“And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them” (Gen. 45:18).
When Christians read the Old Testament, they see in it the figure of the New: in other words, when we read the ancient stories of the patriarchs and prophets we see prefigured or foreshadowed there the story of Christ himself. St. Paul does it in our reading today: “The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven” (1 Cor. 15:47). Adam, the man of dust, is the foreshadowing of what is fulfilled in Christ, the man from heaven. First, the making of the human race, destined to live in the presence of God; then in Jesus, the fulfillment of the promise, present from the beginning, of fellowship with God. Christians read the Old Testament through the lens of the New, seeing at each point the person of Christ.
The moving story of Joseph and his brothers, from our fist reading, is another example. To understand the meaning of our reading we need to recall the rest of the story. Joseph was one of twelve brothers of his father Jacob; a favorite son who was envied by his other brothers. Joseph had dreams that revealed to him that God has chosen him to have the preeminence over his brothers; to compound this, Joseph told them about the dreams! You might think: what a twerp.
The upshot of all this was that some of his brothers hatched a plot to get rid of him. They ambushed him and threw him into a pit, then sold him into slavery in Egypt, telling his father that he had been killed by an animal. That’s brotherly love and betrayal, all wrapped into one! But God preserved him and caused him to prosper, eventually raising him to the second position in the kingdom, after Pharoah.
Our reading falls into place after the brothers come to Egypt to buy food during a famine. They do not recognize their brother, who now has a decisive role to play in the survival of their family. Everything is at stake, and Joseph has many reasons to be resentful and vengeful. He reveals himself to his brothers, but not for the purpose of retaliation, and they are dumbfounded. Joseph is then overcome by emotion and greets his long lost persecutors with a kiss.
It’s quite a long story, taking up a large part of the Book of Genesis, but for good purpose. Christians read this story in the light of Jesus’ ministry and self-sacrifice, his giving of himself for others. Jesus too was persecuted and betrayed, bruised and fettered, as we read in the Gospels; he too took “the form of a slave” (Phil. 2:7), as St. Paul writes in the Letter to the Philippians. Again, the Gospels tell us that Jesus gave his life “as a ransom for many” (Mk. 10:45): his life purchased the lives of many others, just as Joseph’s imprisonment and slavery stood surety for the lives of his people. When Joseph is raised to the leadership of Egypt, we catch a glimpse of God’s redeeming action in death and resurrection, which turns what was meant for evil into good. The brothers intended to destroy him, but in a great reversal Joseph became the means of their salvation. Once again, Christ and his ministry foreshadowed in the Joseph story.
It’s the kiss and the tears at the end of our reading that is most revealing about Jesus’ ministry of reconciliation. He comes to bring people together: as St. Paul says in Ephesians, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace…” (Eph. 2:13-14). The hatred and enmity that once prevailed are now resolved by the ministry of Jesus Christ.
As a result, we are called to live a different life. As Jesus says in our Gospel reading today, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt… Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Lk. 6:27-29, 31). Not much room, is there, for resentment and revenge.
As a friend of mine said last week, if the Gospel contains the words of the Lord, why would we not do them? Words to ponder in a time of uncertainty. Joseph offered his brothers the kiss of peace, foreshadowing Jesus’ own ministry of peacemaking. Our Lord brings those who are near and far off together, into God’s presence, to stand on the wide margin of grace that he provides for us, and calls us to share in his ministry of reconciliation.