So, Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.
1:22
Ruth is a Moabite. Twice the narrator calls Ruth,
Ruth the Moabite. This emphasizes her vulnerability and her minority status.
In Judges 13 we are told the story of Samson. His mother is mentioned a few times, but her name is not given. She is referred to
by her affliction. And when the angel of the Lord appears he calls her: “Hey, you, the barren one who has no children…” That only rubs her nose in her pain all the more. But in THAT text this affliction is emphasized to draw our attention to what the
Lord is going to do next…and He is going to do something wonderful.
Perhaps Naomi has forgotten that Ruth is suffering too. She lost her husband, she has no children, marriage seems out of the question as far as she can tell and here
she is a foreigner among a people, many of whom would have hated her simply because of her being a Moabite.
Why doesn’t Naomi see Ruth?
We are naturally bent in on ourselves and suffering often narrows our vision…it turns us in on ourselves all the more and we even think that we are entitled to our
self-absorption…after all, look at all we are going through.
This is what is so remarkable when Jesus is on the cross. No one would have blamed him had he been focused only on himself and his suffering such humiliation and pain.
But what do we see instead?
*Father forgive them…
*Son, behold thy mother, woman, behold thy son.
Simply put, he never stops loving because loving is not something He does…it is who He is. Even when Jesus was on his walk to Golgotha and the women are following,
weeping. He is more concerned about their upcoming suffering, than He is His own!
It is hard for us to remember, but we are not defined by our circumstances, we are not defined by our sin, we are defined by who Jesus is and what He is doing in our
lives. Do you see your life through that lens?
Ruth enters into Bethlehem carrying her own sorrow and loss, and she is ignored and un-thanked…she is, as Paul Miller put it,
“…bearing the weight of Naomi’s life”. Some may wonder at this kind of love…Hey Ruth, this isn’t what you signed up for…but in Ruth’s mind, this is what love is.
A dear friend of ours lost her sister to brain cancer some years ago. When the cancer-stricken woman was going through treatments, her husband left her saying exactly
those words…this isn’t what I signed up for.
Shortly after that, I read a story about a man who was dating a woman with a severely disabled daughter. He took the daughter to a “father/daughter” dance, even though
she was not “officially” his daughter. They had a great time!
When he came back the woman with tears said to him, “Look, our lives are difficult, you don’t have to do this…I know you didn’t sign up for this”, I don’t remember
the exact response but it choked me up, because of the man’s willingness and joy in embracing the woman, her daughter and the situation because,
this is exactly what love signs up for. Ruth bears the weight of Naomi’s life.
Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:11
For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
Have you ever even thought about what Paul is saying? What he wants is for Jesus to be made manifest, for Jesus to be made known, proclaimed in his flesh, that is, in his living.
Therefore, if that is done by dying…if that is done by circumstances going exactly the opposite of what he wanted and what he hoped for…then that is what he wants.
Could it be that in your circumstances that is exactly what the Lord is doing? He is directing the circumstances so that you will have opportunity after opportunity for the
Lord Jesus to be seen in your life? What are you doing with those opportunities?
Now, for just a moment let me take a tangent and speak about love for enemies, or, those who are behaving as if they were enemies. It is hard enough simply to love people who
don’t set themselves against you, but that is not where the Christian virtue of love stops…it pushes past those folks, even o our enemies, or again, who might be behaving as such.
Sometimes to show love to these kinds of people we simply have to bear the cost of their sin. They gossip, they slander, they spread untruths, they take advantage, and you pay
the cost for that…what we have to do is not exact vengeance, or fight “fire with fire” we have to take the pain of that sin to Jesus…we bear the cost of their sin, not with bitterness or anger but in seeing this as opportunity to be drawn to Jesus and trust
Him.
And I hope you all know that “Trusting the Lord”, is not a Christian Band-aid, it is the fabric, the core of our being.
What if you are seeking to love others in this way and there is no one to love you? Ruth is loving Naomi, but it seems Naomi is having a hard time doing the same, at least in
demonstrating the hesed love she expressed earlier. (She will in just a chapter or two…)
The point is that when you love this way you can be or at least feel that you are…alone. And here is the hard thing: That loneliness, that feeling of emptiness, instead of being
the end of you, can display Jesus’ beauty in you.
True glory is almost always hidden…it is manifest with no cheering of the crowds, high fives or pats on the back, like John the Baptist it is embracing becoming invisible that
Christ would be seen and glorified. And often we lack the power to sustain us in the hidden work of love. (Miller, 54)
The very act of loving, and you have to embrace this, the very act of loving can make you lonely. Remember what the religious leaders said to Jesus as he hung on the cross:
He saved others; he cannot save himself. They were right. George Orwell wrote: One is prepared in the end to be defeated and broken up by life, which is the inevitable price of fastening one’s love upon other human individuals.
You quietly forgive that person for the 1,000th time…no one sees, no one knows…just the Lord. You serve and love a family member, but they take no notice, in fact,
they seem to just stick it to you all the more.
Hidden love shreds ego…perhaps that is why we don’t like doing it…we want lights, camera, action…Walking into Bethlehem alone, a foreigner, without a male protector, with only
the Lord…that is Ruth’s glory…and that is yours as well. (Miller)
Prayer:
Father, I often make wrong judgments and lack discernment because I am bound by what I see and lack the spiritual sight to see correctly. Father, forgive me. In being bound to this world in this manner it is easy to lose perspective, hope, and joy. In these
days of confusion and fear I pray that I would be able to see past what is seen and begin to discern Your hand and purposes in and through it all and then to give praise and honor to you with voice and life, through Jesus Christ my Lord, Amen.
Psalm 119X Before Thee Let My Cry Come Near