There is a story in Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad series that goes like this:

Toad baked some cookies. “These cookies smell very good,” said Toad. He ate one. “And they taste even better,” he said.  Toad ran to Frog’s house. “Frog, Frog,” cried Toad, “taste these cookies that I have made.”

Frog ate one of the cookies, “These are the best cookies I have ever eaten!” said Frog.

Frog and Toad ate many cookies, one after another. “You know, Toad,” said Frog, with his mouth full, “I think we should stop eating. We will soon be sick.”

“You are right,” said Toad. “Let us eat one last cookie, and then we will stop.” Frog and Toad ate one last cookie.  There were many cookies left in the bowl.

“Frog,” said Toad, “let us eat one very last cookie, and then we will stop.” Frog and Toad ate one very last cookie.

“We must stop eating!” cried Toad as he ate another.

“Yes,” said Frog, reaching for a cookie, “we need willpower.”

“What is willpower?” asked Toad.

“Willpower is trying hard not to do something you really want to do,” said Frog.

“You mean like trying hard not to eat all these cookies?” asked Toad.

“Right,” said Frog.

Frog put the cookies in a box. “There,” he said. “Now we will not eat any more cookies.”

“But we can open the box,” said Toad.

“That is true,” said Frog.

Frog tied some string around the box. “There,” he said. “Now we will not eat any more cookies.”

“But we can cut the string and open the box,” said Toad.

“That is true,” said Frog. Frog got a ladder. He put the box up on a high shelf.

“There,” said Frog. “Now we will not eat any more cookies.”

“But we can climb the ladder and take the box down from the shelf and cut the string and open the box,” said Toad.

“That is true,” said Frog.

Frog climbed the ladder and took the box down from the shelf. He cut the string and opened the box. Frog took the box outside. He shouted in a loud voice. “Hey, birds, here are cookies!” Birds came from everywhere. They picked up all the cookies in their beaks and flew away.

“Now we have no more cookies to eat,” said Toad sadly. “Not even one.”

“Yes,” said Frog, “but we have lots and lots of willpower.”

“You may keep it all, Frog,” said Toad. “I am going home now to bake a cake.”

Willpower is a tricky thing. Our ability to have it quite often depends on the particular temptation that we are facing. For example, if someone were to say to me, “I’ve made a pot of tea, but you may not have any,” I could very easily resist the temptation to take some anyway because I do not like tea. On the other hand, if someone were to say, “I’ve made a pot of coffee, but you may not have any,” it would be a bit tougher for me to resist. And if they were to continue to do that day after day, and I had no way to get coffee elsewhere, it would become increasingly more difficult as time went on. It is only temptation if we desire the thing that is being offered us.

With that in mind, we approach our text for today from Genesis 39. This chapter continues the story we’ve been following about Joseph. Two weeks ago we talked about Joseph’s dreams and the reaction of his family when he shared those dreams with them. And we acknowledged that the story was not really about Joseph. It was about God and God’s plans for Joseph and for his community. Then last week we looked at the anger of Joseph’s brothers over the dreams he had shared with them and how they tried to silence those dreams because of their own fear by stripping him of his coat and eventually selling him to slave traders. Yet even in the face of this extreme reaction by Joseph’s brothers, God’s grace abounds.

In our passage for today we see some mirroring of that first part of Joseph’s story. After being sold into slavery by his brothers, Joseph eventually ends up in the service of an Egyptian official named Potiphar. And, just like Jacob, Potiphar favors Joseph. And so he puts his entire household under Joseph’s care. The only thing in the house that was withheld from Joseph was Potiphar’s wife. We are given very little information in this story about either Potiphar or his wife. In fact, the only thing we know about Potiphar’s wife is that she desired Joseph and he rejected her. There is really no other information given to us…not even a name…yet she plays a pivotal role in the narrative. Despite her daily attempts to seduce Joseph, he repeatedly turns her away. Finally, she manages to get him alone in the house and makes her boldest move yet. She grabs him by his tunic and tries to pull him to her. But he abandons his garment and flees. Then Potiphar’s wife uses that cloak as evidence to accuse Joseph of rape and get him thrown into prison. Just as in that first story, Joseph ends up stripped of his cloak and of his freedom.

We can see some parallels here to the story of Jesus. So many people tried to tempt Jesus to stray from God’s plan, to fall into the same sinful patterns that they themselves had fallen into. But Jesus refuses. He continues to live into his calling. And just like Joseph, Jesus faces loss and pain. He’s betrayed by one of his closest friends. He’s arrested and beaten. He’s convicted for treason and sentenced to death. He’s mocked and crucified. Just like for Joseph, everything is stripped away from Jesus, yet he continues to follow God’s plan. I can’t help but ask the question, “Why?” Why live righteously if it only causes you pain and suffering? Why resist temptation if it just makes your life harder? Why do good if the world is just going to trample you down? Have you ever asked that question?

Yet Joseph doesn’t seem shaken by that. He chooses to make the right choice rather than the safe choice. Joseph chooses the path of God over the path of comfort and pleasure. And that’s not an easy thing to do. So, why does he do it? Is he just that righteous of a person? That strong-willed? That pure? If that’s the case then I think I am in trouble. I relate more to author Rita Mae Brown who once wrote, “Lead me not into temptation. I can find the way myself.” Choosing to reject temptation is not strictly a question of inherent righteousness or strength of willpower. It’s like David Adam wrote in his book The Man Who Couldn’t Stop, “To resist a compulsion with willpower alone is to hold back an avalanche by melting the snow with a candle. It just keeps coming and coming and coming.” We need something more than just strength of will.

2 Timothy 2 talks about resisting temptations and pursuing the things of God. And I love how the Common English Bible translated verse 22: “Run away from adolescent cravings. Instead, pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace together with those who confess the Lord with a clean heart.” I might have written that sentence a bit differently, but I think the thing that I like about it is that it seems to be saying that pursuing righteousness and faith and love and peace is not a solo pursuit. We pursue these things together because each person’s sins impact, not just themselves, but the community around them. This, I believe, is one of the roles of the church…to help us to know that we are not alone in our struggles. We can lean on each other. And we can make one another better.

I just finished reading a new novel by Rick Riordan called “The Sun and the Star.” In the story, Will and Nico go to Tartarus (which is basically the depths of hell) in order to find a friend who is being tortured. In order to enter into Tartarus, they must take a boat down the river Acheron, which is the river of Pain. As they go down the river, voices talk to them, preying on the deepest worries and fears, tempting them to give up and drown themselves in the river. And what Nico and Will figure out is that the only way they can hold up in the face of that temptation is to rely on one another. They discovered that they could lift one another up and their love was stronger than any temptation.

As I look at this story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife, I am struck the most by Joseph’s response to her command to lie with her. He says, “Look, with me here, my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my hand. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” What stands out to me in that response is that Joseph is not resisting because of concern for himself. His concern is for Potiphar and for God. And maybe even for Potiphar’s wife herself. Joseph understood how fidelity in marriage was a foundation of Egyptian culture. Joseph didn’t want to hurt his master Potiphar who he’d grown to like. He didn’t want to sin against the God that he loved. And from the kindness with which he speaks to Potiphar’s wife, I suspect that he didn’t want to hurt her either by possibly wrecking her marriage and helping her fall into disgrace. His love for others was what helped him refuse the temptation. Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote, “Being free means ‘being free for the other,’ because the other has bound me to him. Only in relationship with the other am I free.”

Our community holds us up through love. Our community strengthens our resolve. And only through our relationship to others can we find true freedom. And despite the reality that Joseph was rejected and tossed into prison, he knew that he was seeking the good of the community and seeking to follow God’s will. And that is the best we can do. I mean, that’s what Jesus said was the greatest commandment: to love God and to love neighbor. So, let us strive for that together and seek to lift one another up toward righteousness, faith, love, and peace. Amen!