Having
family in West Virginia, my sister-in-law Kimberly hates to hear people make
jokes about West Virginians. Growing up
in Virginia, she certainly heard a lot of them.
If you’re not from Virginia, then maybe you don’t know that most West
Virginia jokes have something to do with people marrying their relatives. In West Virginia, for example, you are free
to marry your first cousin once-removed, but you may not marry your
half-cousin. However, Virginians have
nothing to joke about—our Western relatives have a law that bans first cousins
from marrying each other, while in Virginia, first cousins are free to marry.[i] If you want to compare, I guess the joke’s on
us!
While I have never actually known
anybody who married a cousin, I have known some people who have married distant
relatives. Two of our dear friends found
out that they were distantly related to each other, after the wedding. Then there are two different ladies that I
have known who each married a man and then his brother after his death. They didn’t do it because they had to—but
because they fell in love with one brother after the other. This practice of one brother marrying another
brother’s widow, is called levirate marriage.
It was common in biblical times, and wasn’t done simply because of love. In fact, it was required by Hebrew law.[ii]
In those days, their idea of the
afterlife wasn’t as complete as it is today.
For a person to “live on” after they died, it was believed that the
family name had to be preserved. So it
was very important for a man to have a male heir—both to carry on his name and
to inherit his land. If a man died
without a male heir, then his brother was supposed to marry his widow, and give
her a child in the name of the deceased brother, in order to carry on her late
husband’s legacy. Keeping family land in
the family was also important, so if land was sold outside the family, it was
the obligation of the closest male relative to purchase it back as soon as
possible and keep the land in the family name.
Also, in those days only men could own property, so if a man died
without a male heir, the closest male relative was supposed to purchase the
property from his widow, in order to keep the land in the family. Typically, the man who married his late
brother’s widow would also purchase his brother’s land from the widow. In this unique role, this man was called the
widow’s kinsman-redeemer.
We find this practice exemplified in
the story of Ruth. In chapter one,
Naomi’s husband Elimelech dies, and Naomi’s son Chilion dies, leaving his widow
Ruth. The two widows move from Moab to
Bethlehem, where they try to survive on charity. In chapter two, we read how Ruth discovers
that the the property where she is gleaning is owned by a man named Boaz, who
is a close relative of her late husband and his father. In chapter three, Ruth makes him aware of the
family connection, and her need of redemption.
He agrees to redeem her, unless there is a closer relative who might do
so. In chapter four, Boaz discovers a
closer relative who might redeem Ruth by purchasing the property and marrying
her. Yet that relative (who shall
forever remain nameless) is content to pass on the responsibility to Boaz. Unlike the shirking family member, Boaz
agrees to both the land transfer and the wedding, and becomes Ruth and Naomi’s
kinsman-redeemer.
We find this word redeem in scriptures. We use it in hymns and sermons, but few
people really understand its full meaning.
It can mean “to buy back,” as in a land purchase that returns it to
family ownership. It can also mean “to
make good,” in the sense of giving something value that previously had no value
or even negative value. For example,
when I take a newspaper to the grocery store and present this coupon, I can
redeem the coupon for a dollar value.
The coupon has no value in and of itself, but when I redeem it, I can
get something valuable for it. The
kinsman-redeemer did both of those things.
Boaz bought back the property, and he brought Ruth and Naomi out of
poverty by taking Ruth as his wife. Further, Boaz gave Ruth a son, Naomi a
grandson, and Elimelech an heir to carry on his name.
In her blog, Worshiping with Children, Carolyn Brown of Charlottesville,
Virginia points out that Ruth is a story of three people who go above and
beyond the call of duty in order to do the right thing.[iii] First, Ruth leaves her homeland behind in
order to take care of Naomi. Then, Naomi
carefully thinks out a plan for Ruth’s happiness instead of wallowing in her
own loneliness. Finally, Boaz redeems
Ruth and Naomi, even though there was a closer relative who truly had that
duty. In the same way, God calls
Christians to go out of their way to take care of the people around them—to
lift them out of poverty, loneliness, despair, and that feeling of
worthlessness that so quickly destroys the soul. This is the job of the kinsman-redeemer. This is the job of every believer.
It’s our job to redeem our fellow
human beings because Jesus modeled that kind of love toward us. Jesus did more than He had to, in order to set
us free from poverty, despair, worthlessness, and oppression of the soul. More than the love of a husband for his wife,
Jesus’ love for you was the purest, most undefiled kind of love. Jesus redeems all who receive Him when He
trades their spiritual poverty for His great riches, when He takes a soul that
feels worthless and gives it value and meaning.
Then He calls us to love our fellow human beings with the same
everlasting love.
In Wake Up Calls, Ron Hutchcraft writes:
A gathering of
friends at an English estate nearly turned to tragedy when one of the children
strayed into deep water. The gardener heard the cries for help, plunged in, and
rescued the drowning child. That youngster's name was Winston Churchill. His
grateful parents asked the gardener what they could do to reward him. He
hesitated, then said, "I wish my son could go to college someday and
become a doctor." "We'll see to it," Churchill's parents
promised.
Years later,
while Sir Winston was prime minister of England, he was stricken with
pneumonia. The country's best physician was summoned. His name was Dr.
Alexander Fleming, the man who discovered and developed penicillin. He was also
the son of that gardener who had saved young Winston from drowning. Later
Churchill remarked, "Rarely has one man owed his life twice to the same
person."[iv]
We find ourselves in a
similar kind of debtorship to God—we who have been saved by Jesus’ grace. So our Lord calls us to pass on the
blessing. Like Ruth and Naomi and Boaz
and Jesus, we go out of our way to bless and redeem those around us. We do it because we are thankful—because we
are grateful for what our Lord has done for us.
[i]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cousin_marriage_law_in_the_United_States_by_state. November 21, 2014.
[ii]
Deuteronomy 25.5-6
[iii]
Brown, Carolyn. Worshiping with Children. “Year
B - Proper 27, 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, 24th Sunday after Pentecost
(November 11, 2012)” October 25,
2012.
[iv]
Ron Hutchcraft, Wake Up Calls, Moody, 1990, p. 22.
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