It is Just Such a Time: The Story of Esther

The story of Esther continues with a reversal of fortune

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Transcript

Sermons from 

Mission Hills UCC

San Diego, California

Rev. Dr. David Bahr

david.bahr@missionhillsucc.org

October 6, 2024

“It is Just Such a Time:  The Story of Ether”

The Book of Esther, chapter 4: 12b-17 – Common English Bible

When they told Mordecai Esther’s words, 13 he had them respond to Esther: “Don’t think for one minute that, unlike all the other Jews, you’ll come out of this alive simply because you are in the palace. 14 In fact, if you don’t speak up at this very important time, relief and rescue will appear for the Jews from another place, but you and your family will die. But who knows? Maybe it was for a moment like this that you came to be part of the royal family.”

15 Esther sent back this word to Mordecai: 16 “Go, gather all the Jews who are in Susa and tell them to give up eating to help me be brave. They aren’t to eat or drink anything for three whole days, and I myself will do the same, along with my female servants. Then, even though it’s against the law, I will go to the king; and if I am to die, then die I will.” 17 So Mordecai left where he was and did exactly what Esther had ordered him.

In last week’s story, Queen Vashti said no to her husband’s humiliating demand that she parade in front of a bunch of men who had been drinking for seven days, wearing only her crown.  After years of suffering under this boorish fool, she finally had enough and refused.  But the men who surrounded the king convinced him he had to do something or all the women of the kingdom would follow suit and refuse their husband’s demands too.  So, Vashti was banished.  

To replace her, they held a kingdom-wide beauty contest where all the most beautiful women from India to Ethiopia were brought to the capital city.  Before seeing the king, they had beauty treatments, 6 months each with oils and perfumes – one of my favorite details in the story.  The most beautiful of them all was a young woman named Hadasah.  You may know her by her Persian name, Esther.  This was a multi-ethnic kingdom.  Her family had been among the Jews forced into Babylonian exile who decided to stay behind.  They remained where they had built new lives instead of move back to Jerusalem to rebuild there.  It seems like they were relatively well integrated, but like any minority, no one really wants to test the bounds of acceptance.  So, when Esther became the queen, Mordecai advised her not to reveal her Jewish identity to the king.  No need to draw unwanted attention.  They also didn’t reveal their relationship.  Mordecai was her older cousin, some say uncle, who took her in after her parents died.  He raised her as his own.  

Sometime after Esther was made queen, the king elevated a man named Haman to a position of honor in his court and it went straight to his head.  He was not a nice man, a narcissistic jerk, really.  Among other things, he ordered anyone who passed by him to stop and kneel.  Mordecai either thought this was ridiculous or refused to bow before anyone except God, so when Haman walked by, Mordecai just stood there minding his own business, whistling, pretending to dig dirt out from under his fingernails.  Haman was incensed – “How dare he disrespect me!” – and he looked for a way to get back at him.  But not just Mordecai.  Let’s make this really hurt.  He devised a plan to kill all Jews.

He went to the king and, with an ominous tone, warned him that there was a “certain dangerous element” living among them.  They don’t follow our laws and customs and they’re plotting – they’re coming for you.  He insisted, “the ‘evidence’ is clear.”  Haman stoked his fears and manipulated the easily manipulated king into signing an order that they should all be killed before they do something to the king.  And even better, Haman promised to pay for it!  Mind you, this was because Mordecai refused to make Haman feel like a big man.  So, Haman placed a big wooden pole, 75 feet high, right outside the palace and sharpened the top like a pencil, so he could impale Mordecai on it.  Truly gruesome.

Mordecai overheard the plot and sent news to Esther explaining the danger to all Jews and said, “don’t think that because you are the queen, you’ll be spared.”  And then he famously told her, “perhaps you were made queen ‘for just such a time as this.”  But, protocol didn’t allow the queen to just go to the king to intervene, to plead for their lives.  She could be killed for being so impertinent.  So, here’s what she did.

She put on some of that perfume she had bathed in for six months and dressed up in all her royal finery.  And then she stood just outside the entrance to the throne room, looking like she was minding her own business, and waited for the king to notice her.  He did.  “What can I do for you?” he said.  “Just ask.  I’ll even give you half of my kingdom.”  “If it pleases you, come today for a feast I have prepared.  And invite Haman too.”  

That evening they all had such a pleasant time that the king asked again, “What can I do for you.  Anything.  I’ll even give you half of my kingdom.”  “Well, if it pleases the king, and if the king wishes to grant my wish and my desire, I’d like the king to come to another feast tomorrow night.  And then I’ll give you my answer.  And bring Haman too.”

Haman beamed and the next day he strutted around town, his head the size of a hot air balloon.  But his balloon deflated when on his way home he saw Mordecai.  Once again, instead of getting up to bow, Mordecai just sat on the ground and paid him no attention.  Haman boiled with rage but decided, “I’ll deal with him later.  Nothing is going to ruin my special night.”

After another wonderful dinner, the king asked again, “What can I do for you?  I’ll give you half of my kingdom if you wish.”  Esther replied, “If I please the king, and if the king wishes, grant me my life – that’s my wish – and the lives of my people too.”  “What do you mean?”  She explained that someone wants to kill her and all her people.  Then she added, “but you’re the real victim of this plot.  These are your people and no enemy can compensate you for this terrible damage done to you.”  What a brilliant move!  In fact, she added, “I wouldn’t have even bothered you if we were simply being sold into slavery.”  

The king asked, “Who would do such an evil thing?”  Sitting right there across the table, Haman’s face grew red and he tried to play it cool.  Thanks to Esther’s well played scheme, she pointed, “This wicked Haman!”  The king was incensed and stormed out of the room.  Haman got down on the ground in front of her to plead with Esther to spare his life.  Just then the king came back into the room and it looked to him like Haman was trying to assault his wife.  “In my own house!”

One of the king’s eunuchs quickly pointed.  “Look sir, over there.  It’s a pole, 75 feet high, that Haman made to impale Mordecai.”  The eunuch, like many others, probably loathed Haman.  “You know, Mordecai, the guy who did you a favor.” 

 So, back up for a moment.  Sometime earlier, quite a ways back, Mordecai overheard two guards plotting to kill the king.  He told Esther who told the grateful king and the plotters were hanged.  But the king didn’t turn his gratitude into any kind of favor for Mordecai.  But recently, the king had been reminded of this deed and made him an official in his court – which made Haman madder than ever.  

Again, the eunuch pointed to the pole built to kill Mordecai and suggested the king use Haman’s pole for Haman’s punishment.  The king commanded, “Impale him on it.”  And then he gave Haman’s wealth and the highest position in his court to Mordecai.  A complete reversal of fortune.  However, the order to annihilate the Jews remained in effect.  What now?  That’s how this story concludes next week.

Last week, Vashti took a risk and said no – knowing the potential cost and consequences of her decision.  This week, Esther said yes – knowing the potential cost and consequences of her decision.  You see, at just the right time, she risked going to the king and disclosing that she had a different identity than what he or anyone else might have thought, one she intended to keep secret.  But now, she discerned her action would save other’s lives and that was worth the risk.  

A few years ago, Andrea and her mother told NPR’s StoryCorp about when she began to experience her first symptoms of mental illness – paranoid thoughts, delusions, and erratic behavior…  They told stories of her rapidly escalating illness and all the tragedy before Andrea was eventually hospitalized.  For two weeks, she refused to take any medication – until she received a phone call from her grandfather.  “Andrea, I want you to know that I’ve been there.”  He didn’t tell her to take it, just that he had been there – something he had never talked about with anyone.  Never intended to.  A year before Andrea’s mother was born, he was institutionalized.  No one knew and it would stay that way.  He went on to earn his PhD in chemistry and was a professor for 40 years.  But when his granddaughter refused for two weeks to cooperate with her treatment, he decided this was just such a time.  He revealed his closely held secret.  Andrea said that changed everything.  “I thought, if he could do it, I could do it too.”  And she did.

I like the story of Vashti and Esther for the interplay of discernment.  When to say “no” or “now” and when to say “not yet.”  I think of how some people who are undocumented are presented with this kind of dilemma.  For example, Dreamers who have bravely come forward when some draconian action was about to be taken to risk saying, “This is me.  This is us.”  Coming out stories for people who are LGBTQ – should I, shouldn’t I.  Or women and men, never wishing to speak about it, who have stepped forward to say “Me too.”  In order to help someone.  It was just such a time.

When Rev. Amy Butler was the pastor of one of the most prominent churches in the country – Riverside Church in New York City, a UCC American Baptist congregation – she shared a story publicly she had no intention of ever telling anyone outside of friends and family.  At a routine appointment during her second pregnancy, she said, “the doctor looked and looked at the sonogram images.  She was silent for far too long and then told me she’d be right back. The moments that followed were filled with one doctor after another entering the exam room, looking at the sonogram screen, then going out to whisper in the hallway. I kept asking what was going on, but nobody would tell me anything. My husband was at work and I sat in the cold company of beeping monitors and I felt so afraid. And then all the doctors came into the room together, stood around me, and told me that my baby would die at birth, or after a very short, excruciatingly painful few minutes of life; and that continuing the pregnancy to full term would be very dangerous for me.”  Rev. Butler related, in that room, at that moment, it never occurred to me that my husband and I wouldn’t be allowed to make a medical decision.  But then came a moment, “just such a time as this,” when it was important to take the risk of publicly telling – the media and to her church – their very personal story – not for recognition but because it could save someone’s life.

To me, Esther is among the most inspirational stories in the Bible,  all the risk taking and discernment and decisions about personal sacrifice.  In particular, Esther used her position of privilege, which ultimately could not save her, to save others’ lives.  

We have these decisions too.  Perhaps there is a conversation you’ve never wanted to have.  A decision you have been putting off.  For someone here today waiting for the courage of Esther, “this is just such a time.”