Karma and Christ

August 17, 2014

Genesis 45:1-15 Romans 11:1-2a, 29-2 !atthe" 15:21-2#

In our culture we often hear references to the concept of karma. We hear about it in talk shows and sitcoms and
everything in between. But what is it? The idea of karma comes from eastern religions and teaches that what
happens to you in the future is brought about by the accumulation of the good or bad things that you have done
in the past. Good intent and good deeds contribute to good karma and future happiness while bad intent and
bad deed contribute to bad karma and future suffering.! "Wikipedia# $arma is also associated with the concept
of rebirth so that if you have good karma you might come back with a better life but if you have bad karma you
would return "possible even as an animal# to a life that was filled with suffering.
The %nited &tates 'rmy has a very similar philosophy but having no connection to eastern mysticism the army
has simplified this principle to what might (ust be its simplest form.
What goes around comes around.!
It is the principle that if you do dumb stuff whether that)s bad behavior or acting disrespectfully toward a higher
ranking person or acting disrespectfully toward a family member of a higher ranking person that dumb stuff is
going to come back and bite you in the keister.
's our *rill &ergeant e+plained to us If that girl you (ust whistled at turns out to be the &ergeant ma(or)s wife
or the ,olonel)s daughter things are not going to go well for you. Those men have the power to make the lives
of everyone in this company very difficult.!
This idea of lifelong karma or what goes around comes around! is not new. -veryone understands that
sometimes you get away with the bad things you did but sometimes the people you once hurt are in a position to
hurt you back and take their revenge.
's we continue reading the story of .oseph we are skipping ahead a few years. .oseph although still
technically a slave has been blessed by God has rescued -gypt from starvation and death greatly enriched the
power and the authority of the /haraoh and has been rewarded by being made second only to /haraoh in power
and authority. But as the famine spreads it affects his family. &ince -gypt is the only place anyone can buy
grain "thanks to .oseph# .oseph)s family comes to -gypt to buy grain and .oseph)s brothers come face to face
with the man that they once tried to kill. Because .oseph now looks like an -gyptian speaks -gyptian and is a
few years older than when they last saw him they have no idea who he is0 until he reveals himself to them.
'nd as you can imagine when they discover that their lives are in the hands of a man they abused and sold into
slavery they almost wet themselves. They may not have had a word like karma to describe it but they
understood revenge very well. $Genesis 45:1-15%
Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, Have everyone leave
my presence! So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers
!
"nd he wept so
loudly that the #gyptians heard him, and $haraoh%s household heard about it
1
&
Joseph said to his brothers, ' am Joseph! 's my father still living( )ut his brothers were not able to answer
him, because they were terrified at his presence
*
Then Joseph said to his brothers, +ome close to me ,hen they had done so, he said, ' am your brother
Joseph, the one you sold into #gypt!
-
"nd now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for
selling me here, because it was to save lives that .od sent me ahead of you
/
0or two years now there has been
famine in the land, and for the ne1t five years there will be no plowing and reaping
2
)ut .od sent me ahead of
you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance
3
So then, it was not you who sent me here, but .od He made me father to $haraoh, lord of his entire
household and ruler of all #gypt
4
5ow hurry back to my father and say to him, 6This is what your son Joseph
says7 .od has made me lord of all #gypt +ome down to me8 don%t delay
9:
;ou shall live in the region of .oshen
and be near me<you, your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all you have
99
' will provide
for you there, because five years of famine are still to come =therwise you and your household and all who
belong to you will become destitute%
9!
;ou can see for yourselves, and so can my brother )en>amin, that it is really ' who am speaking to you
9&
Tell
my father about all the honor accorded me in #gypt and about everything you have seen "nd bring my father
down here ?uickly
9*
Then he threw his arms around his brother )en>amin and wept, and )en>amin embraced him, weeping
9-
"nd
he kissed all his brothers and wept over them "fterward his brothers talked with him
.oseph was hated abused thrown into a hole in the ground and pulled back up again only to be sold as a slave
and all that at the hands of his own brothers. Then over the following years he was again sold as a slave in
-gypt gained respect and responsibility was falsely accused and thrown in to prison. There he gained a
reputation for being able to interpret dreams and was eventually called upon to interpret the dreams of /haraoh
himself and by doing so saved -gypt from starvation.
&uddenly the men who were responsible for years of suffering are standing in front of .oseph and are completely
at his mercy. 2e literally has the power to have them thrown out of -gypt to starve or to have them arrested
imprisoned or killed. 3nce .oseph)s brothers reali4e who he is they can hear the fat lady singing. They know
that the show is over. They assume that he will take his revenge.
But that is not what .oseph does.
Instead of taking his revenge instead of getting even instead of watching karma repay them for what they had
done to him .oseph does something entirely different. .oseph tells them not to be afraid because as he has
grown closer to God he has reali4ed that his suffering had a purpose. Because his brothers sold him into slavery
and because he had suffered and because his suffering had led him into a great position of power and authority
.oseph was now in a position not only to save -gypt but to save his entire family from starvation. In .oseph)s
understanding God allowed evil not so that it could recirculate but so that it could be transformed into good.
Instead of what goes around comes around! instead of revenge0
0.oseph chooses mercy and forgiveness.
.oseph)s forgiveness is perhaps a foreshadowing a preview of the coming 5essiah .esus. In !atthe" 15:21-
2#, .esus meets a ,anaanite woman who is therefore both a foreigner as well as a Gentile. &he is not a .ew and
one would assume does not worship Israel)s God.
6
!9
@eaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon
!!
" +anaanite woman from that vicinity
came to him, crying out, @ord, Son of Aavid, have mercy on me! By daughter is demonCpossessed and suffering
terribly
!&
Jesus did not answer a word So his disciples came to him and urged him, Send her away, for she keeps
crying out after us
!*
He answered, ' was sent only to the lost sheep of 'srael
!-
The woman came and knelt before him @ord, help me! she said
!/
He replied, 't is not right to take the children%s bread and toss it to the dogs
!2
;es it is, @ord, she said #ven the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master%s table
!3
Then Jesus said to her, ,oman, you have great faith! ;our re?uest is granted "nd her daughter was healed
at that moment
This woman a foreigner and a stranger comes to .esus asking for a miracle. .esus in turn reminds her that he
has been sent by God to care for the people of Israel and to call those who belong but who have wandered
away. .esus is clear that he owes her nothing and that she is outside the scope of his ministry. &he is not his
responsibility or his problem. The disciples tell .esus that he ought to (ust send her away because she is
annoying them. But the woman agrees that her position in relation to .esus is no better than dogs that wait
under the table but she argues that what she is asking is no more than crumbs from the table of God.
'nd at this .esus marvels at her faith. 5any .ews even the /harisees and the leaders of Israel had come to
.esus to witness a miracle and some had even asked him for one. 7early everyone that had asked for a miracle
or who had come to watch regarded miracles of incredible displays of great power. But this woman is different.
'lthough she recogni4es that what she asks would be a miracle and a display of incredible power she also
understands that such a miracle is only a tiny fraction a crumb of what God is capable of doing. 'nd because of
her great faith in God because she understands God)s infinite power better than even the leasers of Israel .esus
heals her daughter.
The woman that came to .esus was not from the people of Israel. &he did not worship Israel)s God. &he was not
a friend or even an ac8uaintance of .esus and .esus made it plain that he owed her nothing. But instead of
declaring that she would get nothing instead of saying that she would get what she had earned or what her
people had earned by re(ecting God .esus chooses to show mercy instead.
/eople like to think that karma is a real thing. We hope that evil people will suffer for what they have done.
&omething in our nature wants to see the people who hurt us get theirs! and suffer in return. But that isn)t the
way that God works. In Romans 11:1-2a, 29-2 /aul discusses the idea that God is going to get even with the
.ews for re(ecting .esus. 'pparently some people had the idea that God would take away the blessings that he
had promised to the people of Israel and that they would no longer be God)s chosen people.! But /aul says no
because this isn)t the way that God works. The nature of God is different than the darkness inside of us that
wants revenge.
' ask then7 Aid .od re>ect his people( )y no means! ' am an 'sraelite myself, a descendant of "braham, from the
tribe of )en>amin
!
.od did not re>ect his people, whom he foreknew
9
!4
for .od%s gifts and his call are irrevocable
&:
Just as you who were at one time disobedient to .od have now
received mercy as a result of their disobedience,
&9
so they too have now become disobedient in order that they
too may now receive mercy as a result of .od%s mercy to you
&!
0or .od has bound everyone over to
disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all
/aul says that God)s gifts and God)s call are irrevocable they cannot be undone. -ach one of us has been
disobedient. -ach of us has offended God. -ach of us deserves to be punished by God. But instead of causing
us to suffer instead of punishing us God has chosen to be merciful. God has chosen not to punish us for our
disobedience but has chosen forgiveness instead.
$arma says that the world works the way that we hope it will that good will happen to good people and evil will
happen to evil people. But karma is the way of darkness. :or as much as we hope that karma happens to others
we also hope that it does not happen to us because each of us knows that we are not as good as we want people
to believe. We all have dark and unforgiving thoughts about the people who have harmed us. We all have
thought things and done things that we aren)t proud of. In truth we are afraid that if karma were real we would
be in a lot of trouble.
-veryone has been disobedient but God has chosen mercy instead of revenge or retribution.
$arma is the way of darkness.
;etribution and revenge are the way of evil.
But the way of ,hrist is the way of mercy and forgiveness.
God has forgiven us and0
0we are called to do the same.
<

=ou have been reading a message presented at Trinity %nited 5ethodist ,hurch on the date noted at the top of the first
page. ;ev. .ohn /artridge is the pastor at Trinity of /erry heights in 5assillon 3hio. *uplication of this message is a part
of our 5edia ministry if you have received a blessing in this way we would love to hear from you. >etters and donations
in support of the 5edia ministry or any of our other pro(ects may be sent to Trinity %nited 5ethodist ,hurch 9?@? >incoln
Way -. 5assillon 3hio <<A<A. These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership. =ou
may subscribe to these messages in print by writing to the address noted or by contacting us at
subscribeBtrinityperryheights.org. To subscribe to the electronic version sign up at httpCDDeepurl.comDv'l=n. These
messages can also be found online at httpCDDwww.scribd.comD/astor .ohn /artridge. 'll &cripture references are from the
7ew International Eersion unless otherwise noted.