Truth versus the Joseph Story

When I was a kid, one of my favorite stories was the narrative of Joseph in the book of Genesis. Not only was it an exciting tale--much better than the Begats, Leviticus, or the doctrinal epistles of Paul--the story filled me with deep hope and faith in God. I read with wonder how Joseph by faith overcame betrayal, terrible experiences, false accusations, insurmountable odds, and eventually became prince of Egypt.

Then as I grew up, and, myself, encountered terrible times (like most of us do), and came to face to face with insurmountable odds, I would remember or re-read the Joseph story. Keep the faith and you will win, no matter how bad things get. What I didn't realize until much later--into middle age when I continued to have worse and worse life experiences--is only one person can be prince of Egypt, and it wasn't me;-)

Somehow I had modeled my central hopes and expectations according to a very few winning stories--Joseph, Daniel, Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego, the Apostle Peter, George Fox, John Woolman, Menno Simons, Levi Coffin, etc.--the great heroes of the faith who suffered greatly but overcame and eventually succeeded.

What I had somehow missed is that most faithful people down through history, and at present, not only never reach a high place, they seldom overcome their bad circumstances, don't get out of the "pit" others have thrown them in; they live lives more like Jeremiah than Joseph--life gets worse and worse. Many never get beyond debilitating illness, false accusations, war, torture, They die in prison like Francis Howgill, mistreated to death, get drowned like Felix Manz, executed like Tom Fox, or are tortured, sawn into, beheaded, or burnt at the stake like Michael Sattler. On an on the suffering goes. The injustice and bad news seem endless.

This does not even deal with the millions of people who die in vast plagues, in hurricanes and tidal waves, who starve to death, get cancer or are abused. No wonder so many despair and feel the hopelessness of Hezekiah in the book of Isaiah: "For Sheol cannot thank you, Death cannot praise you, Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your faithfulness."

Indeed, I now see that the Joseph story as I envisioned it is a delusion of the worst sort. Contrary to the claims of hundreds of thousands of success sermons and endless prosperity books, most people of faith don't win by the world's standards.

So where does that leave us, those who seek and hope in God despite the worst Life heaves our way? Those who think Dawkins and other non-theists are wrong in claiming existence is meaningless and religion a delusion?

It's all about perspective. Paul spoke of it in Corinthians when he spoke of the scandal of the cross: "We preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness." No doubt many Jews were hoping for a Joseph-like figure, a messiah who would thrash the Romans and become an overcoming prince. They didn't want a Jew who told them to love their national enemies and sinners, one who was then arrested for treason, tortured, and nailed to a Roman cross. And the Gentiles were interested in power as well. Who would want to follow some Jewish peasant that didn't have an abstract philosophical system and who ridiculously told his followers to resist evil with love? Obviously he didn't understand the real world.

Not much has changed in over 2,000 years. Many of us still want--at least I so often do--a successful Christ, one who will help us live a healthy, happy life, with a successful career, etc.

But Truth doesn't come our way very often with Joseph-like health, power and wealth. George Fox and the early Quakers learned that early. They spent years in prison, lost all their material possessions; hundreds died as have many other people of truth. Martin Luther King spoke of how unearned suffering is redemptive in the midst of a life of sacrifice. For a while it even appeared that he might become a modern day Joseph, but in the end he became like Jesus and so many others who have died for the Good News.

May we in each moment of now abandon our Joseph delusions and instead live in the power of the crucified.

To be continued


Daniel Wilcox