November 9, 2025
We’re starting a new sermon series on Joseph; not Joseph from the Christmas story. Joseph in the Old Testament. Joseph was one of 13 children, and his father’s favorite. His father, Jacob, gave him a beautiful coat. There’s a musical from 50 years ago called Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The Technicolor Dreamcoat is not exactly in the Bible. But in the Bible, Joseph has something even more amazing: when people do terrible, horrible things to him, Joseph has an unbelievable, amazing response. Bad things happen to him, people try to kill him and put him in jail. Joseph’s response is amazing.
His response is more lifechanging than a Technicolor Dreamcoat! You may think your response to life is not that important. But the way you respond can be your superpower! Your response can allow you to make a path forward regardless of what life sends your way.
The alternative to responding to something or someone in a calm, thoughtful way is to react to them. In school, I remember the teacher telling us, and my parents saying, if someone hits you, don’t hit them back. Two wrongs don’t make a right. You probably want to hit them back. But hitting back is a reaction, not a response. When you react, it makes you a reflection of that person. They’re mean to you, and you’re mean back. A reaction makes you look like that person.
When I was a kid, as long as I can remember there was a little punching bag, like a boxer has, hanging from the ceiling in the basement. Written on the bag, was “Ed,” on one stripe, “Pat” on the next, then “Ed” again and so one. The idea was my brother Joe, the 3rd child, would get mad at our older brothers. When he was mad, he could go punch their name on the punching bag. I don’t know if that’s the best example of responding. But when your brothers are 6 and 7 years older than you, you don’t want to hit or insult them! So, punch something else! Don’t react, respond.
When you respond in a calm, thoughtful way, it can turn bad into good. Instead of ending a friendship because you react angrily about something, you can help build a stronger, deeper relationship by responding in a calm, thoughtful way.
If a careful response is so life-changing, why don’t we respond this way all the time? Why don’t we use the superpower of responding? Well, we don’t because it doesn’t come naturally. It’s the opposite of how we feel and what we want to do. We naturally feel like reacting in the moment.
But the unexpected, calm, thoughtful, response reflects the life Jesus calls us to. In Matthew 5:43-44, Jesus says, 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” Jesus says, pray for your enemies regularly. And don’t pray for them to be struck by lightning! Pray for good, and for God to bless them. That doesn’t come naturally!
In Matthew 17, when Peter asks, “How often do I forgive someone who sins against me,” Jesus says 70 x 7 times! We’re supposed to practice unlimited forgiveness! It’s natural to want to retaliate against someone. But Jesus says, if someone insults you, don’t insult them back! Forgive them! Jesus teaches a way of responding that turns bad to good. When you see someone do what Jesus did, not retaliate, not repay evil for evil, it’s amazing! You see a reflection of God. God so loved this broken sinful world that he didn’t retaliate. He didn’t get back at us. Instead, he sent his son to pay the price for our sin.
A careful, thoughtful response lowers the emotion of the situation. It turns negativity around. It changes things powerfully.
Joseph had 11 brothers and 1 sister. His 10 older brothers were very jealous of him! Joseph was their father’s favorite. When Joseph was 17, he brought their father a bad report of what his brothers were doing as they tended sheep. That made them angry. Then, Joseph told them about dreams he had, where his whole family would bow to him and he would rule over them.
Joseph’s older brothers did not respond to this in a Jesus way. They reacted! They got angry and decided to kill him! His brother, Reuben, tried to save Joseph. He told his brothers, let’s just throw Joseph in a well. So, they did. Reuben was going to come back secretly and save Joseph. But before he could, the brothers sold Joseph to merchants who took him to Egypt. The brothers put goat’s blood on Joseph’s coat, took it to their father and told him that a wild animal killed Joseph. This news, of course, devastates Jacob.
Imagine how Joseph feels! His own brothers tried to kill him and sold him into slavery! He’s lost his family and everything he knows! But the next the Scriptures, “The Lord was with Joseph.” What does that mean?! For a guy who the Lord is with, Joseph has a pretty hard life! How is the Lord with him? It’s hard to believe the Lord is with Joseph if you hold to a version of faith that says, if God is good, he wouldn’t let bad things happen to innocent people. A good God doesn’t let children suffer. A good God doesn’t let people die young. Some people lose faith in God because, if the Lord was with him, none of this would have happened to Joseph! They think, “When God is with you, things work out for you, and life is good!” But Christians don’t believe that God makes everything work out. God allowed the worst possible thing to happen to his Son, Jesus! God was in control; he could have stopped it. God didn’t give us what we deserved. Instead, he sent Jesus to suffer and die for our salvation and that we might have abundant life. Suffering happens in life, and when we’re thrown in a pit, God is with us in our suffering. God offers hope. And we have the ability, the superpower, to respond and not react.
I think “the Lord was with Joseph” means, Joseph didn’t give up. He didn’t get cynical about the world. He didn’t say, nothing matters. Why even try? He still believed God works and is always working in the world, and that what you do, how you act, how you respond matters! As a slave, he worked to be the best slave he could be. God gave him hope. Joseph refused to react according to what happened to him. He responded as if God was with him.
Then something good happened to him. Joseph’s master trusted him because he did such a great job! He put him in charge of all his affairs! But then, something bad happened. The master’s wife told Joseph to go to bed with her. When he refused, she made up a story about him, and he was put in prison. Joseph has a hard life. But God is always with him.
My homework for you is to consider some difficulty you are going through, and ask yourself, what does it mean to respond as if God is with you?
God doesn’t just hang out with you when the sun shines, and you have plenty of money and the world loves you. God is with Joseph when his brothers throw him into a pit, when he is sold into slavery, and when he is thrown into prison. Joseph refuses to accept that other people determined his destiny. He lives as if God does. Joseph uses his superpower, which is available to all of us. He responds in a calm, thoughtful, way. Joseph doesn’t have control over much. But he controls his response. We’ll see that one day Joseph makes a big impact for God and for good, because of his response.
Next week we’ll continue Joseph’s story where he experiences the pain of being forgotten! Amen.
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