there was a larger purpose in all of it.

    God was up to something that Joseph couldn’t see at the time.

                 God recast Joseph's adversity, and used it for good purpose.

 

* Joseph doesn’t exact a penalty for what his brothers did to him,

            but neither does he condone or deny their despicable deed.

Joseph doesn’t minimize their responsibility and fault,

            or ignore the evil and culpability of his brother’s actions.

 

Joseph is quite open and frank concerning their guilt: vs. 8

                        You sold me here ....             You intended to do me harm ....

Joseph’s losses and sufferings are very real;

            and even coming to power and influence in Egypt,

                        hardly restores his lost years of being with his family,

                                or makes up for time as a slave, as a prisoner in Egypt.

 

            YET more importantly, he recognizes and declares:  vs. 20

                        God sent me ...    God intended it for good ...                   

 

This story about Joseph  in no way denies that evil is evil,

            nor suggest that wounds and bruises don’t really hurt.

Just as our losses and sufferings, our problems are very real,

            and our wounds, our bruises, and our failings    really hurt.

 

**                      So what does all this   have to do with Easter??           **

 

Joseph's imprisonment, suffering and pain, were all very real.

            Jesus’ suffering and pain, his death, were all very real.

We observe this truth, in that even after his resurrection,

            Jesus still has wounds from the crucifixion to show on Easter,

                        the nail holes and marks where the spear pierced his side.

 

However, the lesson of these texts is hope, and the promise is this:

            that God can transform  evil and suffering   to accomplish good,

               using even loss   to accomplish God’s good will and blessings.

Human sin, our mistakes and losses do not have the last & final word.

 

It may have appeared that his brothers had won --

            that Joseph was gone, out of sight, a slave & prisoner in Egypt.

It appeared that his enemies, the religious leaders had won --

            and that Jesus was crucified,  now a corpse,  dead in the grave.

 

               BUT God, would have, and always has    the last and final word;

                   and God's last word reversed the consequences of human sin.

 

The amazement of the women and Peter at the empty tomb on Easter,

            was like the brothers stunned surprise  at seeing Joseph alive.

 

The one they thought was dead,  now lives;

            their shame and regret,  their sorrow & grief are turned to joy.

Their fear & dread is turned by mercy into hopeful promise from God,

     and even terrible injustice is turned, to accomplish God's good.

 

At the tomb, the men in dazzling robes asked the critical question:

            vs. 5       ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here.

 

Obviously, the women weren't going to find Jesus

            if they kept looking in the tomb, for it was wrong place,

                        however hard or long or sincerely they searched for him.

In their grief and horror at Friday's events they had forgotten

 the hope that Jesus promised, all he said would happen when he died.

 

 

Here's another critical question, an Easter question for us today -

            what difference does it make to us, that Jesus Christ is risen,

                        and are we too   looking for the living among the dead?

      Are we living in a way that remembers the hope & promises of God?

 

Easter resurrection is not just about what happens after we are dead

            but how does God's love and grace, God's power and compassion

                 make a difference   now in our lives and in who we are,

                   in our relationships, in the hope & joy we live in all we do?

 

                        Easter’s triumph of Jesus over sin and death

                                    does not deny the reality of pain and suffering.

BUT it does challenge the power of evil, of corruption and fear

            by demonstrating and even proving,

                        God’s promise and power of life and hope over all things

                           and assurance that God’s love will set all things right.

 

It also means we aren’t locked into the limitations of our present.

            God didn’t allow the evil and injustice

                        that Joseph's brothers’ planned to have the final word.

            God doesn’t allow the evil of crucifixion

                          that the religious leaders planned to have the final word.

God overcomes human evil & loss   into God’s gracious good purpose.

 

            The one they thought was dead, stands alive before them,

                        and so thus God transforms even the darkest, the saddest,

                          into the most hopeful & joyful of God's promised victory.

 

*  Easter is our wonderful reminder, that as it turns out

            that there really is more love, more mercy & more grace in God;

                  than there is evil, loss or trouble, in the world, or in us.

 

Easter resurrection is our assurance, our promise and our hope,

            that God is very present in our times of loss and trouble.

 

Easter resurrection means that  pain and past  

     are turned around to accomplish God’s good & gracious blessings.

 

It is this certain love of God,  this grace of God in Jesus Christ,

            that is the difference, in how we can live out our lives;

                        it is assurance and hope in God's promises,

                                        that we can live even with our losses,

                                                even when all is crashing down around us.

 

There's a story about an Easter service at a little country church.

     It had been a snowy blizzard on Friday on through the weekend.

                        The pastor was disappointed,

                                    knowing that despite a lot of hard work & preparation

                                      that very few worshipers would come out in the storm.

 

To add to the misery, shortly before worship

            he received word about the death of a woman, one of the twelve

                brothers and sisters who were members of the congregation.

 

Between the storm and the death, the pastor anticipated

            a very disappointing and poorly attended worship service.

 

The organist began the prelude, and the pastor consoled himself

            that perhaps at least a few people had come to the service.

 

When the pastor stepped out into the sanctuary,

            he was stunned to see, that there in the front row

                        sat the husband and children of the deceased woman.

                                    They had driven 30 miles through the raging blizzard.

 

And all around them were all their aunts, uncles and cousins,

            and so many of them, so packed in that some of them had to stand.

   Never before had there been so many people in a worship service.

 

The organist moved into the first hymn,

                                                "Jesus Christ is risen today, alleluia!"

            In the front row, singing as loudly as any,

                        with tears streaming down their faces,

                                    were the husband and children of the deceased woman.

 

The pastor's eyes must have looked to be asking a question,

            for the father noticed, looked up and quietly whispered,

                                    "She has gone home,

                                                and so we thought we should come home today too,

                        for today…

                                    … we need to remember Easter  especially on this day."

 

*           Outside the storm raged on,        but no one minded

                        for inside the resurrection,

                                    the promise and hope were being celebrated.

 

Friends,    Jesus Christ is Risen...    He is risen indeed!!!