It isn't fair... but it can be holy

Have you ever noticed that Jesus says some terribly inconvenient things? The classic phrase here which was one of my mum’s favourites to say to us is, ‘Do to others as you would have them do to you’. Truly annoying, when your brother has been winding you up and you just want to whack him. And the truth is, the stuff Jesus teaches, the love he models, is this kind of relentlessly considerate and graceful behaviour that makes it very difficult to get your own back. It goes against our instincts. It doesn’t sit well with our sense of justice.

In our first reading, Joseph’s brothers knew what it was to exercise personal justice. They knew what it was to exact revenge. And, they would have known what the natural human instinct was when it came to paying someone back for wrongs done to them. So here they were, desperate in the face of famine, throwing themselves on the mercy of a foreign power, when it turns out that it is none other than their little brother who they’d beaten up and sold into slavery, tossed out of the family and left for dead.

Now the tables were turned, and Joseph could have had them all tortured and executed. I’m sure that’s what they fully expected, in that dreadful moment when he revealed his identity, stunning them into dismayed silence. Can you imagine?!

But despite living many centuries before Jesus, Joseph has this connection with God that enables him to have greater vision, and greater forgiveness, than his family anticipated. Joseph models Jesus’ teaching, even having never heard it, of loving his enemies, doing good to those who hurt him, and blessing those who cursed him. I think that’s why this reading is in our lectionary for today, because Joseph models the gospel so well. Holding the vulnerability of his cruel and jealous brothers in his hands, Joseph chooses to ignore the urge for what we might think of as justice, and instead weeps on them tears of love.

Love your enemies, do not judge, do not condemn, says Jesus. But not many of us would have the instincts to behave like Joseph did, because forgiveness and love are really hard.

We prefer a love that feels good, that affirms us, comforts us, builds us up, and comes easily. A love that costs us something is less desirable. A love that stretches us, challenges us, and goes against our natural instincts is a love that takes real work. A love that takes determination, and a good bit of divine spiritual assistance.

For our desire to impose justice, or to exact retribution, is strong. Imagine the Batman movies if Batman just loved all the baddies, or if Harry Potter and Voldemort became best friends. It wouldn’t make for very satisfying watching. We want to see the bad guys get what they deserve! The thought of them getting away with it fills us with indignation, and Jesus’ idea of how to behave (loving one’s enemies?!) feels unnatural and unfair.

But we also know there is something deeply beautiful about it. Letting go of our fear and pride, and instead embracing selflessness and forgiveness, being able to step away from the instinct to pay someone back, is the pathway to joy and peace.

Shel Silverstein’s book The Giving Tree was never meant to be a Christian allegory, but it captures something of the love that Jesus is trying to explain. It is the story of the relationship between a boy and a tree, and as the boy grows up, he wants more and more, which the tree willingly gives him, from leaves to play with, to apples to sell, to branches to build a house, to the trunk to make a boat, eventually leaving only a stump. The tree offers everything because she loves the boy, and the refrain each time that she gives something of herself is ‘and the tree was happy’. In the end, the tree has nothing left to give but a stump, the last of herself, as a seat, and the boy, now an old man, only needs somewhere to rest. And that is how it ends, the old man resting on the stump. And the tree was happy.

This is a love that costs something. This is a love that is self-sacrificial, giving everything that is asked without any expectation of receiving in return. This is the kind of love that Jesus is asking us to work towards.

Like Joseph’s brothers, who were driven by wounded pride and jealousy, we have all the natural barriers in our hearts and minds that make us yearn for what we see as fairness in this life. But the collect for today sums it up nicely - without God’s love, whoever lives is accounted as dead. We can be the nicest person, the most generous giver, the best church attender, but if we lack this kind of love, this costly love, this love that relinquishes our sense of fairness, if we don’t have that, we are spiritually dead. Without love whatever we do is worth nothing.

Jesus tries to explain it so many times. There’s the parable of the workers in the vineyard who all get the same wage, despite working different lengths of time. That’s not fair! We cry. The parable of the prodigal son - he is welcomed back home with rejoicing. ‘That’s not fair!’ complains his brother. The parable of the Good Samaritan - the injured man is cared for by a foreign stranger who gives with no expectation of being paid back. That isn’t fair either… Are you starting to get the picture? God isn’t fair! Not fair at all, and a lot of the time we don’t like it one bit, especially when the not-fairness is benefiting other people, and ESPECIALLY when we think they don’t deserve it.

But there is a flip side to all this, and that is that in The Giving Tree story, we are all the boy who is given everything with open hands. Who knows if he deserved it all, but the tree gave and was happy. Now we know for sure, without question, that we don’t deserve all that God gives us, but we receive it anyway - forgiveness, grace, acceptance, welcome, love. And that is why we are charged with the task of perpetuating the cycle. We are the recipients of this love that stops at nothing to give life in all its fullness. We have received, so that we might give in return.

But of course, we can’t love like this on our own. We need some help. So we turn to the collect again, and pray for the Holy Spirit to pour into our hearts the gift of God’s love, because we really really, really need it!

Because the world is messed up. There is anger, resentment, fear, detachment, judgement, and a desire for justice, swirling around in our neighbourhoods, on our facebook pages, in our friendship groups and families, on tv, everywhere we look, and it feels like it’s getting worse and worse.

But Jesus shows us the better way. Every day, we have a choice. A choice to extend forgiveness when it isn’t deserved, a choice to bless those who harm or frighten us, a choice to give even when we expect nothing in return. Because when we love like this, with the help of the Spirit, we become living streams of the transforming power of God’s love.

It won’t always feel good. It won’t always feel fair. But it will always be holy. And somewhere in that holiness we will find ourselves changed, and find ourselves dwelling in the joy and peace of a love that loves beyond reason.

Amen.

Genesis 45:3-11, 15;  Luke 6:27-38