Matthew is intent on us not missing the point: Jesus comes with the deep and wide mercy of God! Tamar was an Adullamite, Rahab a Cannanite, and Ruth a Moabite. He just keeps saying it again and again: "This gospel is for everyone!" Of course, each of these women teach us more than that. Ruth teaches us that God's good news is even in the particulars of our own stories, our own longings, our places of deep desire for God to show up. And Ruth teaches us to look for the kinsman-redeemer, the one like us who would redeem us. It teaches us to about Jesus in so many ways, Jesus, the was born as one of us in the incarnation and redeems us in his crucifixion and resurrection.