Dr. Patricia (Pat) Blumenthal hated her high school Latin class. She thought it was a waste of her time. One day, she decided enough was enough.
With the whole class looking on, Blumenthal verbally tore into her teacher. She told him his lessons were dull. She criticized his teaching style and told him how he could do his job better. She told him she had expected more from him.
He didn't send her to the office for her impertinence. He did not, in fact, say anything at all at first. He only sat in his chair looking tired. Withered. Then, he thanked her for her input and said he would try to do better.
As she related in the letter Pastor Josh read in his sermon yesterday, Blumenthal did not experience the sense of victory she had hoped for. For one thing, apart from a few new worksheets that showed her teacher was trying, the class didn't get much more exciting. For another, she felt horrible.
Long dead at the time she wrote this open letter, what purpose could it serve for her to apologize and ask his forgiveness now?
As Josh taught, there is a reason to ask for and offer forgiveness beyond the peace it might bring to the offended and to the offender.
WHY JOSEPH FORGAVE HIS BROTHERS
Genesis 45 tells the part of Joseph's story in which, years after selling him into slavery, his brothers discover he is alive and has become a powerful Egyptian official. He could easily have them all executed with a wave of his hand.
Desiring instead to reconcile with his long lost family, Joseph chose to offer forgiveness to his brothers. They in turn had the option to accept his forgiveness. It likely took time for them to fully receive it, which meant forgiving themselves for the awful thing they had done.
Peace for himself. Peace for his brothers. But the third reason for Joseph to offer his brothers forgiveness was made clear in the text:
Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt." (Genesis 45:4-8, bold added)
Joseph recognized that God had used his brothers' wickedness for good. He had no reason to be angry with them, not when he could see God's goodness had so heavily outweighed the evil of their act. He could see this only because his view of God, his connection to God, was clear.
And Joseph wanted to keep it that way.
FORGIVENESS ALLOWS US TO SEE
That is the third, and arguably the most important reason the Bible teaches us to forgive and ask for forgiveness. Without forgiveness, we are either burdened with the bitterness of victimhood or the shame of regret - and both interfere with our relationship with God.
We can't see fully see God's goodness, his love for us, his compassion for the world, when our vision is blocked and blurred by the evils done to us or that we have done to others. Forgiveness is the only path to clarity.
Joseph understood that. That's why he pointed out God's role in his story not once, but three times in this passage. His relationship with God was more important to him than anything.
It is unfortunate that Dr. Blumenthal didn't reach out to her old Latin teacher while he was still living. He didn't have the opportunity to hear her apology and offer forgiveness. But she can still apologize. She can still acknowledge her wrongs for the sake of her own peace.
She can also apologize for the sake of her relationship with God, as Joseph did. We all can do the same. There may still be grief to work through, as there surely was for Joseph's brothers. The memory of the hurt that we caused, or that was done to us, won't go away.
WHAT GOD WANTS US TO SEE
But God can show us something we are unable to see without him: While we were yet sinning and others were sinning against us, he was doing something good in us, through us and for us all.
This is how God operates. Through the tragedy of Joseph's story, God saved Egypt and all of Israel from starvation. Through the tragedy of Jesus' persecution and death on the cross, God saved us all from death. Everyone who caused those tragedies was forgiven.
Only through forgiveness can we see how God's goodness outweighs all the sin in the entire world. Again and again and again.