In Genesis 37, Joseph's brothers sell him into slavery. It's a pretty familiar story. But a part I hadn't thought much about before is 13:26-27.

Judah said to his brothers, "What is to be gained by killing our brother and concealing his blood? Come, let us sell him to these Ishmaelites, instead of doing away with him ourselves. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh." His brothers agreed.

He is acknowledging that Joseph is his brother, his own flesh, and he's suggesting they sell him into slavery. And he really doesn't seem to be suggesting that Joseph won't die, merely that they won't be the ones to kill him.

This seems utterly ridiculous at first glance - you're acknowledging your brotherhood, so you're going to do one evil thing instead of another evil thing, when you could just not do evil at all?

I think it's supposed to seem ridiculous. It's supposed to make us remember that we always have a choice to do good, to refrain from evil altogether.

But a lot of times, we tell ourselves that we'll just do the thing we consider less wrong and everything will be fine.

It's one reason so many Catholics use contraception. It's less wrong than abortion, right?

I don't do cocaine or heroin. I just get really drunk. That's less wrong, right?

I didn't yell at my friend. I just silently loathed her for a while. Less wrong?

And the problem is, we're way more worried about the relative wrongness of our actions than about the rightness of our actions.

It shouldn't matter if getting super drunk isn't quite as sinful as snorting coke. We shouldn't do either one. We shouldn't be concerned about avoiding the most evil stuff. We should be concerned about doing the right thing.

At the point where we're debating between sins, we've already decided to sin.

If he's your brother, you don't throw him in the cistern. You don't kill him. You don't sell him into slavery. And you shouldn't need a list of what NOT to do to him. Because you should love him.

I'm praying for you!

:)