We've already mentioned a bit of this, how both Joseph and Jesus are betrayed and abandoned by their brothers (familial brothers in the case of Joseph, and kingdom brothers in the case of Jesus).
And that rift wounds and hurts. Both Jesus and Joseph shed tears. Jesus in Gethsemane, and Joseph when he encounters his brothers again. To be clear, I'm aware that the tears don't come in the same places in the story for both Joseph and Jesus. The point is the deep pathos of each story. Neither story is stoical or a narrative of resignation. There is feeling.
As Brueggemann writes about the tears in the Joseph story around his disclosure to his brothers:
The narrative asserts the Joseph can speak a word which creates newness...In this speech of Joseph, the power of the conspiracy of chapter 37 is broken. The break with the awful deed comes in the lordly speech. But this regal speech is based on the flood of passion...Joseph's speech is filled with passion....The point is a central one in biblical faith: The power to create newness does not come from detachment, but from risky, self-disclosing engagement.Again, the parallels with the passion of Jesus are striking. The pathos of God that is "the power to create newness does not come from detachment, but from risky, self-disclosing engagement."
