But Joseph said, “Far be it from me to do such a thing! Only the man who was found to have the cup will become my slave. The rest of you, go back to your father in peace.” – Genesis 44:17

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 13, 2012): Genesis 44

I am not sure that I get the idea of atonement, at least not in the way that most of my friends want to describe it. My problem is that we describe the atonement as an act of God (or more precisely of Jesus) to atone for or pay the price of our sin. In our rhetoric, it is something that only Jesus could do because God required a perfect sacrifice – and we all recognize that the last thing we are is perfect. So Jesus had to die as payment for our sin. But the problem is that the story just isn’t fair.

I recently commented on that at an informal gathering. My point was that the Gospel that we preach is actually inherently unfair because it is based on a single unfair act. Jesus dying on the cross to pay for sins that I have committed is like me going to jail for crimes that my son had committed. No matter how much I love my son, the criminal justice system wouldn’t accept that as a fair punishment. They would press to arrest the real guilty party.

As I finished my explanation, one of the listeners went back into the same old definition of atonement. Didn’t I understand why it had to be the perfect sacrifice – didn’t I understand why it had to be Jesus. But it has never been that I didn’t understand - just that it wasn’t fair.

Joseph catches Benjamin with the cup. The brothers don’t really understand why any of this is happening, but they do recognize that somehow their guilt has caught up to them. They were the ones who voluntarily sold Joseph into slavery. And now, through forces totally outside of their control, they would sell their youngest brother into slavery as well. But this time, they would pay the price for their sin – the sin committed against Joseph.

Except that Joseph isn’t asking them to pay for selling him into slavery. And the only fair price to ask for Benjamin’s apparent sin, Benjamin has to pay. Nothing else would be – well, fair.

Maybe we face the same problem. The atonement isn’t fair, but, like Joseph, God isn’t asking us to pay for our sins. He has already done that. Joseph’s real question for his brothers was not whether they had or would pay for the sin that they had committed in their actions against him. It was whether or not they had truly learned how to love. And that is the only question that we have to answer.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Genesis 45