Reverend
Debbie Cato
Esther 7:1-10;
9:20-22
Fairfield
Community Church
September 29, 2024
Let us pray: Holy
God, if we are uncertain and weary, speak to us. If we are
grounded and hopeful, speak to us. If our faith feels solid and steady, speak
to us, and if our faith feels shaky and tentative, speak to us. Keep speaking through
your holy Word, O God, that we may find our voice in yours. Amen.
Esther: the Old Testament Book without a single mention of God. In her commentary on this passage, Whitney Wilkinson Arreche says: “At the risk of complete oversimplification, I believe Scripture is often teaching us one of two things (or both at the same time): the nature and character of God, and the nature and character of people. Esther is a lesson in the nature and character of people. It is a story rife with abuse, genocide, and power grabs. To reduce the story of Esther to a cozy tale of Hero Esther is not to read the story in its entirety.”[1]
Have you ever read the Book of Esther? I encourage you to do so. It’s a short book but it’s filled with adventure and intrigue. It teaches a lot about human nature and how easily our character is influenced. It’s a very important part of Hebrew Scriptures and an important event in Jewish History. The Book of Esther is recognized and celebrated every year – and has been for thousands of years now.
Here is a rough sketch of the pertinent details of the Book of Esther. The Jewish people were enslaved, nearly beyond hope, crushed under the weight of the Persians, led by the mighty King Ahasuerus. But because of one woman – Esther, the scales of fortune were tipped in the favor of those downtrodden, oppressed Jewish people.
The powerful King Ahasuerus, drunk with wine, wanted his wife Vashti to be paraded in front of his friends so they could ogle at her and “appreciate her beauty.” But Vashti, well she was tired of having her body be a spectacle for men. So, she refused. (Maybe Vashti should be the hero of this story. A hero for women. She risked her life by refusing to be paraded around his friends.)
The King threw her out of the palace and issued a decree that “every man should be master in his own home.” Jewish sources claim Vashti was not just banished but executed by her husband. But the Book of Esther does not tell us that.
The king did not wait long to replace Vashti. King Ahasuerus and his advisors, made it known throughout the region that King Ahasuerus required a new (younger) queen.
In comes a man named Mordecai. Mordecai was a leader among the Jews that were enslaved to King Ahasuerus. Mordecai heard the king wanted a new queen and knowing that his cousin Esther, whom he had raised since her parents died, was beautiful, he seized an opportunity. Esther was a poor Jewish woman, but once she was given a makeover by palace professionals and thrown into a beauty pageant worthy of Miss America, it didn’t make one bit of difference. What was raw beauty, became perfectly polished. The king was smitten. They were married. [2] (Notice Esther was not consulted in any of this.)
One of my Old Testament seminary professor did not like Esther. She called her a prostitute. I think that was very harsh – Esther had no control over her circumstances. But she was used by Mordecai for gain.
No amount of makeup or perfume could erase Esther’s memory of her heritage and faith. And when her cousin Mordecai told her of a plot by Haman, the King’s right-hand man, to kill all the Jews, she knew she had to act. She could not allow her people to be murdered.
And now we come to today’s reading from Esther. The scene was another lavish palace party where King Ahasuerus was enjoying a cup of his favorite wine with his favorite girl. Even though she could have been killed for directly addressing the king without being summoned, she went anyway. ‘What is your petition, Queen Esther?’ the king asked Esther. ‘It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled. Just name it.” Obviously, he was eager to please his new young, beautiful queen.
Esther knew she could manipulate the king. I can picture her very carefully batting those immaculately mascaraed eyelashes at him and saying, “Please just spare the lives of my people. For we have been sold, to be destroyed, killed and annihilated.”
King Ahasuerus asks an odd question: “Who has done this?” Who has done this? Talk about passing blame! He is the king after all! Do you really think he didn’t have a hand in all of the goings on in his kingdom, even (or maybe especially) the terrible ones?
But Esther was smart. She does not mention his complicity (perhaps another reason he loved her). Esther at her very core was cunning. Instead, she shouted with anger, “It is a foe and enemy, this wicked Haman!” She points at the man partying with them. The king made a big show about being angry that someone would do such a thing to his wife’s people. And then a eunuch gave the king something to do with his anger.
The eunuch says one sentence, “Look, Haman was making gallows to hang Mordecai and they’re still at his house.” The eunuch wasn’t dumb. He must have realized where his observation would lead. The king jumped at the chance for revenge, and Haman was hanged on his own gallows.
You will have to read all of Esther to hear what happens next!! But our passage for today skips ahead a few chapters. Esther has save the Jewish people from being killed. They were spared from the evil of the powerful people that enslaved them. The survivors, all the Jews throughout the region had a great celebration. They celebrated by exchanging gifts with one another. They took special care of the poor.
Mordecai proclaimed 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.’ This is where the Jewish festival of Purim finds its roots. Every year, in the month of Adar – which is March, the Jewish people celebrate Purim.
On Purim the importance of friendship and community is emphasized by sending gifts of food to friends. On Purim day, each Jew sends a package containing at least two different ready-to-eat food items and/or beverages (e.g., pastry, fruit, beverage) to at least one Jewish acquaintance during the daylight hours of Purim. Men send to men, and women to women.
It is preferable that the gifts be delivered via a third party.
Children, in addition to sending their own gifts of food to their friends, make
enthusiastic messengers.
During the course of Purim day, family is gathered, maybe with an invited guest or two, and celebrate together with a festive Purim meal. Traditionally, this meal begins before sundown and lasts into the evening.
The table is festively decorated with a nice tablecloth and candles. Bread or challah are served as well as wine. Plenty of Jewish songs are sung. They sing, drink, laugh, and have fun together to celebrate that they were saved from extinction.
On Purim, children—and some adventurous adults too—traditionally dress in costumes, an allusion to God’s hand in the Purim miracle, which was disguised by natural events.
I respect and love so much that the Jewish religion continues to recognize and celebrate these important events in their history. It’s our history too, friends. Jesus was Jewish and his ministry was built on Jewish traditions and Jewish Scriptures. In Esther, we see that when the powerless are given a voice, when the corrupt powers that be are put in their place, there is cause for rejoicing.
I remind you that in the Book of Esther, God is not mentioned. There is not even a whisper of God’s name. Perhaps God wants no part of this game, where people rise and fall but calculated power remains the same. Perhaps when an orphaned girl is shoved to a king, manipulated by her cousin Mordecai, and then becomes the very thing she despises, there is no room for God. [3]
You see, if you continue to read in Esther, you will learn that Esther turned into someone who resembles Haman. She became someone she had opposed. Someone she had been afraid of. Just as Haman called for the destruction of her people, she called for the annihilation of his people.
She had 75,000 of them killed. And because that’s just not enough revenge, she had each of Haman’s ten sons hanged too. Where is God in such a hopelessly endless cycle of hatred and retaliation? Nowhere to be found, it seems.
And that cycle of revenge keeps on encircling peoples and nations, even into our time. On the festival day of Purim in 1942, Nazis hung ten Jews to “avenge” the hanging of Haman’s sons, some 23 centuries later. It seems hate has no expiration date. When this kind of game is played, no one wins. Certainly not God.
There are some hard questions that Esther causes us to ask. Cycles of violence continue, generation after generation unless someone stops them. Somone has to say, “No. I am not going to take revenge. I will not retaliate.” We need to examine the ways women in particular, become pawns in these cycles. Pray about what this text asks us to learn about humanity – for good or bad. How is God calling us to be co-conspirators of liberation for all who bear the heavy burdens of institutional oppression?
Though God is not named in this text, is God really absent? Is God present in the breaking of cycles of violence and retribution that have plagued human beings for millennia? How can we partner with God in breaking these cycles? How might God’s silence speak volumes? How might we imagine God’s presence if Esther had ended with her saving her people, and not her exacting a hellish revenge upon her enemies? Think of the positive ending that would be. No killing. Just freedom for her people.
Ask yourself how and if you play a role in cycles of retaliation, resentment, anger, even hatred toward people that you are either close to or toward peoples you don’t even know, but have judged. Maybe you’ve been told by others that “those” people should be hated.
Ask yourself what concrete things you can do to promote the principles of Purim: reading meaningful scripture passages in community, caring for those in need, celebrating family and friendships with generosity and kindness, remembering all God has done to bless us.
What if we spent our time and energy focused on kindness and mutual respect instead of judging, excluding, and shunning? What would our world be like if we all used the customs of Purim in our everyday lives? Lots to think about friends. And so applicable in today’s environment. Amen.
[1] Whitney Wilkinson Arreche @
Presbyterian Outlook. Commentary on the
Lectionary. September 29, 2024.
[2] Whitney Wilkinson Arreche @ Presbyterian Outlook. Commentary on the Lectionary. September 29, 2024.
[3] Whitney Wilkinson Arreche @ Presbyterian Outlook. Commentary on the Lectionary. September 29, 2024.
