"Joseph's Band of Brothers"

Genesis 45:1-15

Joseph has a choice to make. He can still be angry with his brothers for that debacle years ago when they threw him in a pit and sold him into slavery or he can offer his brotherly love to them.  The final verse of this passage says   And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him.

They have come seeking help during a famine, not knowing that Joseph, their brother, is still alive and is the very one who can offer them help. They are sure he will turn them away, why wouldn't he? But he doesn't.. He offers them food and a place to feel at home. He kisses them and cries and welcomes them.

He understood not only the power of forgiveness, but also the power of offering the best sense of humanity to someone in their time of need. He didn't let his past make him bitter or consume him. He held it as a productive life experience, one that he fashioned into a calling from God.

And the brothers are noticeably surprised, and probably a little scared, but since their lives were spared, they are likely exceedingly grateful. And so the story has this interesting twist. All is not forgotten or resolved, but lives are saved and relationship is restored.

In the HBO mini-series Band of Brothers, the Easy Company is chronicled throughout their experiences in World War II, from their days in training all the way through the surrender in Japan.  The story is based on real interviews and true events, but is fictionalized and dramatized for the screen. This group of men who were at first strangers became like brothers because of their experiences in a time of war.  They had to watch out for each other in the worst of times. They have a bond like nothing anyone else can ever experience. Even in the darkest of times, their sense of duty to one another makes them really live into the word 'brothers.'

What does it mean to offer 'brotherly' love to those who have wronged us? What does it mean to be in connection with a world in conflict?  How do we take dark times (times of 'famine' in our lives) and make them times of blossoming growth of character for ourselves and others?

Thoughts? Email me or comment below.