Recently, a participant in our Lazarus Project Mentoring Program shared about a fear he experienced when his victim came to his home looking for him after his release from jail.  We don’t hear these stories often, but they do happen.  It seems quite strange that people are connected by crime.  Somehow, they need to make sense and reconcile the whole situation. 

We are all aware of the story from the Holy Bible of Joseph and his coat of many colors.  Filled with pride, Joseph would remind his brothers that he was his father’s favorite son.  Finally, one day his 11 brothers had enough of him and gave him a thrashing that he would never forget.  They compounded their guilt by selling him as a slave to a caravan of foreigners who carted him off to Egypt.  Poor Joseph remained destitute, first as a slave, then as a jail inmate in a foreign land.  Many years and sorrows came and went.  Even when life seemed to head in a positive direction, his heart ached from the pain of separation inflicted by the crime his brothers committed against him. 

Finally, he experienced true rehabilitation and full integration into the community where he resided.  He found favor with the government and his fellow citizens.  He landed a high ranking government position that afforded great authority.  Life had a touch of sweetness.  

Through a series of circumstances, God in His infinite Mercy and Wisdom, arranged a meeting between Joseph and his brothers.  The brothers were unaware that the governor with whom they were speaking was their own brother, the victim of their brutal crime.  They thought that he had vanished.  No, instead he remained invisibly connected to them, now revealed with renewed authority.  When they realized his identity, they were filled with fear.  They had to face their own guilt as vicious perpetrators.  Forgiveness was readily available, but they first had to come to grips with their need for forgiveness.  They may have felt justified in their crime.  They may have assuaged their guilt by reinforcing in one another, “Joseph got what he deserved.”  They would not be ready to receive forgiveness until they first faced the horror of their actions. 

We are taught to put our best face forward.  We want to win friends and influence people.  We would like to believe that we are above reproach.  However, the reality of our sinfulness attests that we may have stepped on some people as we rose to the top.   We hope that people will remember us as loving and kind.

Jesus taught that our ability to love is equal to the depth of forgiveness we have received (Luke 7:47).  God is concerned that we acquire humility so we can experience his transforming love.  During this season of Lent, let us allow the Holy Spirit to prepare our hearts to grow in humility.  We shouldn’t be surprised if a former high school student, an old college buddy, a neighbor, or a complete stranger, to whom we are connected through a crime of abusive speech, rumor, or any form of unkindness, shows up at our door.  This can be God at work, reconciling us to Himself and each other.

Patrick is not only President of St Matthew’s Parish Council and a sub deacon but has worked in Prison Ministry for almost 30 years.  He and his wife, Cheryl, have five children: Elizabeth, Esther, Mathew, Geoffrey, and Lydia (two out in their careers, two in college, and one graduating from high school this year). 

“Therefore, I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. 
  But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”    -Luke 7: 47