Tough Stuff
Seventh Sunday after Epiphany
Genesis 45:3-11, 15 and Luke 6:27-38
February 23, 2025
If the Jacobs brothers of “Life Is Good” fame had an 11th Superpower leading to optimism, I would recommend “forgiveness.”
While they don’t list forgiveness for one of their superpowers, they do list, compassion, openness and courage. All of these, I believe, are necessary for forgiveness.
Perhaps we have all heard of “The Golden Rule,” based on our scripture today in Luke, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Rather than the Golden Rule, perhaps we could consider calling it, “The Compassion Rule,” or perhaps the “C.F.O. Rule,” for Compassion, Forgiveness, and Openness.
In order to love our enemies as ourselves, we have to at least be open to the idea. We have to have within us a willingness to forgive out of our compassion for another person, and let’s face it, this can open us up to further rejection, scrutiny, and all sorts of negative behaviors directed toward us.
When considering how we open ourselves up to tough relationships, I’m reminded of the armor of God that Laurelee modeled for us some months ago. It takes courage to open ourselves up to risk further negative actions against us. I’m reminded of the phrases, “Suck it up buttercup,” or “Put on your big girl panties,” or “Man up.” I’m sure you have heard these phrases.
But maybe I’m getting a bit ahead of myself.
The Golden Rule, or what I will call the CFO Rule, is written to be reciprocal a relationship; however, there is no guarantee that if you love someone who hates you, that you will receive love in return from that person. As we step out on this limb to forgive and have compassion, we open ourselves up for rejection by that person. That’s a tough request under the best of circumstances.
Clearly, the scripture tells us we are to take people seriously and be compassionate of their needs and forgiving of any wrongs they have imposed upon us.
When we have compassion for another, we share their burdens because we have empathy knowing our own burdens that we carry or have carried. We treat others with compassion because we know what it is like to not be treated with compassion.
Having compassion is putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and understanding, even for just a few minutes, what that person might be going through.
It takes so much more energy to love those who don’t love us, to listen to those who don’t listen to us, or to give our coats to one we know will never give us anything in return.
However, Jesus tells us this is exactly what we are to do. The ultimate forgiveness in my mind is to love your enemies, those who have wronged you intentionally. Turn the other cheek.
When we are called to reach out to someone we feel has wronged us – we open ourselves to the most apparent vulnerability, and this is where we need Jesus most to help us to be open and compassionate the way Joseph was with his brothers.
As humans, I do not believe we are capable of doing this without Jesus and the Holy Spirit. We need Jesus who showed us how we do this action – always our ultimate teacher for all things in life – and we need the Holy Spirit to give us the strength and the courage to carry out such a tough action.
Among 100 hostages taken by Hamas terrorists in October 2023 was an elderly 85 year old woman. Upon being released two weeks later by her captors, she turned back and extended her hand to one of them wishing him shalom, a Hebrew word meaning peace. As I watched this on the news report, I thought to myself, “How can she do that after everything they put her through?” That’s tough stuff to watch.
God’s forgiveness for us is shown in the actions Jesus endured. When he was struck on the check, he turned the other to make it available to his enemy. They took away his clothes and his possessions, and he knew he would never see them again.
God loves us in spite of our misbehavior. God loves our enemies, and is good to those who hate others, and blesses those who curse him. God has shown compassion and kindness to those who are ungrateful and wicked. This is tough to hear.
Because God was revealed in the death and resurrection of Jesus, we are called to open ourselves up to those who hate us; those who are wicked toward us, and forgive them. Then we are asked to go a step further, we are asked to show compassion toward them.
Jesus said as he hung on the cross, “Forgive them for they know not what they do.” An action of ultimate mercy and forgiveness.
Joseph surely felt abandoned by his brothers as he was left in an abandoned well, and sold into slavery in Egypt, all because of their jealousy of him. Yet when they met again years later, Joseph shows them mercy. He not only forgave them but he made an attempt to relieve their guilt of their actions by saying, “It was God who sent me, not you.”
Three times he tells his brothers that it is because of God, not them that he was sent to preserve life. When his brothers saw him, they fell silent. They were dismayed, stunned to see him standing alive before them as a ruler. This was a tough pill to swallow, I’m sure, and they may have even thought that Joseph would throw them in a well, or have them killed.
Yet, Joseph, having compassion for his brothers who had been wicked and wronged him, not only spares their lives, he opens himself to an opportunity for a loving relationship with his brothers. He loves them so much that he calls for them to settle in a fertile land, not just for them, but for their children and their children’s children.
The most heart wrenching line in the Genesis scripture is when Joseph asks his brothers, “Is my father still alive?” Joseph never forgot or stopped loving his father, even when he could not see him.
This question is a reminder for us of how much Joseph had to forgive. Because of his brothers’ wicked plot, he had been robbed of years of a father’s love, a love that was never forgotten by Joseph, and a love that I believe helped lead Joseph to be able to forgive. A love that only comes through God.
“And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that, his brothers talked with him.”
“He wept upon them.” He shed what I believe were tears of baptism, or tears of forgiveness upon his brothers. Because of Joseph’s ability to have compassion for his brothers, he was able to forgive them for their wicked action of years past, and then open himself up to a relationship with them again. The ultimate prize for Joseph was being reunited with his father.
When we consider those who have wronged us, without the ability to have compassion for them and forgive them, we deprive ourselves of a relationship with our Father God.
That hatred that we carry becomes a barrier between us and our Abba Father.
Loving our enemies is tough stuff. Not judging others is tough stuff. Forgiving others that have done wicked things to us is tough stuff. Yet….yet, we are called to let go of our anger and hatred. All the thoughts that we roll over in our heads over and over trying to decide who was right and who was wrong, and could I have done something different, or could the other person have done something different, and on and on the mind will play with all these thoughts going around and around depriving us of the peace and relationship we might live with as the greatest reward, as a child of the Most High.
I pray that we can all have the courage to power through the tough stuff and allow the Holy Spirit to fill us with the energy to become the CFO of our own relationships with others and, most importantly, our Lord.