While they were still talking with him, the king’s
eunuchs arrived and hurried Haman off to the banquet that Esther had prepared.
So the king and Haman went into the feast with Queen Esther. On the second day,
as they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, “What is your
petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even
to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.” Then Queen Esther answered, “If
I have won your favor, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given
me—that is my petition—that is my request. For we have been sold, I and my
people, to be destroyed, to be killed, to be annihilated. If we had been sold
merely as slaves, men and women, I would have held my peace; but no enemy can compensate
for this damage to the king.” Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, “Who is
he, and where is he, who has presumed to do this?” Esther said, “A foe and
enemy, this wicked Haman!” Then Haman was terrified before the king and the
queen.
Mordecai recorded these things, and sent letters to
all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and
far, enjoining them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar
and also the fifteenth day of the same month, year by year, as the days on
which the Jews gained relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been
turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday;
that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending
gifts of food to one another and presents to the poor.
Esther 7:1-6; 9:20-22
“Esther’s Story”
Our Old Testament lectionary
text brings us to one of the smaller, lesser known stories in our Bible, the
story of a King and his queens, the story of advisor who plots genocide against
the Jews out his jealousy, the story of a guardian who will do anything to make
sure his niece survives in the world, the story of that niece who wins the
king’s heart, and most importantly, his respect—and saves her people. It is a
story that begins with a feast and ends by pointing us to a bigger feast, the
Jewish festival known as Purim. If you’re not familiar with the book of Esther,
it begins with a banquet thrown by King Ahasuerus—all the men are drinking, and
the King dumbly commands his queen, Vashti, to come in and parade herself in
front of all them. Feeling merely like an object, I can imagine, Queen Vashti
says no and quickly finds herself banished from the court. When the king
decides to look for a new queen, his nobles suggest doing an empire-wide search
for a new queen, a virgin to be sure. Many women are brought in to be a harem,
and Esther is part of the group. She arrives with her guardian Mordecai,
suggesting that she has no parents, suggesting she is probably a teenager who
has to be guarded. Esther quickly wins the king’s favor and rises to the top as
she is made the queen. Shortly thereafter, Mordecai uncovers a plot to
assassinate the king, and probably Esther as well; he tells Esther, who tells
the king and further wins his favor.
But the king, not the
brightest bulb in the bunch, appoints a man named Haman to a high position in
his court—the power quickly goes to Haman’s head as he demands everyone to bow
down to him. Mordecai refuses, and Haman plots his revenge by vowing genocide,
vowing to kill all of Mordecai’s Jewish people. Mordecai again uncovers the
plot, asking Esther to risk her life and step in to save her people.
This is where our lectionary
text begins this morning--chapter 7, the climax of the story. The King is again
throwing a lavish banquet for his court, one expected to go on for days. Esther
is smart, and knows that she could be put to death for coming in front of the
king without first being summoned, but she decides she has to take the chance
anyway. She knows that she shouldn’t confront the King in front of his whole
court; she knows he could easily be swayed by his advisors who would be
offended that she entered the court without an invitation, so she invites the
king and Haman into her own chambers for a private feast. When the king asks
Esther what her petition, her request to him, is, she simply says, “If I have
won your favor, O King, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me,
and the lives of my people…For we have been sold, I and my people, to be
destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated.” And when the king asks her who
has planned this genocide for her people, Esther looks at Haman and says, “A
foe and enemy, this wicked Haman!” Haman is hung, and the Jewish people, Esther
and Mordecai’s people, are saved. A generation saved from extinction, all
because of the boldness and hope of a teenaged girl.
This story is small, but it’s
important to us for several reasons. Even thought it’s a short story, it has so
much to tell us about life together in faith community. It has to be an
impossible choice for Esther to make—either to stay quiet and not share the
plot with the king, resulting in a whole generation of Jews being killed, or to
go to the king without being summoned, risking her own life. An impossible
choice for anyone to make, to be sure, but Esther decides that she must make
the choice to sacrifice herself, to sacrifice her life to save so many others.
In making this choice, Esther reminds us that we are called to look out for
each other, to take responsibility for our community, that we are sometimes
even called to give up our own lives for the sake of others, hoping for the new
life that could come as a result. And I love that she makes this choice while
maintaining a spirit of humility, hopefulness, and grace. Esther could walk
right into the king’s court, right there in front of everyone, making demands
of the king in front of his most trusted advisors, interrupting a raucous
banquet, embarrassing him as a result. But she doesn’t. She simply sets a place
for him and Haman at her table, inviting them into the quiet, helping them
escape the expectations and judgments of those around them. Esther makes a
difference and saves a whole generation, does all of this by using her
intelligence and displaying a deep humility. Maybe we, perhaps even our
politicians, have something to learn from this—perhaps that intelligence and
humility, instead of ego and judgment, are the way to really create peace and
stability in the world.
Another important thing that
comes out of Esther’s story is the feast of Purim, a celebration in all of the
king’s provinces, a celebration of salvation and life. After the Jews are saved
by Esther’s petitions to the king, Mordecai sends a letter to all of the
people, asking them to always remember these anniversary days when their lives
were saved, to celebrate “as the days on which the Jews gained relief from
their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into
gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of
feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and
presents to the poor.” As a celebration of their salvation from death, the Jews
celebrate life through this Purim feast together, ensuring there is enough food
for everyone, turning mourning into rejoicing, giving gifts of life to the poor
around them.
I love how Dr. Kathleen
O’Connor, a retired Old Testament professor from Columbia Theological Seminary,
depicts this celebration:
The
celebration of Purim is iconic, emblematic of the Jews’ life as God’s
people…They feast at table, they give gifts of food to one another, and they
bring in the poor among them…God’s presence is suggested by the liturgical
feast, where good is shared, community strengthened, and the poor invited to
the table. For Christians, the feast of Purim calls to mind Eucharistic feasts
and, in the context of Esther, serves as strong warning against social systems
that benefit the powerful and harm others.
Kathleen describes this feast
perfectly; she reminds us that this Purim feast for the Jews foreshadows the
feast of the Eucharist for us Christians. She reminds us that the feast at the
Lord’s table should be a powerful celebration of life, of community, of
sharing—a reminder that we, as Christians, are always called to look out for
the least and lost among us, called to invite and give and share and welcome
and love.
Finally, I think this story
is so important to all of us, and so special to me, because it focuses on a
young woman who could easily become part of the world instead of trying to save
it. Esther is very young, innocent to the world and nervous and in awe of
everything happening around her, and she has to be scared to death to come in
front of the king to save her people. She could very easily make the choice to
stay quiet, to do nothing, to preserve her own life by sacrificing others, but
she doesn’t. The world has told her that she should simply be a nameless face
in the king’s harem, told her that she has nothing to give, especially at her
young age, but she doesn’t listen. She speaks up, she urges the king to save
her people, and she celebrates as the world is changed for the better around
her. Does that remind you of another young girl in our Biblical story? It sure
reminds of me a girl who could very easily say no to what is asked of her, but
chooses instead to say yes, yes to life, yes to giving birth to a child who
will be born to change and save the world. These two young women could choose
to hide away, but choose to say yes instead—and it’s amazing to see the
celebration of life that comes as a result. I love that these young women are
the age of so many of you in this room, teenagers and college students, alike.
It’s simply amazing what all of you younger folks in this room, women and men
alike, might be called to do in this world.
It would be irresponsible of
me to share Esther’s story with you today, without pointing to another young
woman in the world who is doing great things—irresponsible because it’s
tempting for us to think that nothing like Esther’s story could happen in our
crazy world today, tempting to think that our crazy world doesn’t have any
heroes left—especially younger ones.
Have you ever heard of a
young woman named Malala? Malala Yousafzai is a 17-year-old young woman who
grew up in Pakistan
I absolutely fell in love
with Malala when she was interviewed by my favorite news person—Jon Stewart.
When asked about her fear of what the Taliban could do to her before she was
shot, Malala said, “I asked myself, ‘If the Taliban come, what would you do,
Malala?’ Then I replied to myself, ‘I would just take a shoe and hit him.’ But
then I said, ‘If you hit a Talib with your shoe, there would be no difference
between you and the Talib.’ You must not treat others with cruelty and
harshness. You must fight this with peace and education. Then I would tell [the
Talib], ‘That’s what I want to tell you.’”
And she did tell the Taliban
about peace and education. After her recovery from almost being murdered, she
didn’t fight back with weapons, with hateful words, with meanness—she fought
back with humility, with love, by creating community, by continuing to speak
out about the importance of education. That was pretty obvious when she delayed
her press conference for winning the Nobel Peace Prize—because she had to
finish her chemistry class. The Marys and Malalas and the Esthers in our lives
have so much to teach us about the importance of education, the value of what a
force humility and hope and intelligence can be when brought together. Indeed
he Marys and Malalas and Esthers have so much to teach us about what happens
when we listen to the intuition God places in our hearts, about what happens
when we take care of our community instead of only being focused on ourselves.
Pretty amazing what the young ones in our midst can teach us, isn’t it? Thanks
be to God.
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