Ruth

1. Right of Redemption

Two weeks ago, when I preached about Tamar, I described what it was like for childless widows. I need to go over that again to help us understand the story of Ruth.

Ancient laws and customs dictated that family names and inheritances were to be passed down through the first-born son. But what if a married couple had no children? And what if the husband died, leaving no son to carry on the family name?

If that happened, the dead husband’s brother or next-of-kin was expected to exercise the right of redemption. In this case, it means that he would marry the dead man’s widow, so that they might have children who would then carry on the dead man’s name. Legally, those children would have all the inheritance rights and responsibilities as if they had been born to the now-deceased man himself.

An added benefit for the widow is that she would remain attached to a family, and provided for, rather than being cast to the street.

All this is important to the story of Ruth, because in this story, tragically, there are quite a few dead husbands and sons. But it will take us a few minutes to get to that point…

2. The House of Elimelech

Once upon a time there was a man named Elimelech. Elimelech had a wife named Naomi. And Elimelech and Naomi had two sons, Mahlon and Chilion.

They lived in Bethlehem, but when a famine came, they became refugees, and went to live in the country of Moab.

Now, if you were an ancient Jew hearing this story for the first time, you would already sense the drama in this story. Poor Elimelech and Naomi. Poor Mahlon and Chilion. Forced to move to Moab, that awful place, that terrible, no-good land, filled with terrible, no-good people.

If you were an ancient Jew, you would have heard your political leaders describe Moabites as criminals and drug addicts. You would have heard your religious leaders describe Moabites as animals and monsters. Your leaders would have told you that associating with Moabites was forbidden, and that any Moabites living in Israel should be deported.

So to hear a story in which a family of good Israelites was forced to go and live in Moab… Your heart went out to them.

But the story gets worse.

While Elimelech and Naomi and their sons were living in Moab (that dreadful place), Elimelech died… and then the two sons married Moabite women. They married detestable Moabite women!

And then the two sons died, which meant that Naomi was left without a husband and without her sons.  Just two Moabite daughters-in-law, and no one to carry on her husband Elimelech’s name, and no one to provide for her or her Moabite daughters-in-law.

Some years later, when the famine back in Israel had ended, Naomi got ready to go back to her homeland. Her life was beyond hope, but at least she could live out her days back home. 

Her Moabite daughters-in-law started to come with her, but Naomi said to her daughters-in-law: Go back to your relatives in Moab. 

Her two daughters-in-law said no, but Naomi said: “Why would you go with me? I’m old, I’m not going to have any more sons who can become your husbands and redeem you, and I’m too old to to have a new husband myself. And even if I could find a husband and have sons, would you wait for them to be old enough to marry and redeem you? No. my life is over. Go back to Moab, perhaps you may still yet have a life there.”

One of her daughters did as Naomi said, and returned back to Moab. But the other daughter-in-law - whose name was Ruth - said to Naomi: 

“Do not force me to leave you or turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; Where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die; there I will be buried.”

So the two of them - Naomi, and her Moabite daughter-in-law named Ruth - made their way back to Bethlehem. 

3. The Good Moabite

And I should point out that, even though they returned to Bethlehem, the book of Ruth never stops referring to Ruth as the Moabite. It never stops using that detestable name, that slur, to describe her. 

Near Bethlehem, Ruth the Moabite gleaned in the field of a man named Boaz. That means she followed Boaz’s own workers, and picked up whatever grain was left behind after they went through and harvested. Ancient law dictated that harvesters not go back and get what they missed the first time through, so that those who are poor and destitute may do exactly what Ruth was doing.

One day Boaz came out to the field and saw Ruth, and Boaz asked his workers: “To whom does this woman belong?”

And his workers replied, “No one. She belongs to no man. She’s the Moabite who came back with Naomi from Moab.”

So Boaz went to Ruth and said: “Don’t go to another field to glean, or leave this one. The fact that you are a young woman and a Moabite makes you especially vulnerable. Stay here. Stay close to the other young women. And I’ll order my men not to bother you.”

Ruth replied, “Why have I found favor in your sight, when I am a foreigner, a Moabite?”

And Boaz said, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been told to me, and how you left your own father and mother and your own country to come to a land and a people you did not know… May the Lord bless you for your loyalty to your mother-in-law.”

So Boaz saw the good in Ruth… even though she was a Moabite.

The question is: would the Israelites who, centuries later, heard this story told to them also see that good can come from a Moabite? Their prejudice was strong, and their anti-Moabite bigotry was rampant. And yet in this story, the Moabite is...a good person, whose love and loyalty outshines anyone else’s.

That’s a lot to take in...

But wait. There’s more.

It turns out that Boaz is actually related somehow to Naomi, and therefore has the right to redeem Ruth. In other words, he can bring her into his family, and through her have children that would carry on the name of Elimelech. 

The question is: would he? He wasn’t a close relative, so he could have easily passed on this. And perhaps he would want to, given that she is a Moabite.

But the first right of redemption doesn’t belong to Boaz. There is another, slightly closer relative who has that right. So Boaz goes to that other relative, but that other relative refuses to redeem Ruth, because if he does it will mess up his own inheritance that he plans to pass down to his own sons. (And also, probably, because she is a Moabite.)

So then Boaz claims the right to redeem, and he and Ruth marry (even though she is a Moabite).

4. A Blessing

Boaz says to the city elders gathered around: “Today you are witnesses that I have acquired from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Elimelech’s sons, including Ruth the Moabite, to be my wife, to maintain the dead man’s name on his inheritance, in order that the name of the dead may not be cut off from his kindred and from the gate of his native place..”

And all the elders said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel.”

--And this! This is startling. The elders of the city pronounce a magnificent blessing upon Ruth the Moabite, and ask God to lift her up to a place of blessing and honor as great as Rachel and Leah, these exemplary Jewish women. Do you realize what they are saying? How radical that is?

...And the elders say to Ruth: “May you produce children and, through the children, may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.”

--Wait… the elders invoke the name of Tamar, that bold and audacious woman we heard about two weeks ago? Do you see what’s going on here?

And then, at the end of the book of Ruth, we have a mini geneaology, which starts with Perez, the child born to Tamar, continues through Boaz and the son born Boaz and Ruth, whose name was Obed. Obed was the father of Jesse, and Jesse was the father of David, who became king of Israel.

And the implied message in this story to the people of Israel is: “What do you make of your anti-immigrant, anti-foreigner, anti-Moabite prejudice now? Your great king - King David - had a Moabite great-grandmother on his family tree, a woman whose loyalty and goodness exceeded that of even the most loyal and good Israelite. She is to be compared to Rachel and Leah, so great is her goodness.” 

Ruth is the third woman on Jesus’ family tree, and she is the third woman who found herself in a desperate, vulnerable situation, a situation which provided no hope for the future, yet once again we have a woman who hoped against hope and never gave up, a woman who persevered against the odds, who even acted boldly at times when boldness was not a quality attributable to good, respected women.

5. A name, a home, a family

And thus far in Advent we have learned that the son of God would come into this world through a family that included women like these. The son of God comes into the world through prostitutes and foreigners and refugees. The son of God comes into the world through people who have been discarded by society.

And I don’t know about you, but by now I’m really starting to wonder if we’ve been looking for Jesus in all the wrong places. And I’m starting to wonder if we’ve been ignoring Jesus when we do see him.

Because it is clear from the stories of scripture that Jesus is the immigrant, the refugee, forced to flee from home. 

Jesus is the one who we like to slander and bear false witness against, proclaiming how terrible he is, a monster, an animal, a violent criminal and drug dealer.

Jesus is the homeless person we see on the street… the person with no family, no name, no future. 

Jesus is the woman told to go home, you don’t belong in the public arena. 

Jesus is the accused black person, unfairly sentenced to years in prison for the same offense that a white person gets only days. 

Jesus is the gay or lesbian or transgender person who still must listen to the daily arguments concerning whether or not they are entitled to the same rights and protections as everyone else; the gay or lesbian or transgender person who has had even their own family turn against them and deny them their name.

Jesus’ family tree shows us that the son of God comes to us through all those who have been oppressed because of their gender, because of their homeland, because of their family status or lack of family status. 

But for every person who has been slandered, unfairly treated, who has had hope stolen from them, who has been cut off from society… Jesus comes. Jesus is present. And Jesus has the right to redeem. 

Which means that, through Jesus, those who have no name will be given a name.

Those who have no family will be called children of God.

Those who have had lies told about them will shine in the beauty of God’s truth.

Those who have been denied justice will reclaim their rights.

Those who feel as though their lives have been cursed will find blessing.

And those whose lives have been nothing but sorrow will find joy.

Because Jesus’s power of redemption knows no bounds, and his love extends to all.

As the prophet Isaiah said: “even those who thought that love and blessings had dried up, that they were living in a desert wilderness in a time of drought, they will find that the desert will rejoice and blossom

“For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; And the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”