Kelly - Genesis 42

Joseph's tears caught my attention today. I originally read them as I suppose most people do....that he was overcome with emotion at seeing his brothers - glad to see them and touched at their words about him and perhaps even Reuben's concern.

But as I think about them in more depth, I find them much more complicated. If you ever catch me in tears, there's about a 90% chance that my dominant emotion is anger. It complicates life tremendously when you cry when you're angry. When I cry, people usually want to help - to take care of me - which really does nothing but increase my anger and frustration. And I certainly can't blame those who are trying to care for me....but it's the dead-wrong reaction to the emotion I'm feeling.

And I don't think this reaction is as rare as it seems. We cry when we're sad - but much sorrow has ties to feelings of anger. We're angry at the injustices that bring about such sorrow, we're angry at God, we're angry at our helplessness in these situations.

With this in mind, re-reading the chapter brings more to Joseph's tears. He was certainly angry enough with his brothers to make them jump through hoops. And could be angry at Reuben for his obnoxious "I told you so" that didn't keep him from being sold into slavery.

But he also returned their silver - gave them food without price, though he knew the family was able to afford it. They had earned silver coins by selling him. No relationship is ever one-dimensional.