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Today's meditation
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The imperfect crime
Genesis 42:18-28: [Joseph’s brothers] said to one another, “…we are paying the penalty for what we did to our brother…”[Later] they…turned trembling to one another, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?”
This week I was reminded of Raskolnikov, the main character in Crime and Punishment. While I read it long ago, one lesson sticks with me. We are punished for bad behavior through the conscience, even when we think we have committed the perfect crime.
The pervasiveness of self-centered actions and greed in our society can mask bad behavior, as we can defend ourselves by saying that everyone favors self-interest over the right. Yet wrong behavior that appears to go unpunished stays with us if we have any conscience at all.
When Joseph’s brothers experienced trouble, they quickly attributed it to the harm they had brought on Joseph. They said, while threatened with imprisonment or worse, “we are paying the penalty for what we did to our brother.”
But we also love to claim the role of victim to mask the knowledge of our wrongdoing. In the Genesis story, the brothers later, "turned trembling to one another, saying, 'What is this that God has done to us.?'" Those words are feeble self-defense where we hope to find solace and escape from our knowledge of having turned from God.
But as Raskolnikov and Genesis teach us, we will pay the penalty for what we did to our brother.
Psalm 72; 1 Corinthians 5:9-6:8; Mark 4:1-20
Copyright 2026 by Carol Mead. For noncommercial use and sharing only. For more information on this ministry, and on a free subscription to these meditations, please contact the author by email (thenewmead@yahoo.com).
This week I was reminded of Raskolnikov, the main character in Crime and Punishment. While I read it long ago, one lesson sticks with me. We are punished for bad behavior through the conscience, even when we think we have committed the perfect crime.
The pervasiveness of self-centered actions and greed in our society can mask bad behavior, as we can defend ourselves by saying that everyone favors self-interest over the right. Yet wrong behavior that appears to go unpunished stays with us if we have any conscience at all.
When Joseph’s brothers experienced trouble, they quickly attributed it to the harm they had brought on Joseph. They said, while threatened with imprisonment or worse, “we are paying the penalty for what we did to our brother.”
But we also love to claim the role of victim to mask the knowledge of our wrongdoing. In the Genesis story, the brothers later, "turned trembling to one another, saying, 'What is this that God has done to us.?'" Those words are feeble self-defense where we hope to find solace and escape from our knowledge of having turned from God.
But as Raskolnikov and Genesis teach us, we will pay the penalty for what we did to our brother.
Psalm 72; 1 Corinthians 5:9-6:8; Mark 4:1-20
Copyright 2026 by Carol Mead. For noncommercial use and sharing only. For more information on this ministry, and on a free subscription to these meditations, please contact the author by email (thenewmead@yahoo.com).