Esther: the book without a single mention of God. 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 latter. It is a story worthy of Game of Thrones, rife with abuse, genocide and power grabs. To render the story of Esther as a cozy tale of Hero Esther is not to read the story in its entirety. Here is a rough sketch of the pertinent details: in this game of thrones, Jewish persons were enslaved, nearly beyond hope, crushed under the weight of the Persians, led by the mighty King Ahasuerus. The scales of fortune were tipped in the favor of those downtrodden Jewish people all because of one woman: Esther. The powerful King Ahasuerus was drunk with wine and wanted his wife Vashti to be paraded in front of his friends so they could ogle at her and “appreciate her beauty.” But Vashti was tired of having her body be a spectacle for men. So she said no. I wonder why we never make Vashti the hero of this story. The King chucked her out of the palace and issued a decree that “every man should be master in his own home.” Midrashic sources claim Vashti was not just banished, but summarily executed by her husband. But a king does not long wait for a queen. It was made known that King Ahasuerus required a new (read: younger) queen. A man named Mordecai heard this, 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, and the king was smitten. They were married. As far as we know, Esther had little say in the whole matter. But 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 of the Jews, she knew she had to act. And now we come to our lectionary portion of the story. 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’s it gonna be, darlin’?” he asked Esther, eager to please her. “Even half of my kingdom (but not all of it) is yours, just name it.” Esther carefully batted those immaculately mascaraed eyelashes at him and said, “Please just spare the lives of my people. For we have been sold, to be destroyed, killed and annihilated.” King Ahasuerus then asked an interesting question: “Who has done this?” What a wild statement of passing blame. He is the king after all. Of course, he had a hand in all of the goings on in the kingdom, even (and especially) the terrible ones. But Esther does not mention his complicity (perhaps another reason he loved her). Instead, she shouted with anger, “It is a foe and enemy, this wicked Haman!” Esther was at her core cunning. ...
Thanks to this week's writer Rev. Dr. Whitney Wilkinson Arreche.
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