Grace, Truth and Reconciliation
Genesis: Foundations of Our Faith • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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In 1995, South Africa was waking up from centuries of racial conflict and injustice. The new government created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He had advocated for the end of apartheid for years. Now, when some people in the country wanted vengeance, he preached reconciliation through truth, forgiveness, and justice. He said, “Yesterday’s oppressed can quite easily become today’s oppressors.” He said the best path was not political motivation, but biblical faith. Specifically the belief that every human being is created in the image of God and partakers in God’s grace. And the belief that truth is the path to reconciliation.
Tutu said, “Forgiving and being reconciled are not about pretending that things are other than they are. It is not about patting each other on the back and turning a blind eye to the wrong. True reconciliation exposes the awfulness, the abuse, the pain, the degradation, the truth. It could even sometimes make the situation worse. It is a risky undertaking, but in the end is worthwhile because in the end there will be real healing from having dealt with the real situation.”
What South Africa was seeking as a country, every one of us is seeking, almost daily. We experience brokenness in our relationships because we violate one another in many ways. Healing reconciliation requires forgiveness. Forgiveness requires both grace one one person’s part and an acknowledgment of a debt, a trespass, or other offense on the other person’s. So, reconciliation requires walking by grace in the light of truth.
What we will learn today is that God can use the consequences of our sins to open our hearts to grace and truth, which leads to reconciliation.
Chapters 42 through 45 are a long drama of reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers. There will be tears, and humor, and cringey moments. But our two chapters this week create the tension for the climax to come next week. But they also add a necessary layer to the story: the realization that reconciliation is not possible unless the offended party extends grace and the offending party acknowledges the truth of their offense. Joseph will act like Jesus.
Jesus would create scenarios, sometimes using parables, to help people see hard truths about themselves that would open their hearts to the grace of God. Joseph will create a very tense scenario that will test the hearts of his brothers to see if reconciliation in the truth is possible. Like Jesus, he will use grace. Unlike Jesus, he will also use that old family trait of deception. How will it end?
Genesis 42 reads like a dramatic movie. And if we read it like a drama, we can ask questions like, did Joseph know everything we know as we read the drama unfolds? Moses introduces the drama in verses 1-5. The famine that Joseph had predicted from Pharaoh’s dreams had reached Canaan, and Jacob sent ten of his remaining eleven sons to Egypt because he has heard they have grain to spare. When the brother arrive, Joseph immediately recognizes them. These are the men that threw you in a pit, ate their bread while you begged for grace, sold you into slavery where you were mistreated, sexually harassed, and wrongfully imprisoned for two years. What would you be feeling?
We are told that the brothers did not recognize Joseph. When did Joseph realize this? We don’t know. We are told in verse 7 that he recognized them but treated them like strangers. After they answer his questions, it is in verse 8 that it seems like Joseph realizes what is going on, and we get a little of his internal dialogue.
And Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed of them.
Joseph’s dreams that we learned about in chapter 37 have literally come true. His brothers have bowed down to him. And he seems to be the only one in the room that recognizes this. So, he takes it as an opportunity to test his brothers. Will they acknowledge the truth, that he was right? How does he go about this test? He accuses them of a crime he knows to be false.
And Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed of them. And he said to them, “You are spies; you have come to see the nakedness of the land.”
This is language from the Garden of Eden. After eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Adam and Eve’s eyes were opened to their nakedness, and they experienced shame. Maybe Joseph wants to know if his brothers have ever felt shame for doing what was good in their own eyes instead of loving their brother.
He is putting them to their own Garden Test. The brothers want food. Do they want the food of the tree of life, the truth of God? Or do they want the food of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, doing what is good in their own eyes and choosing their own version of right and wrong? Joseph has put himself in the place of the tempter/tester. He accuses them three times of being spies, and at the heart of this chapter are Joseph’s words to his brothers:
"...that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you...” And he put them all together in custody for three days.
This period of three days fits the biblical pattern of testing. So, what is the truth Joseph is trying to discover through this test? The brothers have made a claim that must have cut Joseph to the heart.
And they said, “We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan, and behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is no more.”
Our words are tested by our actions. What kind of words have Joseph’s brothers spoken? They claim to be brothers, sons of the same father. And that they are honest men. Anyone can say that, and usually people that have to convince you they are honest are really the opposite. Joseph will test whether this is true. They say they are all sons of one man, but are they truly brothers? They say they are honest men, but is the truth in them?
If Joseph is ever going to reconcile with his brothers, the truth has to be spoken. Are they ready to speak the truth? This leads to a helpful question for all of us.
Is the Truth in Me?
Is the Truth in Me?
We all live in the brokenness created by human sin. And we have all participated in the breaking. All of us are sinners by nature and by choice. We have committed sins that require reconciliation with God. Jesus has provided that reconciliation by becoming sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. We are reconciled and healed in Him. All that is required on our part is repentance and faith. Repentance and faith require walking in the light of truth - about ourselves and about Jesus. Repenting of our sin requires acknowledging our sin. And faith in Jesus requires acknowledging the truth about Him, that He is the only way to God the Father, the truth incarnate, and our eternal life.
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
The only way we can help heal our world is to be reconciled to God first. That reconciliation heals us so that we can offer reconciliation to one another. If we want to have fellowship with one another, we have to walk in the light of truth, we need the truth to be in us. For the truth to be in us, we must receive Jesus and we must be willing to make confession of sin a regular practice. But this openness has a life-giving benefit. We are ready to receive grace.
Has Grace Opened My Heart to Confess the Truth?
Has Grace Opened My Heart to Confess the Truth?
Grace is necessary for true reconciliation. Grace opens hearts. We see this in the reconciliation process between Joseph and his brothers.
Joseph had told his brothers in verse 16 that he would keep them all confined in the house and they should send one brother back to Jacob to retrieve Benjamin to prove their honesty. But...
On the third day Joseph said to them, “Do this and you will live, for I fear God: if you are honest men, let one of your brothers remain confined where you are in the house,
and let the rest go and carry grain for the famine of your households, and bring your youngest brother to me. So your words will be verified, and you shall not die.” And they did so.
And it is this signal of grace that opens the brothers’ hearts to speak the truth. But maybe they don’t see it as grace at first.
Then they said to one another, “In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us.”
They can see very clearly that the consequences of their sin have led to this moment. They are responsible for selling one brother into slavery. Now, another brother will be kept in this house as a captive. The only way to get him back is to bring their youngest brother back to the same place.
Reuben speaks up at this point. In true blame-shifting fashion, he reminds them,
And Reuben answered them, “Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy? But you did not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood.”
This language, a reckoning for the blood of a brother, is the same language from the flood narrative.
And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his brother man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.
The flood had come because the sin of Cain had multiplied on the earth. Brother shedding the blood of brother had corrupted the earth, and God was cleansing it. God gives the gift of life that flows in our blood. So, when one brother human sheds the blood of another brother human, God requires a reckoning, a settling of that debt. A life is owed. So, where is the grace in that? It’s a long time coming. But we remember from Noah, that it will come through the righteous remnant people. A son of a woman will come to reconcile us to God and overcome the curse of sin and death.
In the meantime, here’s Joseph listening to his brothers arguing and blame-shifting, and the turned away from them and wept. He put Simeon in confinement, and sent the brothers on their way. But in the process, he gives them their money back. This is more testing. They now have their bread and money, just as on the day that they sold him into slavery, eating their meal and selling him for a profit. What will they do for Simeon? Will they take the money (and grain) and run?
It’s on the return journey to their father that they discover money in one brother’s bag. And they believe at that moment that this is an act of God. He’s the one behind the test.
He said to his brothers, “My money has been put back; here it is in the mouth of my sack!” At this their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?”
So far Joseph is the only one that has mentioned God. And as far as these brothers know, he’s an Egyptian. Now they’re finally talking about God. It is God that has opened their eyes to the consequences of their sin. Their hearts are completely open. The Hebrew is even more graphic, “their hearts came out of them”. Ever had that feeling when God causes you to realize the consequences of some sin?
Now, what else can they do but go back to their father and face the truth? God has been gracious to them. They have everything they valued before, bread and money. But now they are learning the value of a brother. Our next diagnostic question is,
Do I Live According to the Truth that We are All Sons of One Father?
Do I Live According to the Truth that We are All Sons of One Father?
I believe this can only be learned through the gospel of Jesus. The sons of Jacob claimed to be brothers. But so far they have not acted like it. And now they have lost another one. They have to tell the whole story to their father. He becomes the focus of the last movement of this story.
The brothers tell their father the whole story. It’s all too much for Jacob. I like the way the Christian Standard Bible translates him,
Their father Jacob said to them, “It’s me that you make childless. Joseph is gone, and Simeon is gone. Now you want to take Benjamin. Everything happens to me!”
And Reuben, who just can’t seem to get out of his own way, opens his big mouth with the worst idea yet, proving he just doesn’t get it.
Then Reuben said to his father, “Kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my hands, and I will bring him back to you.”
It’s at this point that you and I, as readers of this story, are supposed to throw up our hands and say, “What are you talking about? How will that help anyone?” This is not grace and truth. This is more of the same, doing what is good in his own eyes, multiplying the shedding of blood of brother humans. Jacob's answer is basically, “Hasn’t there been enough death? If anything happens to one more son, the next death will be mine.”
We’re left with a sense of desolation. When will this family learn? But as we have said before, if we read these stories as morality tales, we’ll mostly learn lessons about what not to do and get pretty discouraged in the process. In this case, would any of us use deception to manipulate our brothers to tell the truth and say that was walking in the light with God?
When will we learn? The same brokenness in them is in each of us. The truth is, we are all children of one heavenly Father. The more we treat other humans as a commodity to be bought, sold, enslaved, used, and traded, the more brokenness we create. How do we heal that? Our only hope is in Jesus. If reconciliation requires grace and truth, Jesus has them both in their fullness.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
When we repent from sin and believe that Jesus can reconcile me to God, our faith unites us with Jesus. He begins to live His life in us. So, the truth will be in me because Christ is in me. And my heart will be opened by His grace to confess the truth in ways that lead to healing. And it is in Jesus Christ that we all truly become members of one another, the children of one Father.
The Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 4,
…as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,
and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
In Christ, we become members of the same body, one Spirit, one calling to hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. God, like any loving father, will allow us to feel the consequences of our sin in ways that open our hearts. And in that moment when we are feeling most exposed, the fullness of grace and truth in Jesus tells me that we are loved by the Father and our older brother who has died and risen to reconcile me to God. And He fills me with His grace and truth to seek healing with others through reconciliation.
Communion
Questions for Discussion
What were your highs and lows this week?
Was there anything you were able to apply from last week’s passage and what did you learn from that?
What do we learn about God in our passage this week?
Why does God allow us to experience the consequences of our sins?
What do we learn about ourselves in this passage?
What part of the drama between Joseph and his brothers stands out to you most?
Can you share about a time when God used grace and truth to help you heal or to heal a relationship?
How will you respond to this passage this week?
With whom can you share this passage this week?
