Hesed: God works through the particular to bring good to the whole
Texts: Ruth 3:1-5, 4:13-17; Mark 12:38-44
This sermon was preached in November 2024.
Ruth is a short little book, just four chapters long. It is not about kings or great battles or miracles or national strife. It is about family and about caring for one another. Ruth is an example of how God works through the particular—the faithful actions of specific people—to bring about good for whole communities and societies.
Rabbinic tradition tells us that hesed is the main theme of this story. Hesed is a Hebrew word for faithfulness. The story of Ruth highlights characters who are faithful to one another. They go beyond what is expected to care for, love, and protect each other.
The story follows Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi. Not only is this book about women, who at the time were not held in much regard by society, it is also about outsiders. Ruth is a foreigner and a Moabite, not an Israelite. People from Moab were not always well regarded in biblical texts, yet Ruth is portrayed as loyal, brave, and hardworking.
The story begins: “In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land….” The time of the judges was an uncertain one. It takes place after the Israelites had come to Canaan, but before they established a kingdom. They were not united. They were a loose confederation of tribes that came together only when conflict arose. At this time, there is a famine in Judah. A man named Elimelech, from Bethlehem, takes his wife and two sons and relocates to Moab, where the famine has not spread. Those who heard this story would know that Bethlehem holds special significance as the City of David.
During their time away, Elimelech’s sons marry women of Moab. Elimelech and both his sons die, before their wives can have children. Elimelech’s wife Naomi and his sons’ wives are now on their own. This tragedy means all these women have lost their security. In a patriarchal culture like ancient Israel, widowed and childless women needed a husband or a son to provide for and protect them. Naomi was in a precarious place, living in a foreign land with no family, far from her extended family. So, when she hears that the famine is over, she decides to return to Bethlehem. Naomi tells her daughters-in-law to stay in Moab. They are still young and could marry again. Naomi is too old. She knows she won’t marry again and will never have more children. Naomi’s fate is sealed. She does not wish the same for her daughters-in-law.
But Ruth refuses to leave Naomi. “Do not press me to leave you,” she says, “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, and there will I be buried.” Ruth made up her mind and Naomi did not press the matter any further. Ruth remains faithful. She displays hesed even when there is no obligation to do so. Ruth and Naomi go together to Bethlehem and settle there. But how will these two women survive on their own?
In Israelite society there was a practice called gleaning. The poor walked behind those harvesting in the fields and were allowed to glean the leftovers so they would have something to eat. Ruth gleans in a field of one of Naomi’s relatives, a wealthy man named Boaz. Boaz sees Ruth hard at work and tells her she is welcome to stay in his field. He promises her that none of the men working there will bother her. He gives his protection to Ruth.
Grateful, Ruth asks Boaz why he is being so kind to her, a foreigner to whom he has no obligation. He tells her that he has heard of her loyalty to her mother-in-law, his relative, Naomi. He praises and blesses her for her hesed. Ruth, then, stays in the field gleaning, and Boaz makes sure she is protected and well fed.
When Ruth returns to Naomi, Naomi is pleased with how Boaz has treated her, and she begins to make a plan. Gleaning might tide them over for now, but it provided no future. Naomi wants more for Ruth. She will try to do some matchmaking, but her plan is a bit risky. Naomi tells Ruth to go find Boaz one night when he is sleeping on the threshing floor after work, to “uncover his feet,” and lie down there.
This is a precarious plan. In some Ancient Near Eastern cultures, people would come together sexually on the threshing floor during the harvest, a fertility rite believed to improve the harvest. But presenting herself to a man at night in a public place might give people the wrong impression. Boaz has proven himself to be honorable so far, but in a situation like that, Ruth would be completely in his power. Boaz could take advantage of her and ruin her reputation by telling the community she was promiscuous. Then who would marry her? Ruth’s chance at a secure future might disappear forever.
Despite this risk, Ruth trusts Naomi and goes to the threshing floor. After Boaz falls asleep, Ruth lies at his feet. Late in the night, Boaz wakes up. He is startled to find someone there. “Who are you?” he asks. “I am Ruth, your servant,” she replies. “Spread your cloak over your servant, for you are my next-of-kin.”
Ruth is not asking him just to put his cloak on her because she is cold. She is asking him to marry her, to provide security for her and Naomi. It is a bold move, and Boaz is impressed. Boaz tells her she could have gone after a younger or wealthier man. Instead, she has chosen to present herself to Boaz, a kinsman of Naomi, knowing that this will secure not only her future but the future of her mother-in-law. Ruth looks out not just for herself and her own interests, but is looking out for Naomi.
As an aside, I am encouraged that women are the main characters in both our texts this morning. It feels timely. I know this week has been hard for a lot of women who are discouraged that we have yet to elect a woman as president, discouraged that we elected, yet again, a president who has repeatedly spoken and acted in ways that demean women. I hope Ruth’s story is a source of encouragement. It is a reminder that God cares deeply about the plight of women. It is a reminder that God works through women.
God is often spoken of as male. This is easy to do, especially considering that Jesus was male, but this does not mean that God does not understand or care about women. Maybe that goes without saying, but I will say it anyway because some of us need to hear it this morning. God understands our pain, our joy, our struggles. God cares about women and God works through women. Not just through meekness or submission, but through boldness. Naomi makes a plan and Ruth takes action. She does not wait around for Boaz to notice her. She takes initiative. She even goes against societal conventions to do so, and her boldness is rewarded.
Boaz agrees to marry Ruth. There are some legalities to be done before it can be made official, but Boaz promises he will marry Ruth. Her faithfulness, her hard work, and her boldness pay off. Boaz himself acts with hesed, with faithfulness. Marrying Ruth means he will be responsible for her and Naomi. Knowing this, he willingly takes on the responsibility. Boaz uses his power in this patriarchal society to protect the vulnerable.
The story ends with marriage and a birth. Ruth gives birth to a son who is a symbol of hope. Though the family might have ended with Naomi, now it has a future. Not just any future. The son of Ruth and Boaz, Obed, will be the grandfather of David—the David, the beloved king of Israel, the one to whom God makes a covenant, promising “your throne shall be established forever.” Ruth, a foreigner, a nobody, becomes part of the genealogy of the great King David.
For those in ancient Israel hearing this story, it would have reminded them of their obligation to care for and make a place for the foreigners among them. It was a reminder that non-Israelites can also act in godly ways and that God can work through them.
There are cultural layers in this story that might make it difficult for people like us to appreciate it. But I think the two central points are still applicable to our context: God has a plan, even when it seems like all hope is lost. And that plan is worked out not through the powerful but through these faithful, unassuming, foreign widows.
Our gospel text describes another unassuming widow on the margins of society. Jesus and his disciples are sitting in the temple, watching people bring their tithes to the treasury. They see the wealthy bringing large sums of money. Then they see a poor widow who puts in two small copper coins, only worth a penny. Jesus tells his disciples, “This poor widow has put in more than all the others. They have contributed out of their abundance, but she has given out of her poverty. She put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”
This woman, Jesus says, this poor widow, this social outcast, is the prime example of faithfulness, of right stewardship. She is the standard by which all the “religious” types should measure themselves. They give out of their abundance—what they give away does not really affect them. They might not even notice. But the widow gives everything. She will feel the loss of those coins. That is faithfulness—not giving what’s easy or convenient, but giving everything.
That is why God works through Ruth, because she is faithful. Ruth exhibits–she lives–hesed, and that is what matters. God works through faithful people, those who give everything. We, too, are called to do that. It is not easy, comfortable, or even reasonable. It makes no sense to put the needs of others before our own. But our world and our nation need people who are willing to do just that, to give everything in service to God’s plan, a plan that does not make life better or easier for a select few. It is a plan to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, release to the prisoners, and to comfort all who mourn.
God works through the particular to bring good to the whole. Our two coins, our meager actions, as small as they might be in the face of all the violence, hatred, and injustice that permeates our world—God works through our small actions. We might not live to see the fulfillment of our work. Our lives might not come together as neatly as the story of Ruth. But what’s the alternative? To run back to Moab? To give up hope? To just seek our own temporary comfort? To wall ourselves off from the plight of others and say, “Everyone for themselves”?
Christians are a people of hope. Let us act on that hope. Let us reach for the widow and the orphan, do all we can to care for and protect them. Let us look to the vulnerable in our midst: the immigrant, the homeless, those whose gender or skin color or ability make them targets of abuse. Let us stand beside them and say: “Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; where you die, I will die.”
We do this knowing our actions won’t be enough to undo all that is wrong in this world. But by God’s grace, our meager acts of hesed—our faithfulness not to ourselves and our own interests, but to God and to God’s kingdom—those will become part of God’s great story, a story that we trust, we know, is still leading toward the redemption of all things. May we be the people of faith that God has called us to be and that the world needs us to be. Amen.