09/14/2026
Proposed Farmersville Waggoner Community Coat Drive Planning Meeting 7PM TUE SEP 15
We are holding a planning meeting for a proposed Coat Drive for the Farmersville Waggoner Community. Anyone can come and discuss ideas about how to do this. Members of our church as well as community leaders are welcome. The meeting will be held in the basement at Zion Ev. Lutheran Church in Farmersville at 7:00 pm.
A Sunday Offering
Pentecost 16 September 13, 2026
Famersville, Il
When Guilt Meets Goodness
Genesis 50: 15 When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” 16 So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died: 17 ‘Say to Joseph, “Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.”’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18 His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” 19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. 21 So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus, he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Our text is the Old Testament reading appointed for the 16th Sunday after Pentecost.
We often think the hardest part of a crisis is the crisis itself.
A tornado or powerful windstorm comes and we scurry to the basement, taking our pets and a flashlight and battery-operated radio along and wait in fear. But the tornado isn’t necessarily the hardest part.
The clean up, the damage to the roof, the trees and the house quickly becomes the real crisis. Repairing the damage done and paying for the damage done becomes the real crisis.
And that’s how it was for Joseph’s brothers. The real crisis began well after the storm had passed.
For years, Father Jacob had been a buffer between Joseph and the brother’s deep, buried guilt for what they had done to him. But now, Jacob was dead. The funeral was over and in the quiet aftermath, the brothers suddenly realized something. They said to themselves, "What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrong we did to him?" (Genesis 50:15).
Guilt, their evil, sinful action of selling Joseph to slavers came back with a vengence.
And that’s the Law of God. It never lets up. It keeps a meticulous record of our sins.
Years earlier, the brothers had hated Joseph. They stripped him of his coat, threw him into a pit, and sold him into slavery. They lied to their father, watched Jacob weep for decades, and locked their crime away in the secret vault of their hearts. They thought time would pass and the deed would be forgotten. But time never heals sin. The Law never forgets.
When Joseph died their earthly security crumbled, the Law woke up with a vengeance. It began to whisper in their ears: “Now you will get what you deserve.”
• Martin Luther understood the agonizing reality of sin intimately.
In his commentary on Galatians, he wrote: "The Law detects, scares, and crushes the conscience... It does not bring righteousness; it shows us our sin, fills us with terror, and drives us to despair."
Now notice how the unresolved guilt of the brothers' distorts their view of Joseph.
• They could not see his true character; they could only see their own guilt.
• Terrified of judgment, they sent a messenger to Joseph with a fabricated deathbed command from their father:
"Forgive the transgression of your brothers..." (Genesis 50:16–17).
Finally, they threw themselves at his feet and said, "Behold, we are your servants" (Genesis 50:18).
This is exactly what happens when you try to live under the Law.
• You look at God and see an angry judge waiting to strike you down.
• We try to use whatever means we have at our disposal, religious heritage, our parents' faith, or our own desperate promises to appease the One we sinned against
If your relationship with God is fueled by anxiety that God is secretly harboring a grudge against you for your past, you are living under the crushing, weight of the Law.
But suddenly the text takes an unexpected turn. Genesis 50:17 gives us a detail that changes everything: Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
Why did he weep?
• He wept because his brothers still did not know his heart.
• He wept because, despite years of his provision and care, they were still living in the agony of a guilt-ridden prison Joseph had already unlocked.
He did not look at them with the anger of a judge; he looked at them with the broken heart of a brother.
Then, Joseph spoke words that shattered the power of the Law: "Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God?" (Genesis 50:19).
With those words, the Gospel breaks into the prison cell of the brothers as well as our prison of guilt.
• Joseph refuses to be the judge.
• He refuses to pay them back.
And in doing so, Joseph becomes a vivid, beautiful pre-figure of Jesus Christ.
• Jesus is our true and greater Joseph.
• We are the ones who turned our backs on Him.
• Our sins drove the nails into His hands and the spear into His side.
But rather than judging and condemning us …
• We find a Savior who weeps over our blindness.
• We find a Lord who lays down the weapon of judgment and says, “Do not be afraid.”
The Gospel is not God looking at your past and saying, “It didn’t matter.”
The Gospel is God looking at your past and saying, “It was paid for at the cross.” In that same commentary on Galatians I mentioned earlier Luther beautifully captures the difference between living by the Law and living by the Gospel. He says, "The Law drives us to despair, but the Gospel lifts us up."
Listen to the absolute pinnacle comfort in Joseph speaks to his brothers in verse 20: "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive."
• Joseph does not minimize their evil. He acknowledges it directly: You meant evil.
• The Gospel does not play make-believe with our sins. The Gospel declares that God’s redemptive grace is infinitely bigger, higher, and more aggressive than human malice.
Think about the cross of Calvary. God took the worst sin ever committed—the murder of His innocent Son—and weaponized it to accomplish the salvation of the world.
The Gospel means that God has taken your worst failures, your deepest regrets, and He has cast them off through His incredible plan of redemption. If the cross can turn the murder of God into the salvation of the world, it can turn your story of sin into a masterpiece of grace. Your past cannot derail God’s love for you.
Because the Gospel predominates, it doesn’t speak a word of condemnation—it only restores, validates, and provides.
Joseph looks at his frightened brothers and says, "Now therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones." And the text concludes: And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them (Genesis 50:21).
Imagine the sense of relief that washed over those men.
• They came expecting for themselves what they had done to Joseph.
• Instead, they received a promise of love and security for themselves and their children.
Joseph’s kind words healed the wounds that their own guilt had kept open for decades.
This is how Jesus speaks to you today.
• The Law says you are a debtor, a traitor, and a slave.
• The Gospel says you are forgiven, redeemed, and provided for.
• You can stop looking over your shoulder. You can stop comparing yourself to others.
• If you are part of the Body of Christ you are saved.
Jesus has spoken kindly to your soul from the cross. He has promised to sustain you, to provide for you, and to bring you safely to His table. Your sins were real, but His grace is final. Sit down, rest, and let the healing words of His grace quiet your heart today.
Amen. This is the Word of the Lord.
