Genesis 39 - Just Say No!

Have you ever wanted to do something you really knew you shouldn’t? Like maybe you’ve had a big test at school, but you didn’t really want to study for it, so you ended up playing games with your friends instead. And if that’s not bad enough, because you didn’t study the night before, then you decide you’re just going to take a small peak at the test of the person beside you. And then that first peak becomes just copying their answers!

There’s a word for this: temptation. Temptation is something we all deal with, and it doesn’t just have to be about tests. We can be tempted to do all kinds of wrong things – to do things God has said we should never do.

And sadly guys, sometimes when we’re tempted to lie or cheat or do any of those other bad things we’re not supposed to do, we give into temptation. We decide we’re going to do that thing even though it’s wrong.

We might even be tempted by people close to us. Friends can tell us to do things we know are wrong, and we’ll do it because we don’t want our friends to think we’re boring or chickens. We know we shouldn’t do those things, but we do them anyways!

So how do we avoid that? How do we avoid giving into temptation? Well actually, the answer is simpler than you think. And to help us figure out that answer, we’re going to look at Part 3 of Joseph’s story today!

To quickly recap last week, Joseph’s brothers didn’t always like Joseph. They didn’t like that Joseph got treated better than the rest of them, so they decided to get rid of their brother. They sent him away with some people going down to Egypt where Joseph was bought as a slave.

That’s right, a slave! Joseph had to do all this hard work for some random guy, and he didn’t even get paid for it. That doesn’t seem fair, does it? But sadly, that’s what happened. And we can only imagine what Joseph was thinking as the traders took him away to Egypt.

How did I end up in this mess? Joseph thought. I knew my brothers didn’t always like me, but I never thought they’d do something like this! Will I ever go home? Will I ever get to see my family again? Oh God, what are you doing? Why are you letting all this happen?

It would be years before Joseph would get answers to some of these questions. And he would have to go through quite a lot before those answers came. But Joseph was patient and trusted God through all these tough times. And thankfully, Joseph’s early days in Egypt weren’t all bad. Joseph’s master was named Potiphar, and he was a fairly kind master. And pretty rich. He was no Pharaoh, but Potiphar was important enough in Egypt that he had lots of servants and slaves working for him.

But Potiphar realized pretty quickly there was something special about Joseph. No matter what job Potiphar made Joseph do, Joseph was always successful. If Joseph was in charge of cleaning the floors, they were the shiniest floors Potiphar had ever seen. If Potiphar asked Joseph to sell some old furniture at the local market, Joseph came back with more money than Potiphar was expecting. If he asked Joseph to count all the bags of grain in the back storage room, Joseph did it quicker and more accurately than any of his other servants!

As a result, Potiphar made Joseph his special attendant. This means that Joseph was in charge of Potiphar’s house. It was Joseph’s job to make sure the house was clean, that there was always enough food, and that all the other slaves and servants were doing their jobs properly. And the Bible tells us that “with Joseph in charge, Potiphar didn’t have to worry about anything except the food he ate” (Genesis 39:6, NIrV).

I’m sure that Joseph still missed home. It couldn’t have been easy being so far away from everyone he knew and loved. But even so, Joseph slowly started to be happy. He didn’t understand why God had let his brothers send him to Egypt, but Joseph wasn’t mad anymore. He still had questions, but he trusted that God knew best, even if Joseph didn’t get it all.

Anyways, things were going pretty good for Joseph except for one little thing. You see, Potiphar’s wife was also impressed with Joseph, but for different reasons. She thought Joseph looked handsome. And the longer that Joseph was around, the more Potiphar’s wife wanted to spend time with Joseph. But pretty soon, she wanted to do more than just spend time with him. Soon, she was looking for ways to be alone with Joseph so she could… well… kiss him.

“But she’s married to Potiphar!” you might be saying, and you’re right. That’s what so wrong about this. Potiphar’s wife wanted to commit adultery, a fancy word meaning she wanted to break her marriage promises with her husband and be with Joseph instead. God tells us this is wrong, and Joseph knew that.

So Joseph did what any guy does when he doesn’t want to spend time with a girl. He avoided her. Anytime he saw Potiphar’s wife coming, Joseph would try to go a different way. She would ask to spend time with him, and Joseph would suddenly remember that he had some bags of grain that needed delivering to the storeroom.

But Potiphar’s wife didn’t give up. Day after day she would track Joseph down and try to get him to do what he knew was wrong. And day after day, Joseph would get away from her as fast as he could. Joseph didn’t want to hurt his master and he wanted to obey God, so he continued to do what was right, no matter how many times she asked.

But then one day, this all changed. Potiphar’s wife was fed up with waiting, so she found a time when Joseph was all alone doing some work. She snuck into the room, threw her arms around Joseph, and said, “Finally. We’re alone, just the two of us.”

Joseph’s eyes grew wide. His mouth fell open, and he blushed a little bit. Now Joseph could have easily given into temptation here. Nobody was around. Potiphar would never find out. Joseph probably could have betrayed his master and gone about his day like nothing had happened.

But Joseph knew better. He knew that God didn’t want him to betray Potiphar and that doing what Potiphar’s wife wanted him to do would be wrong. So without even saying a word, Joseph took off running as fast as he could.

Now we can’t always literally run away when we are tempted. If you’re in the middle of a test, you can’t just get up from your desk and run out of the room when you’re tempted to cheat. Actually, that would probably make your teacher think you were cheating.

But Joseph does give us an example here of what we should do when we’re tempted. Say no. It sounds super easy, but it can actually be really tough when we want to do the thing we’re not supposed to do. But when we’re tempted, the right thing for us to do is say no, and to say no as many times as it takes. Potiphar’s wife didn’t just tempt Joseph once. She tempted him lots of times, and Joseph said no each and every time.

There was just one problem. As he was running away, Potiphar’s wife grabbed Joseph’s coat. It slipped right off his back, but Joseph refused to go back and get it. He knew that he had to say no, and he wasn’t going to put himself back in a place where Potiphar’s wife could tempt him again.

But because he didn’t go back, Potiphar’s wife had Joseph’s coat. And now, she was angry. So she decided to get revenge on Joseph in her own way. She called for some of the other servants and said, “Look! Joseph has been brought here to make fun of us! He came in here and tried to make me betray my husband and to make me kiss him! But then he heard me scream and ran out of here, leaving his coat behind!”

The lie quickly spread throughout Potiphar’s house. And Potiphar’s wife made sure she greeted her husband as soon as he came home to tell him this lie too. Potiphar was furious! He believed his wife and immediately had Joseph arrested.

Now you might be thinking, “So doing the right thing got Joseph in trouble?” Unfortunately, yeah. That can happen sometimes, but that shouldn’t stop us from doing the right thing. Joseph went to jail, but for something he didn’t do. Potiphar’s wife was the one who did all the wrong, but God was pleased with Joseph for being faithful to Him even when it got Joseph in trouble.

Our main point for today is We can always say no to doing what God doesn’t like. We might try and make excuses for why it’s okay to give into temptation. We can convince ourselves that nobody will ever find out. Or, like Joseph, we might be afraid that by doing the right thing, we might actually get into trouble. But no matter what excuses we come up with, God still wants us to say no to temptation. That’s something we can always do, no matter what we tell ourselves. In fact, the Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 10:13, “[God] will not let you be tempted any more than you can take. But when you are tempted, God will give you a way out. Then you will be able to deal with it.”

Did you catch that? The reason we can always say no to doing what God doesn’t like is because God will give us the strength, the courage, and anything else it takes to say no. He will give us a way out so that we can deal with temptation, no matter how difficult it may seem.

So that’s where we’re going to leave our story for today. Joseph is in jail, but he had still done what was right in God’s eyes. He had said no to temptation. And we’ll see next week how, because Joseph continued to trust in God, God used Joseph to do some absolutely incredible things. But more on that then. 

~Brentagious

Genesis 37:12-36 - What Jealousy Does

PARENTAL WARNING: If this were a movie, it would probably be rated PG. If you do have younger kids reading this, please read it first for yourself and decide if your child can handle it.

It finally came! After months of begging her parents for it, Maya finally held in her hands what she’d been waiting for for what felt like forever. She held it out proudly in front of her and gave it a spin! And as the world flickered in-between her new Fidget-Spinner’s bright red arms, all she could think was, Finally!

Sure, Fidget Spinners have been out for a while, but Maya finally had one of her own. It might not make her the coolest kid at camp, but at least she could spin along with all her other friends. They’d probably even congratulate her for having one now too!

Maya jumped off the bus and ran over to her friends. Her hand was already in her pocket, ready to show off her new prize, when she noticed everybody was crowded around Meghan. Maya came closer, giddy with excitement, but her faced dropped when she saw what Meghan was holding.

Meghan’s new Fidget-Spinner was the coolest thing Maya had ever seen. It had this super cool paint splatter pattern that made all the colours merge together in an amazing rainbow of awesome as it spun. Everybody was “ooohh-ing” and “awe-ing.”

Maya knew she couldn’t compete, even though Meghan already had five Fidget-Spinners. Maya’s was boring compared to Meghan’s. Nobody would care that Maya had been waiting for this for months. So all day long, Maya kept shooting Meghan dirty looks and sticking her tongue out at Meghan when she wasn’t looking.

But at lunch time that day, Maya found the perfect moment of revenge. Meghan and her friends had gone up to put away their trays, and Maya saw that Meghan had left her paint splatter Fidget-Spinner on the table. Nobody was there, and nobody was watching. Without thinking, she walked past the table and grabbed Meghan’s Fidget-Spinner. Serves her right for stealing all my attention, Maya though. The only time she looked back was when she heard Meghan start freaking out that she’d lost something. Maya simply smiled and kept walking.

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Jealousy. Jealousy’s not a pretty thing. It was jealousy that made Maya angry that Meghan was getting all the attention instead of her, and it was jealousy that made Maya steal Meghan’s Fidget-Spinner when Meghan wasn’t looking.

Jealousy is that mean and kind of angry feeling we get when we want something that someone else has or when we think they’ve taken something from us that we deserve. But this doesn’t just have to be about stuff. We can be jealous that someone got a better mark than us on a test. Or, like in today’s Bible story, we can be jealous when one person gets all the attention instead of us. That was what Joseph’s brothers were so jealous about. They couldn’t stand it that their dad loved Joseph more, paid more attention to Joseph, and gave Joseph all kinds of special gifts.

And like Maya, they decided to do something about it. And this something was something that God was not too happy about. But I think it’s best we hear the story from one of the brother’s perspectives. So let’s listen in to hear what Judah has to say about the day he and his brothers let jealousy get the best of them. But let me warn you – this story can get pretty intense.

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Joseph… Even now, I still can’t stand hearing his name. For years I’d seen our dad treat Joseph like he was this king, this champion, like Joseph was the greatest son that ever lived. Do you know how awful that felt? All we wanted was some attention! And, let me tell you, we got our dad’s attention alright.

We were out taking care of our dad’s sheep. They had eaten up all the good grass at Shechem, so we moved the flock over to some fields near Dothan. We were enjoying a pleasant day with the sheep, no annoying little brothers around to ruin our fun, when all of a sudden Levi says he sees someone walking towards us.

Simeon sat up on a rock and squinted, looking off in the distance at the stranger. “Oh no!” he said.

“What?” Zebulun asked.

“That guy over there…” Simeon replied, “Guess what he’s wearing?”

“You’re kidding me!” I said, sitting up to get a good look.

“That’s right!” Simeon said, standing up and starting to sway around like a fancy man. “It’s the king of the world! Mr. Coat of Many Colours Himself. We better get ready to bow down because dad’s sent that dreamer brother of ours to check in on us!

Issachar spat on the ground. “Can’t we go one day without having to be reminded about Mr. Perfect?”

“Are you kidding?” Zebulun said, “Dad would never allow that! He’s gotta rub it in our faces that he likes Joseph better than us.”

“What I wouldn’t give if Joseph wasn’t home tonight,” Dan said. “Even if just for one lousy night!”

“Forget one night…” Simeon said quietly. “What if Joseph never came back at all?”

“Yeah, if only,” I laughed. A few of my brothers laughed too. But Simeon wasn’t laughing. He looked deadly serious.

“There’s an empty well not too far from here,” Simeon continued. “We could throw him in! Tell dad that some wild animals ate his precious son.”

“Yeah!” Dan said, starting to smile. “Then we’ll see whether his dreams will come true!” (Genesis 37:20, NIrV).

I could tell Reuben wasn’t too comfortable with this. And honestly, I wasn’t 100% sure I was either. Wanting to have a break from Joseph was one thing, but killing him? But I was still trying to make up my mind when Reuben said:

“Slow down there, guys… This is our brother we’re talking about. Don’t get me wrong, Joseph drives me just as crazy as he drives all of you. I’m all for throwing him into the well for a few hours to teach him a lesson, but let’s not actually harm him!”

A few of the guys nodded, and eventually, we all agreed. We wouldn’t kill him. Yet.

We moved the flock closer to the empty well. Joseph came over. He was pretty tired, and he looked a little surprised when none of us offered him any water, but he didn’t say anything. After a minute or so, we told him to go get a drink from the well before he passed out from all the heat. Joseph smiled at that. Little guy didn’t even know what was coming.

He leaned over the well to get some of the water. But before he could say anything, Naphtali and Simeon ran over, picked him up, and tossed him in. The well wasn’t too deep, so the fall didn’t hurt him too much, but it was deep enough that Joseph couldn’t get out on his own.

Joseph wasn’t happy. He yelled at us quite a bit for the first few minutes. We ignored him. I think I heard him crying for a little bit. Reuben went off to check on some of the farther off sheep, and we had just sat down to eat when Joseph started calling out to us again.

“Come on, guys! This isn’t funny anymore! (Not that it ever was…). Help me out of here!”

“Can’t do that Joseph!” Simeon called back, snickering. “No rope! Guess you’ll have to stay in there for the night until we can get you out tomorrow!”

“What!?!” Joseph cried, his voice squeaking! “You can’t do that! I could die out here!”

“A chance we’ll have to take,” Zebulun said, rolling his eyes.

“But what’ll dad think if I don’t come back with you?” Joseph asked, starting to sound desperate. “He’ll be worried sick! I can’t imagine what’ll happen to dad if I don’t come back!”

With that, I lost it. “No, of course not!” I screamed, as I walked over to the edge of the well. “How could dad ever survive if his precious Joseph doesn’t come back to him? Any of us gets lost and dad wouldn’t care too much, but if Joseph doesn’t come back…”

“Th-That’s not what I meant,” Joseph’s said, swallowing.

“But that’s just it, Joe. It doesn’t really matter what you meant. None of us will ever measure up in dad’s eyes as long as you’re around…” That’s when I saw the wagons in the distance. “Might just have to fix that,” I said quietly.

I’m pretty sure Joseph started yelling a bunch of stuff after that, but I wasn’t really paying attention. I had had it with Joseph. I didn’t want to kill him, but I didn’t want him coming home with us either. Not tonight and not ever.

“I’ve been thinking, guys,” I said as I walked over to my brothers. “Reuben’s right. What will we gain if we kill our brother and try to cover up what we’ve done? Come. Let’s sell him to these traders. Let’s not harm him ourselves. After all, he is our brother. He’s our own flesh and blood” (Genesis 37:26-27).

Most of them cracked a smile at this one. We all agreed, so Simeon, Zebulun and I went over to the wagons. They were led by some Ishmaelite traders from a few regions over. They were on a trip down to Egypt to deliver some goods.

The whole exchange didn’t take long. They gave us some silver, and we told them they could fish our brother out of the well. I’ll never forget the look on his face when he got out of there. He looked at us angrily, thinking all we’d done was play a practical joke, but that anger turned to terror as he realized what was really happening. He was never going home again.

“Oh, one last thing,” I said, just before the traders loaded Joseph onto the wagon. “We keep the coat!” I heard one of the traders grumble, but I just laughed as I threw Joseph’s coat over my own.

The wagons were long out of sight when Reuben came back. He looked confused, probably surprised that Joseph wasn’t yelling anymore. But when he looked over the edge and saw that the well was totally empty, Reuben lost it. He tore his clothes, showing just how angry he was, and yelled at us, “He’s gone!?! Now what?”

We stuck with the rest of our plan. We found an old goat, killed it, and dipped Joseph’s fancy coat in the blood. Then we brought it home. It’s funny – I figured we’d be laughing the whole way home, celebrating that Joseph was gone for good. But we didn’t talk much. And nobody really wanted to look anyone in the eye. I’m not sure if we were all embarrassed, ashamed, or something else.

We got home and showed dad the coat. We told him we found it on our way home and that Joseph had been eaten by an animal. Dad… didn’t take it well. We knew dad would be upset, but I don’t think any of us expected this. Dad was miserable, and he hasn’t really recovered since.

I said at the beginning I couldn’t stand hearing Joseph’s name. You probably thought it was because I was angry. That’s not it… I hate hearing Joseph’s name because it reminds me of what we did. Of what our jealousy did. No, dad wasn’t right to favour Joseph over us, but we had no right to throw our brother in a pit and sell him like a slave.

I don’t know if I’ll ever see Joseph again. I don’t even know if he’s still alive. But I’ll tell you this much: I regret that decision every day. And honestly, I don’t know what to do about it…

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Jealousy can be a terrible thing. When we’re jealous, we might not react as extremely as Joseph’s brothers did, but we can sometimes be a little like Maya, can’t we? We’re angry that someone else is getting all the attention or has something we want, and it makes us want to try to take that away. And we might even be willing to break God’s rules and hurt someone to do it.

And really, that’s what our focus is for today: We don’t live God’s way when we are jealous. God’s way never involves stealing or killing or being mean to people. God wants us to be kind to others and to forgive others, even when it seems impossible. You know why? Because even though we’ve ignored God and have broken all kinds of rules, God still wants to forgive us – to wipe away all those bad things we’ve ever done and have a relationship with Him again. Because that’s what jealousy stops, guys – it stops us from having a strong and happy relationship with people.

So don’t end up like Maya or Joseph’s brothers. Don’t let jealousy keep you from living God’s way. Instead, look to God for help when you’re frustrated with someone or jealous of them. Having God in our lives is better than anything else out there. He can calm that jealousy and help us love others, even when it seems impossible.   

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, this story will eventually have a happy ending. Things are going to get worse for Joseph before they get better, but we’ll see over the next few weeks that things really do get better between Joseph and his brothers. But you’ll have to wait a couple weeks yet before we start to see that. 

~Brentagious

Genesis 37:1-11 - Family Matters

How many of you have a big family? My family isn’t that big - it’s just me and my mom and my dad. But one of my uncles and aunts have 7 kids! And I’m sure my cousins could tell you that being part of a big family isn’t always easy. Everybody has a different idea of what they want for dinner or how they want to use their free time. Now that they’re older and have families of their own, it can be really hard for everyone to organize their schedules so that they can all see each other. And I’m sure not all of them got along all the time when they were growing up. 

But if you think 7 kids is a big family, imagine you were part of the family we’re going to be talking about for the next few weeks. In this family, there were at least 12 brothers and 1 sister. That’s right – we’re going to start the story of Joseph and his family today!

If there’s one thing that Joseph’s family teaches us, it’s that being part of a family isn’t always easy. Sometimes it can be good. We laugh together, play together, don’t fight all that often, and just get along. But sometimes, how we act towards our parents or our siblings, and how they act towards us, can lead to a lot of anger and a lot of problems. And in Joseph’s family, those attitudes and actions made things really messy!

But first, let’s get a bit of background. Joseph and his siblings were the sons of Jacob, who was the son of Isaac, who was the son of Abraham. These people are really important in the Bible, because they are the family that God chose to start the people of God, the Israelites. This was the people that God was going to bless the world through, and way way WAY later, that came true when Jesus, one of Jacob’s great-great-great-great (and a whole bunch of other great’s) grandsons, was born. 

But when Jacob and his twin brother Esau were born, there was no such thing as the Israelites yet. They were still only a small family, and it would be 100’s of years before there were enough great-great-grandkids for this family to basically become a small country.

Anyways, Jacob had lots of kids throughout his life, but the Bible tells us that Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other sons because Joseph had been born when Jacob was really old (Genesis 37:3, NIrV). And because Jacob loved Joseph so much, Jacob made Joseph a special robe. We usually say that this is a coat of many colours, but we don’t actually know what this coat looked like. But if the rainbow coat will help you picture it better, let’s go with that.

What matters more than what the coat looked like is that, by giving it to Joseph, Jacob wasn’t being fair to his other kids. It was like Jacob was saying, “Yeah, I love you Reuben and Issachar and all you other kids, but I love Jacob more.”

And sadly, that happens in some families. Sometimes, even without meaning to, it looks like parents love one of their kids more than the others. That doesn’t mean that it’s true or that our parents love us any less, but it can look like it.

So that was the first problem in Joseph’s family: Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other sons. And this led to some bad attitudes in the rest of the family!

First, let’s talk about Joseph himself. We like to think that Joseph was this kind, happy son who never did anything wrong, but that’s not really what the Bible shows us. We learn that while Joseph’s brothers were out in the fields taking care of their father’s sheep, Joseph was out watching his brothers. And one day, he brought back “a bad report” about his brothers to his father. (Genesis 37:2).

Now we don’t know exactly what happened here. Maybe the brothers weren’t doing all that good a job of shepherding. Maybe they were goofing off instead of watching the sheep. But when Joseph brought back this bad report, it only made Jacob love Joseph even more and the other brothers even less.

This attention started to go to his head. You see, one of the reasons that Joseph is special in the Bible is because God gave him dreams about what would happen in the future. In one of the dreams, Joseph and his brothers were out in a field bundling up grain so that the family could make bread. Then, suddenly, the bundle Joseph had made stood up straight while all of his brothers’ bundles turned and bowed to Joseph’s bundle (Genesis 37:7).

In the second dream, Joseph dreamed that he and his brothers were stars, while his mom and dad were the sun and moon. And just like in the last dream, the sun, the moon, and all the other stars bowed down to Joseph’s star (Genesis 37:9).

Now I need to make one thing clear. It’s not that Joseph necessarily did something wrong by going to his dad and saying his brothers weren’t behaving properly while out watching the sheep. One of the sheep could have run away or gotten killed if the brother’s weren’t paying attention! Similarly, Joseph’s dreams were visions of what would happen in the future. And we’ll see in the weeks ahead how Joseph’s brothers actually did bow down to him one day!

But the problem is that the way Joseph was acting didn’t help things. Joseph knew that he was his father’s favourite son, and he milked it. Rather than trying to help his brothers, he told on them. Rather than asking his dad for advice about the dreams, he bragged about how everyone was bowing down to him. The things Joseph did weren’t necessarily wrong, but the way he did them wasn’t always kind and only made things worse between him and his brothers!

So let’s recap. So far, we’ve seen that Jacob wrongly loved Joseph more than his brothers and that Joseph wrongly thought too highly of himself. Now I want you to imagine how you would feel if you were one of Joseph’s brothers. Would you be sad? Angry?

Well, the Bible tells us that Joseph’s brothers hated Joseph. Hate is a strong word, I know, but I can almost see why. Day in and day out, Joseph was treated the best. They saw Joseph wearing his fancy robe and heard him telling his dreams at breakfast in the mornings and they got sick of it.

Who does that Joseph think he is? they probably thought. Does he think he’s better than us? And the more they thought these things and talked together about it, the angrier they became. In fact, they eventually became so angry and so jealous of Joseph that they hatched a plan to get rid of him once and for all. But more on that next week.

For now, what we should see is that there were lots of problems in Joseph’s family. We often blame Joseph’s brothers for causing all the trouble in the family, and yeah, they definitely deserve part of the blame. But Jacob’s favouritism and Joseph’s pride were just as much part of the problem as the brothers’ anger was.

But sadly, this is how lots of problems in families start. People get mad at their siblings because of something they do or say, and before you know it, things get really bad. And sometimes, the anger between siblings or parents doesn’t get fixed. It just gets worse and worse and, if it gets really bad, families might even stop talking to each other.  

God doesn’t like seeing that. He created families so that they could love and support each other, not so they could be angry with each other. He created families so that we could build each other up, help each other when things got difficult, and teach each other about life and about Him. He calls us to love all people, but especially our families!

Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to love our families. But that’s just one of the many reasons that God sent Jesus! When Jesus died on the cross and rose again from the dead, he made it possible for our sins to be forgiven. Believing in Jesus wipes away all the bad things we’ve ever done and fixes the broken relationship we have with God.

But more than that, believing in Jesus can help us fix our broken relationships with others too! When we believe in Jesus, he starts to change us. He makes us more loving, more patient, more willing to help and forgive others. And that includes members of our family.

In fact, you could even say that We need God’s help to love our families. You might be really mad at your brother or your sister or your parents for something that has happened, and you might not be able to imagine how you could possibly forgive them, but having God in our lives makes that forgiveness possible.

It doesn’t mean that our families will be made perfect. We might still get mad when our siblings hog our parents’ attention or when they break something of ours or tattle or whatever. But with God’s help, we’ll be able to love the members of our family better and stronger than we ever could on our own.

That was a lesson that Joseph’s family could have used then. And sadly, it took them years before they learned. But thankfully, God used this difficult family situation to save a lot of people, but more on that in the weeks to come. So I hope you’ll stick with me for those stories too as we learn more about families and more about God.

~Brentagious

SSS: Christian Media, or Why Subtlety Might be More Successful

So I may have misled you slightly last month. I am going to talk today about how Christian truth and values can be portrayed through media, but I’m not going to focus on movies all that much. Mainly because I’ve had trouble finding examples that fit what I’m trying to get at. I’m sure they exist out there (at least, I sure hope they do), but I’m going to be looking at different kinds of media for now to get at my point.

You’ll recall that last month I complained about Christian movies that perpetuate stereotypes and depend too much on emotion. These kinds of movies give a rather one sided presentation of Christians and what we believe. These movies are unafraid to make their Christian worldview clear, often to the detriment of the movie’s quality. And yeah, most of the examples I’m going to point out today have a similar Christian bias. But there’s a key difference, I think, between today’s examples and the movie examples before:

Their approach. If I had to describe the approach most Christian movies adopt towards the non-Christians in their audiences, it’s kind of like trying to force feed a baby. The parents (the movie) are all smiley and calling the spoon an airplane and trying to do everything in their power to get their baby (the non-Christian) to eat her carrots. But she’s just not having it. When that happens, carrots end up everywhere but in the kid’s mouth. And by the end of it, both parents and kid are frustrated because they had to sit through that whole ordeal.

Not trying to say non-Christians are babies… It was just the best example I could come up with.

But then there are the examples we’re looking at today. These media forms put entertainment value above forceful preaching. Notice, however, that I said “preaching” and not “entertainment before truth.” These media makers are not out to sacrifice truth for the purposes of their art, but they also realize that a forced Gospel presentation just isn’t that effective.

Instead, these forms of media infuse truth and moral values into their art. They want their messages about God and life to be a natural part of the story. They want to be honest with their audience while still making it the kind of media that anyone can enjoy.

So let’s look at a few examples.

Any discussion on the use of Christian themes in semi-recent media should include C. S. Lewis. This man is famous in Christian circles for his ability to portray complex truth in simple ways through literature. Read virtually any of his fictions and you’ll see that, but his most well-known example is The Chronicles of Narnia.

I could talk about how Aslan and his death on the stone table (and return to life the next morning) to save Edmund is an allegory of Jesus’ own death and resurrection, but I want to look at a different example. At the end of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Aslan explains to Lucy and Edmund that he exists in their world too, saying, “But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.”

Story-wise, Aslan is referring to how Lucy and Edmund got to come to Narnia to get to know God through Aslan. But, in some ways, Lewis is also speaking to us as readers. We have also been allowed to journey with the Pevensies into Narnia and to see what Aslan is like. And Lewis’ hope, I imagine, was that anyone who had gone to Narnia through reading would also be introduced to who God is through Aslan.

However, as even J. R. R. Tolkien complained, Lewis was never very subtle about including Christian themes in his works. Some might even say he falls into the “forceful Christian movie” category I described above. So let’s get a little more subtle.

Ted Dekker has built a career writing psychological thrillers, mysteries, and fantasy novels. He’s a New York Times best-selling author who, granted, has written some overtly “Christian novels” too. For instance, one of his most popular series, The Circle Series, recreates the entire salvation narrative over the lifespan of a few generations in an alternate world at the same time that our world struggles with a biological weapons crisis.

But some of his other works aren’t as obviously Christian or allegorical. For instance, his book Thr3e opens with a discussion between the main character and a seminary professor over whether people can escape the influence of evil and the importance of struggling with evil before launching into the story of a man who has three minutes to answer a riddle or have his car blown up.

Now you might be thinking, Seminary professor? That seems pretty Christian. And yeah, it is. But the seminary prof has relatively little “screen time” in the novel. And while Dekker does bring back Christian themes throughout the book, it never gets so heavy-handed that he starts quoting Scripture verse after Scripture verse. The book reads as a thriller, one I couldn’t put down the first time I read it because of how intense it was. And even when I thought I had everything figured out, he still blew my mind with the novel’s final plot twist.

I think that’s the key here. Dekker includes Christian truth in his text, and I believe he does so because he wants his readers to recognize the reality of evil in our world (and, by association, the God who overcomes that evil). But these ideas never become so overt or forceful that they take away from what is an extremely well-written and engaging narrative that anyone can enjoy.

Next, let’s talk about Relient K. A lot of Christians my age will remember listening to Relient K in their Jr. High years. They spoke to my generation, peppering their early albums with pop culture references that make me cringe a little bit now at their cheesiness. But most importantly, they got us ready for that Sadie Hawkins dance, in our khaki pants, there’s nothing better! Oh-oh-oh.

They’re like Switchfoot, meaning that they wouldn’t classify themselves as a “Christian” band. And I think they might be on to something by resisting that label. About five years ago now, the YouTube channel Blimey Cow put out a video called “Messy Mondays: The Problem with Christian Bands.” In it, they poke fun at just how inappropriate that label actually is: “I mean, Christian bands? Bands don’t have souls! dc Talk didn’t go to heaven when it died!”

Bands don’t have souls; people do. Bands can’t ask Jesus into their hearts to be their Lord and Saviour; people can.

But more than that, bands like Switchfoot and Relient K didn’t want to be forced under that weird umbrella that includes hymns, worship songs, and the fluffy stuff that fills the music of Christian books stores today. (Look out for that Second Sunday Switch-Up in the months ahead). So they chose not to market themselves as a Christian band (still don’t), even though there music obviously has Christian themes throughout.

 

For instance, look up the lyrics (or just listen) to Relient K’s song “Maybe it’s Maybelline” (Cue the cringe). Sure, it’s not their most subtle song – they reference condemning the son of God and sing that “we’re all sinners” – but it’s also this super catchy song about how nobody ever wants to take the blame for anything. They’re trying to get us to think about a real human problem that’s been around since the Garden of Eden!

In short, these bands deliberately avoid the Christian label to avoid being lumped into a group of music that’s only going to appeal to a small part of the population. Instead, they mix their Christian themes and ideas into music that appeals to a wider audience. No, they don’t necessarily sing the Gospel message, but they still get at Gospel themes and truths.  

Finally, I want to look at an episode of everybody’s favourite 90’s ABC sitcom Boy Meets World. Granted, this one is not presenting a Christian worldview per se, but show runner Michael Jacobs has gone on record saying that references to God will be part of any project he does, including BMW.

I vividly remember the first time I watched the BMW episode “Cult Fiction.” BMW had covered difficult topics before, including abuse in the home, but I certainly did not expect it to ever tackle something like cults.

After meeting a girl who was part of a cult, Shawn Hunter becomes interested and all but joins it. Now if you know anything about Shawn in BMW, it’s that his life never goes well, and he looked to the welcoming atmosphere and positive appearance the cult provided to give his life meaning.

His friends and teachers are naturally concerned, with one even asking Shawn whether he believes in God. Before Shawn can answer, however, they find out that Shawn’s teacher and once caregiver, John Turner, has been hospitalized after a motorcycle incident.

In the hospital, there’s a confrontation with the cult leader and Shawn freaks out that he can’t deal with all of this. But that’s when Cory and Topanga (two other main characters, if you don’t know) force Shawn to face the reality before him. They leave Shawn alone with Mr. Turner, and Shawn starts talking to the unconscious teacher about how much he needs him still. But then Shawn’s speech makes the following turn:

“So don’t blow me off John! Don’t blow me off God. I’ve never asked you for anything, and I never wanted to come to you like this. But don’t take Turner away from me. He’s not done yelling at me yet. God, you’re not talking, but I know you’re here. So I’m gonna talk, and you can listen. God, I don’t wanna be empty inside anymore.” And in the next scene, Shawn knows that something has changed; he’s not empty anymore!

I mentioned last week that I didn’t appreciate the overly emotional tone that Christian movies tend to take when dealing with conversion narratives. But at the risk of sounding contradictory, it’s actually Shawn’s emotional outburst here that makes this scene so powerful.

There is a difference, though, I think. The reason I love the BMW scene above is because it feels genuine. We’ve had almost four seasons to see the pain and heartache of Shawn basically being abandoned by his parents. We’ve had the entire episode to watch Shawn’s scared and desperate attempt to find meaning in something. And it’s when Shawn’s at his lowest point that he goes to God.

The situation doesn’t feel contrived; it feels like what Shawn would do. I know God can work miracles and make pastors show up at the exact right time to save a soul, as occurred in God’s Not Dead, but BMW chooses to show how someone can come to believe in God without all of that. It shows how someone can reflect on the state of their soul, see the problem, and cry out to God for help!

Again, this scene is not promoting Christianity per se. There is no mention of Jesus as being the only way to salvation, so I may need to take points off for that. But throughout the next three seasons, Shawn is typically the first character to bring up references to God after this episode. His life is changed by coming to know God, and I’ve always been impressed that Michael Jacobs and his team were willing to show the dramatic transformation that trusting in God can bring about on an incredibly popular “secular” TV show.

Which brings me to my last point. Labeling something as “Christian” media, as I’ve already begun to suggest, is going to get us nowhere. Why do we have to assign the label to it? Why not just call it media and infuse your convictions as a Christian media maker into whatever you make?

In his book, Popcultured: Thinking Christianly About Style, Media and Entertainment, Steve Turner (a real person, not the fictional John Turner’s brother) writes the following:

“The best art seems to be a work that forces its way into existence; a story that has to be told. The meaning is something that makes itself known during the writing or maybe even afterwards. It’s an organic process. You neither start with a meaning and then build a story to illustrate it, nor start with a story and then graft a meaning onto it. Much bad Christian art is made by Christians who see themselves as dispensers of answers to life’s great problems. They begin with conclusions rather than questions.”

The last part of that quotation is my problem with Christian movies and the reason why I think Lewis, Dekker, Relient K, and Boy Meets World succeed in presenting media that includes Christian themes and yet still appeals to a wider audiences. I’m sure they would all have varying opinions on how great a focus should be given to the Gospel message in their respective projects, but they all seem to find the balance of not having to sacrifice either artistic quality or truth. Rather, they infuse the Gospel message, or at the very least Christian themes, into a piece of media in subtle ways. They want to tell stories that point people back to God, not alienate anyone who disagrees with the media maker’s convictions.

Are they as obvious as contemporary Christian movies at preaching the Gospel? Not always. But are they better at communicating their message to a wider audience? I think so. It helps no one if you preach the Gospel in a way that most non-Christians are going to write off, mock, or just outright ignore. And while a person might not necessarily come to know Christ after reading Narnia or listening to a Relient K song, those books and songs might just get people to ask questions and read the Bible to find their answers in Jesus!

If we want our media to be evangelistic, we’re going to have to be real. Preaching to the choir through overly “perfect” Christian movies isn’t going to cut it! But telling good stories, writing entertaining songs, and producing interesting art – stories, songs, and art that present the truth while still being something that anyone can enjoy – that’ll get us somewhere!

~Brentagious

John 21 - What God Won't Forgive?

Have you ever done something really bad? Like broke you mom’s favourite vase and blamed it on your brother? Well, if you were here last week, you’ll know that Peter did some pretty bad things in his life too. Instead of sticking with Jesus like he had promised, Peter pretended he didn’t know Jesus and abandoned Jesus after He got arrested! And Peter called himself Jesus’ friend!

We saw last week how that whole incident messed Peter up pretty badly. Peter was scared, angry, but most of all, Peter was embarrassed and shocked that he didn’t want to have anything to do with Jesus that night. What did that say about him?

Well, if you thought things were bad when Peter was sitting around the fire that night, they only got worse. The next morning, Jesus was sentenced to be killed. And by the end of the day, the Romans had put Jesus up on a cross and crucified Him!

Just like that, Jesus was dead! Now imagine how Peter would’ve felt! Before this, he might have thought he could visit Jesus in jail. Or maybe even break Him out! But now Jesus was dead, and Peter never even had the chance to tell Jesus that he was sorry.

Thankfully, everything changed a few days later! See, Jesus didn’t stay dead. Three days after He was crucified, Jesus came back to life!

Now I’m sure lots of people were super excited about that. Not only was Jesus alive, but because He had come back from the dead, then they knew that everything Jesus had ever told them must be true! Jesus really was God, and by dying and coming back to life, He fixed our broken relationships with God!

But Peter… I’m not really sure what Peter would have felt. I’m sure part of him was happy and excited too. He was starting to realize that Jesus really was the Saviour of the world! But Peter was also still super embarrassed about how he had acted when Jesus was arrested. So much so that he had a hard time meeting Jesus’ eye any time He would visit the disciples.

But this all changed one day. Even though Jesus was back, He wasn’t doing all the stuff He used to do before. There was no more travelling across the countryside with the disciples and preaching to people. At least, not right away. Actually, a lot of the disciples didn’t really know what to do with themselves anymore. So some of them went back to their old jobs. Including Peter.

That’s right. Peter had teamed up with a few of the other fishermen disciples and went back out on the Sea of Galilee to fish again. But things weren’t going too well. Again. They had been out all night, but they hadn’t caught a single fish. (Sound familiar?)

Anyways, Jesus was on the nearby shore the next morning, but the disciples didn’t recognize Him. He called out to them and told them to put their nets on the other side of the boat. And when they did, they caught so many fish that they could barely get them in the boat.

That’s when Peter started thinking to himself, This has happened before! And right then, Peter realized that it was Jesus who was standing on the shore. Without thinking he jumped out of the boat and waded through the water to get to Jesus. The rest of the disciples, a little annoyed that Peter had left them to do all the work, rowed back to shore too.

When they all got there, they saw that Jesus had prepared a fire for them. Then they ate breakfast together and celebrated with Jesus. But things were still a little awkward, especially for Peter. He still hadn’t apologized, and he still felt terrible for denying Jesus those three times. And it only got worse when Jesus pulled Peter aside so that they could talk.

Peter’s heart was racing. It felt like his heart was going to pop right out of his chest, that’s how hard his heart was pumping. But Jesus just kept walking along quietly. What’s He going to say to me? Does He hate me? What am I going to do if He never wants to see me again!

Finally, Jesus stopped, turned to Peter, and said, “Peter, do you love me more than these others do?” (John 21:15, NIrV).

Peter stared at Jesus. What? Peter thought. That’s not what I expected Him to ask! But then Peter looked down at his feet. Deep down, he knew there was more going on here. Before Jesus had been arrested, Peter had said that he was willing to go to prison and to die with Jesus. Not only that, but he’d said that even if all the other disciples left, he – Peter – would stay! But Peter didn’t stay. None of the disciples had. And now Jesus was calling Peter out on his boast.

“Lord, you know that I love you,” Peter said back, probably a little nervously.

“Feed my lambs,” was all that Jesus said back as He started to walk again.

Feed my lambs? Peter wondered, What’s that about? Did Jesus become a shepherd since He came back?

After a minute or so, Jesus stopped again and said, “Peter, do you love me?”

Peter swallowed. This is not how he expected this conversation to go. Peter knew this would be awkward, but he had hoped that Jesus would at least give him the chance to apologize. But at the same time, Peter didn’t even know how to apologize! What he had done was pretty bad. But now Jesus was standing there, asking for the second time whether Peter loved Him or not!

Of course I love you, Jesus! Peter thought to himself. I know I abandoned you that night, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love you! But Peter’s thoughts never made their way to his mouth. Instead, all Peter could say again was, “Lord, you know that I love you,”

And again, Jesus responded, “Then take care of my sheep.”

Again with the sheep! What sheep? There’s only people here! But before Peter could think that through more, Jesus asked a third time, “Peter, do you love me?”

Now I don’t know exactly what happened next, but I imagine that Peter broke down and cried. In that moment, everything that Peter had done came rushing back to him. All the shame, all the embarrassment, all his pride. And in that moment, Peter was truly sorry.

He still didn’t know exactly what to say or how to apologize properly. But Peter knew that Jesus was more loving and more forgiving that he could possibly imagine.

So Peter, still with tears in his eyes, simply looked at Jesus and said, “Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you” (John 21:17). He wasn’t just saying here that Jesus knew Peter loved Him. Peter was saying that Jesus knew how sorry Peter really was. How deeply embarrassed Peter was and how desperately Peter wanted Jesus to forgive him.

I like to think that Jesus simply smiled, nodded, and said back, “Good, then feed my sheep.” And that’s when it clicked for Peter. Jesus wasn’t talking about actually sheep – He was talking about people. Jesus once called Himself “the Great Shepherd” (John 10:11), and all of us are His sheep. Jesus was asking Peter to take care of all those people out there who didn’t know Jesus yet – to help them to get to know Jesus and the forgiveness He offers! The same forgiveness that Jesus had just shown to Peter!

Then Jesus went on to tell Peter some stuff about his future. He told Peter that, one day, Peter would die for following Jesus. And yet, somehow, Peter knew after all of this that he wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. He wasn’t afraid to follow Jesus anymore. He had experienced God’s forgiveness, and he knew that following Jesus was the most important thing he could ever do. He wouldn’t turn his back on Jesus again.

Now Peter wasn’t perfect after this. He made mistakes, just like we all do. But Peter learned a super important lesson that day – one that I think we could all do well to learn. You might think you’ve done some bad stuff in your life, just like Peter thought, but there’s no sin too big that God can’t or won’t forgive it.

Because Jesus died on the cross, all of our sins – all the bad stuff we’ve ever done – could be wiped away forever! That’s the end of that cliffhanger story from last week – and that’s what Peter experienced that day! And you can experience that too! All you need to do is believe that Jesus did all these things – that He died and rose again to forgive us. You don’t have to worry about what you’ve done in life. There’s nothing you can do that God won’t forgive!

God loves you and wants to forgive you! He wants to have a relationship with you, and all it takes to have that is to believe in Jesus. So I really hope you’ll think about that. We’ve seen with Peter that following Jesus isn’t always easy, but it’s also the greatest thing out there. He always stays with us, always teaches us, and lets us be part of some incredible things. All we have to do is trust Him! And I hope you’ll do just that!

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That's all for now! We'll be leaving Peter behind next week and jumping back into the Old Testament. But also make sure you look out for Part 2 of our media-focused Second Sunday Switch-Ups coming this Sunday. See you all then!

~Brentagious