Oh To Forget!
By Rev. William Dohle
I am a very forgetful person. I just am!
I forget where I put my keys...probably 3 - 4 times per day!
I forget my wallet the same.
I forget what I'm supposed to get at the store...unless I write it down.
And I forget people's names...sometimes spontaneously so!
I forget what I'm doing in a particular room.
I'm just forgetful!
But there are things that I wish I could forget. Things I wish were no longer in my head...
I wish I could forget...what those who injured me have done.
I wish I could forget...how hurt I was when they talked behind my back.
I wish I could forget...the guilt I have over a broken friendship.
I wish I could forget...what I've done wrong.
There are things I wish I could forget...and those I wish I didn't. And for some reason...those two lists don't work so well together. I find myself forgetting what I need to remember and remembering what I need to forget! Ahh!
Today we hear Joseph's brother's falling into the same trap. Joseph's brothers, after these many years, are worried. You see...they remember what they did to Joseph. How they sold him into slavery and sent him off to Egypt. But they worry: "Does Joseph remember? Is Joseph holding a grudge?"
"What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrong we did to him?"
So... what do Joseph's brothers do? They lie! That's right! They lie about what their father said. They figure, since Joseph loved Jacob as much as he did, that maybe Jacob's word will clear their name. So they tell Joseph...
"Your father left these instructions before he died: 'This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.' Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father."(Gen. 50:16-17)
We're told, after he heard this, Joseph wept!
Why? Why did he react that way? Because Joseph had forgotten! He had put what they had done to him out of their mind. Their sins were erased, forgotten. The past was past and Joseph had moved on!
His brothers hadn't! Even after all this time. Even after Joseph had been kind to them and shown them every kind of compassion, his brothers were afraid. Thinking their father had stopped Joseph from taking revenge, they feared for themselves and their families after what they did.
Only there was nothing to be afraid of. Joseph had forgotten. The past was past.
We can learn a lesson from Joseph here. To forget! There is nothing so bad that requires you to hold on...and remember it forever! There is no sin so bad that forgiveness cannot cover it. There is no hurt you have that cannot be put behind you.
God knows! God forgets! When sins are forgiven, they are forgotten by God. "As far as the east is from the west, so far have you put our transgressions before you." That's how far away your sins are to God. God doesn't remember them... why are you?
You have a choice. You can hold onto the past. You can live in your own mistake, thinking and believing that others judge you because of it, or you can choose to move on, to forget the past, and allow that mistake to make you a better person.
What will you choose to do? Allow yourself to forget and live forgiven? Or live instead in the past?
Forgiving, life-giving God, you have put our sins far behind you in Jesus. You no longer remember what we did. Help us to forget the sins of others. Help us to forgive ourselves too. Amen.
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