Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat down there just as the guardian-redeemer he had mentioned came along. Boaz said, “Come over here, my friend, and sit down.” So he went over and sat down. – Ruth 4:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 6, 2019): Ruth 4

The television situation-comedy invited us into a place “where everybody knows your name. And they’re always glad you came.” One of the running gags of the television show “Cheers” was the whole bar shouting out the name of “Norm” or “Cliff” as they walked through the door of the bar. Anywhere else, they were nobodies, but at “Cheers” they were somebodies.

We all long to be somebody. We want to be recognized. We need to find that place where everybody knows our name. And for some, that drives us to do evil things. News organizations in recent years have taken it upon themselves not to speak the names of people who have been the perpetrators of mass shootings, not wanting to contribute to the problem by giving people their fifteen minutes of fame, or that fifteen minutes when everybody knows your name. In this case, the media refusal to speak the name reinforces societies condemnation of the action; we are not glad that they came. If only we could forget names like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, and not remember the evil that they have done. Of course, in the loss of that memory, there might be those who would want to repeat the error. Mussolini’s dead body was hung upside down at an Esso Gas Station so that we would remember him and not follow in his footsteps.

There is little doubt that the words placed in the mouth of Boaz here are not the words that he actually spoke. Boaz knew the name of the man that he had come to deal with, and it would have been the accepted custom for Boaz to speak that name as the negotiation began. But the writer of Ruth did not preserve that name for us. And the omission was likely made on purpose.

There is tension in this negotiation. On the one hand, Boaz hoped that the man he was dealing with would renege on his responsibility to Naomi. It was not that Boaz wanted or needed the land, but at this point, he wanted to take Ruth as his wife. But we also cannot lose sight of the fact that this unknown person refused to take the action that he should have taken because of selfish considerations. In this case, both the land and Ruth needed to stay within the tribe to which Elimelek belonged, but this unknown man refused to do what should have been done.

As a result of this failure, the author of Ruth purposefully leaves out the name of this man who met with Boaz. It was a way for the author to show his contempt for the one who would not step up and fulfill his obligations and a just punishment visited on the one who the writer has decided did not deserve to have his name immortalized. In a literary sense, this friend of Boaz is buried in an unmarked grave, and his name has been forgotten by the generations who have followed him, all because in this culture he failed to do what he should have done.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Judges 9