13 April 2025

13 April 2025 - Passion Sunday

Transcript

Reading:  

Luke 23:46

Write:  

“Father, into your hands I commend my spirit”; and when he had said this he breathed his last.

Reflect:   

I remember before I was ordained a priest, there was another priest that I was fond of listening to. He was a very good preacher. But one particular Palm Sunday, he stepped into the ambo and paused and said, “I think these words speak for themselves.” He said it with a catch in his voice, then went back and sat down for a… rather long time.

Well, I am not going to do that. So, I want to talk about something that is beyond just the readings we have today. But they speak about the mission of Jesus as our kinsman-redeemer. What is a kinsman- redeemer? I’m glad you asked that!

Let’s go back into the Old Testament to the story of Ruth. Ruth was not of Jewish ancestry. She was a Moabite. But she married into the Jewish faith, and there’s an entire book in the Old Testament written about her. It’s a short book; only 4 chapters. She was the great-great-grandmother of King David.

So, what is the story of a kinsman-redeemer? Let’s begin with a little background. Ruth’s mother-in-law was Naomi. She became a widow and her two sons also died. This meant Ruth was a widow as well. Naomi urged her daughters-in-law to return to their home and their god. But Ruth said: “Do not press me to go back and abandon you! Wherever you go I will go, wherever you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people and your God, my God. Where you die I will die, and there be buried. - May the Lord do thus to me, and more, if even death separates me from you!” I guess Naomi wasn’t one of those mother-in-law’s people joke about!

The people of the town were glad to see Naomi back, but she said to them “Do not call me Naomi [‘Sweet’]. Call me Mara [‘Bitter’], for the Almighty has made my life very bitter.” To shorten the story, Boaz became the kinsman redeemer of Naomi and Ruth by purchasing the land that Naomi had and by marrying Ruth.

So what were the requirements to become a kinsman redeemer? 1) He had to be related to the one he was redeeming, 2) he had to be willing to be the Redeemer, and 3) he had to be able to pay the full price for what was owed. This was so that all that was redeemed remained within the family. Ancestral land was VERY important to the Jews.

Apply:   

Now, does Jesus fill the role of a kinsman redeemer? Absolutely! There are a number of places in Scripture that talk about Jesus being like us in everything but sin – there’s the first point. Jesus said, “I lay down my life willingly, no one takes it from me” – there’s the second point. To fulfill the third point, Jesus is God! He can pay the full price! As God he offered an infinite sacrifice – an infinite payment. And I have asked this before: what is infinity minus infinity? Infinity! Sin broke the relationship with God who is infinite and all holy. And put us in an infinite debt that we could never pay. We could not pay the price to an all holy and infinite God because of the mistakes we have made. It was God himself who had to become one like us so that he could be the kinsman redeemer and set us free.

We will hear the words from Jesus on Friday, when we read the Passion according to John, two short lines from the mouth of Jesus as he hung on the cross: “I thirst” and “it is finished.” I will talk about these more on Good Friday, but I do want to highlight at this moment the second of those two lines. When Jesus said, “it is finished,” he died. Those words have a lot of meaning in them. And, as I said, I will talk more about that on Good Friday. But for now, what is finished is his work as kinsman redeemer. He has purchased… us. This should cause every one of us to pause, like that priest did many years ago. It should leave us speechless.

As we heard in the gospel today, the people went away striking their breast, because they knew something different had happened in this death. It was not just some crazy individual who had made enemies of the state. Even the centurion acknowledged this truth, calling him “innocent beyond doubt” here in Luke’s gospel and in Matthew’s gospel said “truly, this was the son of God!”

Jesus is our kinsman redeemer. And, as Boaz married Ruth, so Jesus has married the Church. This idea alone should make all of us pause in humble gratitude because we have been redeemed.

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