Genesis chapter 45 and Mark 15 have a common theme that speaks very powerfully to me - undeserved forgiveness. Joseph sees the brothers who tried to kill him - they threw him in a well...they sold him into slavery - and he shows them grace. They fear him because of his power in Egypt...they fear that he will exact revenge on them (I mean, that's how people operate right? Eye for eye and so on...) and they slink back from him. Yet he tells them right out, in such a show of strength and faithfulness, that what they had meant for evil was used by God to bring good. In fact, Joseph could see that God had brought him into that position in Egypt so that he would be able to guide Pharaoh, to store food for the drought, so that that Joseph could feed the Hebrew people and keep God's covenant with Abraham alive! How is that for forward thinking? Joseph has seen the way that God works through even people's evil choices and he forgives them.
In Mark 15 we see the ultimate example of undeserved forgiveness. Jesus is slaughtered on the cross. We know that Jesus tearfully asked God for another path in the garden of Gethsemane, but God the Father said, "No," Jesus would have to be crucified...crushed under our sinfulness...and separated from God - cut of from the community of Himself that he had known eternally. Yet he went through this terrible ordeal...he offered himself up as the sacrificial lamb because he loves us. Romans 5:8 tells us that, "God shows his great love for us, in that, while we were still sinners Christ died for us," We were not good people that needed a little help. We were not faithful friends that anyone would die for. We were the enemies of God when Christ offered himself in our place. Jesus accepted death on the cross because he knew that God was going to use this horrific incident to bring greater good than had ever been known.
Jesus offered himself to bring us salvation. Joseph offered forgiveness because he could see God at work in the terrible things that had been done to him. What about you? Is there some kind of hatred you are harboring...some kind of anger at someone else that is eating you up inside...some kind of desire for vengeance? I know there are some horrible things that happen to people in this world...God knows that too - He has experienced them...but can you open your eyes enough to see how God is working through even the evil choices of other people. Can you place your trust in God and offer forgiveness where you never thought it was possible...where it is undeserved?
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