Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Feb. 24, 2019

First Reading: Genesis 45:3-11, 15

Love your enemies. Turn the other cheek. Do not judge. Do to others as you would have them do to you. Throughout Sunday’s readings, culminating in another portion of Luke’s Sermon on the Plain, we hear a clear call to listen for God and to forgive even those who have hurt us.

The Recognition of Joseph by His Brothers (1816-17), fresco by Peter von Cornelius (1783-1867). Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin. (Click image to enlarge.)

So it is with Joseph in our first reading. Sold into slavery in Egypt by his jealous brothers, Joseph rose through difficulties to become a chief advisor to Pharaoh. Now there is famine across the land, and Joseph’s brothers flee to Egypt, where they find Joseph in his new, powerful position. They are terrified, fearing revenge, but Joseph forgives them, just as God forgave the wrongs of their ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The ancestral line of the Bible’s patriarchs will live on, going on down to King David and eventually to Jesus.

Psalm: Psalm 37:1-12, 41-42

Trust in God and do good, the Psalmist urges us. Don’t worry about evildoers or envy those who do wrong; they won’t last. But those who follow God’s ways will receive their heart’s desire. As we sing through these verses, notice the parallels with Jesus’ instructions in the Sermon on the Plain: Be patient. Don’t strike out in anger. These things only lead to evil. Trust in God, rather, knowing that the meek shall inherit the land. Wait for God with patience and confident trust. Follow God’s ways and be rewarded.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:35-38,42-50

Paul approaches the conclusion of his theological reflection on resurrection and how it works, setting up an opposing question about what kind of body the resurrected will have, then shouting “Fool!” at his imagined opponent in debate. Using seeds and sowing as metaphors, he observes that seeds of grain cannot come to life as plants unless they die through being sown in the earth. Just as God then gives each kind of seed its own body, so it is with resurrection: Our physical bodies perish, but what is raised cannot perish. Just as Adam, the first human, came from dust, but Christ, like a second Adam, came from heaven, and in resurrection we will bear his image.

Gospel: Luke 6:27-38

We hear more of Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain, and it becomes even more challenging in its reversal of expectations. Moving from the blessings for those who suffer and the woes for those who revel in riches, he now poses the difficult, counter-intuitive challenge to love our enemies and do good to those who hate and hurt us, doing to others as we would have them do to us. He goes on to make clear that practicing this Golden Rule is not to be done in hope of reward: “If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. … But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.”