But Ruth said, “Do not press me to leave you or to 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 will I be buried…”
Ruth 2:16-17a
Perhaps some of the most popular jokes over the years have been about in-laws. Frustrations about in-laws are a common theme in movies and on TV, and as a kid I even remember watching reruns of Fred Flintstone blow steam out of his ears while dealing with Wilma’s family. Relatives are always a challenge, but even more so when they are not blood related.
For this reason, it’s interesting that this passage is actually most often used in wedding ceremonies, the process through which families are united and in-laws created. I love the story of Ruth, and in my last year of seminary had the opportunity to translate the entire book.
In the story, Naomi, a Hebrew, is the mother-in-law to both Ruth and Orpah. After the death of all three women’s husbands, Naomi selflessly begs her daughter-in-laws to leave her and find new husbands among their own tribe, because at that time all women needed a male guardian in order to have legal protection. Really, the two women do not have to stick around and by staying they leave themselves vulnerable. They are not even from the Hebrew clan, and they are young enough to start their lives over somewhere else rather easily. Orpah departs in search of a new husband, but Ruth decides to stay. She selflessly vows to live with Naomi, travel with her, worship with her, and remain faithful to her God and people for the rest of her life. Ruth goes on to marry one of Naomi’s relatives in order to restore her claim on the family land. She even has a child with her new husband, Boaz, and that child is functionally adopted by Naomi in order to prolong Naomi’s family linage. That child, whom they named Obed, went on to become grandfather to King David.
One of the things we debated heavily in my Hebrew class was the identity of the main character in the Book of Ruth, was it Ruth the non-Hebrew or Naomi, the matriarch whose family line is restored. In the end, I think both women are equally vital to the story because they are not in competition with each other. Despite having the opportunity to take the easy path home, Ruth gave-up her own interests in order to remain faithful to Naomi. In return, Naomi advised young Ruth, and made sure she found protection in a new husband. The two women are drawn together in a time grief and mourning and made stronger through the challenges they faced. At each step along the way Naomi and Ruth chose the more selfless path, even to the point when Ruth gave her child to Naomi in order to redeem her family name and livelihood.
There is of course another more famous example in the Bible in which a son is given up to redeem others from despair and give them hope. The sacrifice of Christ, Son of God, is the ultimate act of selflessness. God asked Jesus to lay down his life and Jesus did so willingly. God orchestrated the redemption of mankind and Jesus carried it out. Which begs the unanswerable question, who is the main character in the narrative of humankind’s redemption. And this question is unanswerable because there is no main character. When any act is done out of pure selfless love then the one who gives and receives are of equal importance. Love and importance are thrust onto the receiver of the gift by the giver. As if the feelings of the giver are physically bound up with their selfless action and passed to the receiver covering them with honor and affection.
Ruth and Naomi understood how to embody the selfless love of the Godhead. They worked for one-another and not their own personal interests, and together they triumphed. It is a selfless love which we are all called to model as as people redeemed by God through Christ. Naomi and Ruth’s generous actions became the seed from which the Tree of Jesse flourished which bore the fruit of King David, ancestor of Jesus Christ. May all of our selfless actions give birth to something beautiful.
Kena Hawkins Newkirk 