Sample of Bitterness and Beauty at Bethlehem
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2. THE BITTERNESS THAT BLOOMED. Ruth 1:15-22, 4:13-17
Let me take you back to Bethlehem – back to the place where Jesus was born. Bethlehem was busy with travelers when Jesus came. There was no room for Mary and Joseph in the inn – so Jesus was born in the inn's stable and laid in a manger. Bethlehem was busy with travelers and with God's plan of salvation. You see, God had been busy at Bethlehem for some time – for centuries and beyond.
We're getting ready these days to meet Jesus again. We're eager to celebrate his birth in that little town. Let's go back to Bethlehem together so that we can be fully ready for our celebration. Tonight we go back to a time over 1000 years before Jesus was born. At that time Bethlehem sat in a fertile pocket surrounded by farm and pasture land. The name "Bethlehem" reflected the productivity of the area. It means "House of Bread".
The story we follow tonight is full of irony, because House of Bread was empty. Bethlehem was experiencing drought conditions and a famine. We follow a family that was moving away from Bethlehem in search of better days. Nowadays we would probably refer to them as economic refugees. A man named Elimelech had given up on Bethlehem – sort of like the "Okies" did when they moved from the Midwest to California during the "dust bowl" days. Elimelech took his wife, Naomi, and their two sons, Mahlon and Kilion, to the neighboring country of Moab. There the family settled in and the sons married Moabite women. But, during the years that followed tragedy struck and it was Naomi's family that became empty. Elimelech died. Then Mahlon and Kilion died. Naomi was widowed and left with her widowed daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah.
Naomi decided there was only one thing left to do – go back to Bethlehem, where she could live among her kinsmen. As she planned to start over again in Bethlehem, she encouraged Orpah and Ruth to go back to their mother's households. "What can I give you?" she explained. "Even if I had new sons now, they would not be old enough for you to marry even if you waited." Orpah went back home, in tears, but Ruth refused to leave Naomi. She proclaimed her dedication to her mother-in-law, telling her, "Where you go, I will go. Where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people. Your God will be my God."
When Naomi and Ruth straggled back into Bethlehem, the people of the community were amazed to hear what she had gone through. Naomi was definitely worse for the wear. She even told her neighbors to stop calling her Naomi. That name meant "Pleasant" – and Naomi didn't seem fitting any more. The years away from Bethlehem had not been pleasant for her. She told her friends to call her Mara which means "Bitter". In her mind, God had made her life bitter, perhaps as a judgment of her family's having run off to Moab. In all this bitterness she could not yet see the blessing God had brought into her life in the person of her Moabite daughter-in-law.
Naomi was pretty much immobilized by her sadness. We would probably diagnose her today as suffering from clinical depression. But Ruth busily set herself to gathering the resources needed for their daily living. She began to glean in the barley fields. You see, one of God's commands for his people was that harvesters of a crop were not to be so careful as to pick up the heads of grain that fell to the ground as they cut the grain and bundled it into sheaves. The fallen heads and kernels were to be left for the poor to glean – so they could have at least that meager source of food.
It was a demeaning task that Ruth took on. It displayed their poverty in a very public way. But Ruth humbled herself to do it. Of additional concern for Ruth was the fact that she was a foreigner. She really was taking a risk by gleaning in the field of an Israelite. She could have been seen as taking food out of the mouths of the local poor people. In fact, in that society, for a woman to be "out and about" without the company of other women or a male relative involved her in real risks, but Ruth was ready to do what she had to do.
She looked for a group of harvesters whom she could follow – and God's hand of providence led her to arrange to glean in a field that belonged to a man named Boaz. Boaz noticed her, knew she was not one of the locals, and asked who she was. His foreman explained that she was the Moabite woman who had come back from Moab with Naomi, and that she had asked for permission to glean. Boaz had heard about Ruth's dedication to her mother-in-law and, because of the kindnesses she had shown Naomi, he ordered his men to give her their protection, and to be generous in what they left behind for her.
Ruth returned to Naomi at the end of the day with a five-day supply of grain and some left-overs of the roasted grain she had been given by Boaz for lunch. Naomi wondered who it was who had been so generous. When Ruth mentioned Boaz, Naomi became excited. "He is one of our close relatives," she exclaimed. Immediately her mind flashed to the idea that Boaz might be the one who would become "kinsman-redeemer" for Ruth and care for her and Naomi. According to the rules God had established for his people, a brother or other close relative of a deceased man could be called on to marry the man's widow – and father children who would be considered the children of the dead man. Thus the man's family-line would be perpetuated. Such a man was called a "kinsman-redeemer".
Naomi explained to Ruth how she could approach Boaz to encourage him to fulfill this role. And Boaz, instead of feeling trapped by the circumstances, counted it an honor that Ruth had sought him out. He saw her as the woman of noble character she was. Boaz saw to the necessary legalities, and soon he and Ruth were married – with the blessing of the town elders.
Before long, Naomi's family began to be filled again. A son was born to Boaz and Ruth. Can you picture Naomi cradling and cooing over this little baby? Her bitterness was now removed. Her emptiness was being filled. Even the other women of Bethlehem praised God because Naomi had a grandson by this faithful daughter-in-law. "This daughter-in-law" they said, "is better than seven sons. Her son will be a blessing to you also. May he be famous in Israel."
They named the boy Obed, which means "Servant," perhaps in honor of his mother who had served her family so graciously even though she was a foreigner. Obed himself is usually not so familiar to us, but the names of his son and grandson surely ring a bell. Obed fathered a son named Jesse. One of Jesse's sons was David, who became very famous as King David of Israel. And in this way Ruth, the Moabite, a foreigner, became one of the ancestors of the one who is most famous of all, Jesus, the Son of David.
Thus bitterness bloomed into beauty at Bethlehem. God's hand was at work to turn a tragedy into a blessing. He restored beauty to circumstances that had been bitter. A family that had been emptied by tragedy was beautifully filled again through the faithfulness of a foreigner. But it was the faithfulness of God himself, of course, that underlay all of this. It was all part of his acting to move his plan of salvation forward through the story of this family and through the history of his covenant people. God showed that in his grace and mercy he could do great things also through people who were outsiders. A Gentile joined the family line that produced the Fulfiller of the Messianic Promise. God's reach went beyond his chosen people – a precursor of the Good News that salvation through this Messiah is for all nations.
Beauty bloomed also for the little town of Bethlehem, which came to be known by all as "David's Town". Later, God's prophet Micah looked even beyond that, saying, "Out of you, little Bethlehem, will come forth the one who will be Ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times."
Generations and centuries later Joseph and Mary journeyed from Galilee to Bethlehem to be counted among the descendants of David. It was a pagan emperor's decree that required that Mary and Joseph be registered there for the census and the tax. And so it "happened" in God's providence that Mary was in David's town for the birth of her firstborn son, the wondrous Child the angel Gabriel had told her she would conceive by the power of the Holy Spirit.
This time Bethlehem was full – not of bread, but of people. There was no room for these outsiders from Galilee except in the stable behind the inn. Thus, under bitter circumstances, God's long awaited promise was brought to bloom in beauty. God's Son came to be fully our Brother in the flesh. Think of it! – God's Son experiencing a newborn's shock of leaving his mother's womb and being dependent as an infant on his parents' care for his very life. More than that, think of what he set aside – the comforts and glories and majesty of heaven that were his as the only-begotten Son of the Father. He came to live as one of us. More than that, he came to live for us as our Servant and Savior. Even more than that, he came to take on the sin and guilt of the whole human race and all the bitterness that goes with it. That is the awesome measure of God's love for us.
That's why, when we look at Bethlehem, we no longer see it as House of Bread or David's Town. We see it as "Jesus' Birthplace". On the night of his birth Bethlehem was truly full – not of bread, and not just of people, but full of the wonder of God's salvation coming into fruition in the birth of his Son to be the Savior of the world. What happened in Bethlehem makes all the difference for us in the beauty of our good days and in the bitterness of our bad days.
For many, this time of year awakens a mixture of feelings. What about you? Is there bitterness mixed in with the beauty of your Christmas preparations? Are you hurting over a disappointment from a Christmas past? Are you feeling a void because a loved one is not with you this year at this emotional time? During this time of mixed emotions we may expect to glean only a few grains of help from God – but he intends to give us more, much more. From his own House of Bread he delivers to us the one called the Bread of Life, the one who came that we might have life and have it to the full. His Son poured himself out for us, became empty himself, took on the form of a servant, became obedient to death, even death on the cross. He did this so you and I may receive and enjoy his beauty in our bitterness and his fullness in our emptiness.
Come to Bethlehem in these happy, holy days to have bitterness and beauty come together there for you. See the one who took on the bitterness of your sin – in a manger, in a human life, on a cross – and transformed it into the beauty of forgiveness. Let him fill your emptiness with himself. You can be sure that, even in bitter experiences that may come into your life, God has in store for you something better than you can even think to ask of him.
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