The Outsiders | God Chooses Outsiders

But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to abandon you, to turn back from following after you. Wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord do this to me and more so if even death separates me from you."

So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. He was intimate with her, the Lord let her become pregnant, and she gave birth to a son. The women said to Naomi, "May the Lord be blessed, who today hasn't left you without a redeemer. May his name be proclaimed in Israel. He will restore your life and sustain you in your old age. Your daughter-in-law who loves you has given birth to him. She's better for you than seven sons." Naomi took the child and held him to her breast, and she became his guardian. The neighborhood women gave him a name, saying, "A son has been born to Naomi." They called him Obed. He became Jesse's father and David's grandfather. 

Ruth 1:16-17; 4:13-17 (Common English Bible)

The story of the magi isn't an isolated incident. No, choosing outsiders is what God has always done. Take Ruth, for example.

Ruth was a Moabite. And if you know anything about the relationship between Israel and Moab, you know that's a problem. The Moabites weren't just neighbors the people of Israel didn't get along with. They were enemies. The book of Deuteronomy specifically says that Moabites weren't allowed to enter the assembly of the Lord, even to the tenth generation.

So Ruth was about as much of an outsider as you could be. She was ethnically wrong. She was religiously wrong. She was from the wrong nation. And yet, when you trace Jesus' family tree back in the Gospel of Matthew, there she is. Ruth the Moabite became King David's great-grandmother. Ruth, the outsider, became part of the lineage of the Messiah.

Or think about Rahab. She was a Canaanite prostitute who helped Israelite spies escape from Jericho. She was an outsider because of her nationality. She was an outsider because of her profession. And yet, she's listed in Jesus' genealogy too. She became the mother of Boaz, who married Ruth, and together they're part of the story that leads to Jesus.

We see this pattern over and over again throughout Scripture. Moses was a murderer who fled to the wilderness. The Samaritan woman had been married five times. The thief on the cross was literally a criminal. And Jesus chose fishermen, tax collectors, and zealots to be his disciples instead of priests or religious scholars.

This is who God has always been. This is what God has always done. God doesn't choose people based on their résumés. God doesn't wait for people to clean up their lives before inviting them to be part of the story. God chooses outsiders and makes them insiders.

But if God has always worked this way, then why are we so surprised when God keeps doing it?

We're surprised when someone with a complicated past encounters God's grace. We're shocked when someone from a different background becomes part of our faith community. We're uncomfortable when people who don't fit our mold claim to follow Jesus. But maybe the problem isn't with them. Maybe the problem is that we've forgotten this is exactly how God works.

God chose Ruth. God chose Rahab. God chose Moses. God chose the Samaritan woman. God chose the magi. And God is still choosing people who don't fit our categories of who belongs.

So instead of being surprised when outsiders show up, maybe we should start asking ourselves why we ever thought God would work any other way.

Prayer:

God, thank you for choosing Ruth and Rahab and Moses and so many others who didn't fit the mold. Thank you for showing us throughout history that you don't choose people the way we would. Help us trust your pattern of working through unexpected people. And help us celebrate when you choose outsiders instead of questioning whether they really belong. Amen.