Good Endings—Ruth 3: 1-5; 4: 13-17; Mark 12: 38-44
I have always loved to read. And up until high school, I always enjoyed getting to a well-resolved, comforting, stress-free, happily ever after ending in the books I read. However, first day of Freshman English, we started Romeo and Juliet. It was hard enough to understand what was actually being said, but then the ending came. They die. It’s sad, and it’s miserable. That was followed by Henrik Ibsen plays and John Steinbeck both of whom write stories of suffering. The next year we did an entire unit on writings from the Holocaust. And then they wonder why teenagers are sullen and depressed? But I learned an important lesson. There is a difference between a good ending and a happily ever after ending.
Many would call the story of Ruth a “happily ever after” story. In the end, she finds some form of love, marriage, and a whole family in Boaz. We often read this as a lovely second-chance love story. Unfortunately, it’s not. As a woman, Ruth was the property of her husband. Marriage in that day was not a fairy tale, but a bartered agreement. A woman was sold into marriage by her father. And what was worse for Ruth is that her first husband died. Widows the lowest of any class in Biblical days. They couldn’t own property, trade, engage in legitimate work, or anything like that unless they had children. They basically had to live off the begging and generosity of those who would help just enough to keep them out of starvation.
The interim between Ruth’s widowing and meeting Boaz would have been filled with stress, fear, and cruelty. There are fears that the men working the fields may abuse her as she gathers the scraps. She and Naomi would have endured the scorn of everyone in town and the pity. The only way out for someone like Ruth was to find a male relative of her husband and marry him to redeem herself. And this wasn’t even redeeming the person. It was the land attached to the family that was the basis of the redemption. Boaz, in Ruth 4, first asks the family redeemer if he will redeem the land. Ruth is the afterthought. In order to get the land, he has to marry her. The man refuses, leaving her only option as Boaz. And lest you think these policies didn’t filter down the centuries, may I remind you that it was only in 1974 that woman could open a bank account without her husband’s permission.
Ruth did not have a happily ever after ending. She had to fight and struggle until a man was willing to redeem her through her dead husband’s birthright. She got a good ending. Boaz was a kind man, cared for her, and she had a child which legitimized her in the eyes of the law and protected her rights. But a good ending is not always a happily ever after ending.
In our Gospel lesson we learn the secret to good endings. Jesus teaches then he provides a real-life illustration. He warns that people should be wary of the teachers of religious law. They would have been savvy, wealthy, and powerful in that society. They love to dress up in fancy clothes, parade around, have people greet them as kings and saviors. Jesus points out their fake piety in public with their long prayers and visible religious actions. But behind that façade of righteousness, Jesus says they always bring bad endings. They cheat the widow and the poor. Their goodness is fake, and their truth is cheating and exploitation.
To show this, Jesus points to the collection box at the Temple. There were often two types of offerings: the required offerings that were an obligation, and the free will offerings where people could give out of their generosity. Likely, this box would have been the free will offering. There were many rich people who came through and gave much money. But this one widow only gave two coins. Now, most people would believe that it was fantastic and amazing to give large amounts and donations like the rich people who came through before the widow. But Jesus singles out her faith and her giving.
The rich people who came through and donated gave a drop in the bucket. She gave everything she had. She paid her legal debts and obligations to the Temple, and then she gave everything else she had to offer. Jesus doesn’t like people who fake their faith for personal gain, and Jesus doesn’t like people who hold on to their riches and hold back from God. He says so very clearly, “Because of this, they will be more severely punished.”
Hypocrisy, greed, and faking faith for one’s own benefit are an abomination in Jesus’s sight, and he calls them out as evil over, and over, and over again in the Gospels. They and those who support them will face severe consequences from Jesus who valued the woman giving all for the good of others in the free will offering than those who simply made a show with a tiny portion of their immense wealth. Sometimes Jesus made people uncomfortable, and I would say a few of his words still do that today. But we must remember that even where Jesus’s teaching is most uncomfortable, we still claim him as Savior, Lord, and King, and we should order and conduct our lives accordingly.
So, what does that mean for us? We are called to be the woman with the two small coins. If we are unwilling to sacrifice, then we can’t follow Jesus. The rich man couldn’t give up his wealth and power to follow. Nicodemus struggled to give up his position in the religious authority to truly follow. King Agrippa was almost persuaded, but he couldn’t give up what he had. Faith is a call to be willing to sacrifice. Riches, power, and prestige may give you a happily ever after in this life, but you won’t get a good ending.
The Christ we follow came down from the majesty and glory of Heaven. Lived in poverty and cruelty on this earth, and was killed, wrongfully, by self-righteous religious leaders with the tacit permission of Rome. It’s not a good philosophy. It’s not a self-help book. It’s not something we do because of social acceptability in the southern United States. We follow because God is God, the creator of all, the redeemer of humankind, and the guide and guardian of our walk on earth.
We can say we believe, we can sing, we can pray, we can listen to passably decent sermon once in a while, but if we don’t actually make the effort to follow Jesus, we have failed. That hymn, “Almost Persuaded” as old and passe as it might be in our day and age still reminds us this: “Almost persuaded, harvest is past. Almost persuaded, doom comes at last. Almost cannot avail. Almost is but to fail. Sad, sad the bitter wail—almost, but lost.”
I used to think that the only way to end a book was a happily ever after. Everything needed to turn out perfectly just the way I wanted it to. But that’s not the case because I have learned I’m not in control. God is the author and finisher of faith. And together we have to trust that just as God gave a good ending to Ruth and Naomi, we have all received a good ending through the grace of Christ. Life does not spare us hardships and difficulties. But life is made sweeter knowing that it is lived with a God who loves us. So even if your happily ever after looks a little skewed, remember that God is not done writing your story, and God will always make a good ending.
Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/2060586197729142/