What a lovely story we have today - a fairy tale right in the Bible. A beautiful Queen who shows great courage, and a King who shows great wisdom. Or is it?
One of the things the lectionary doesn’t do is give us entire stories. In this case we’ve missed the opening of the story, and the middle - which are pretty critical parts. So let me tell you the rest.
In 589 BCE King Cyrus decreed an end to the forced captivity of the Hebrew people. One hundred years later, the story begins with King Xerxes and his wife Vashti, considered a most beautiful woman; Xerxes ordered Vashti to parade herself in a kind of beauty pageant; Vashti refused. Because of her refusal, Xerxes ordered her killed - and then searched the kingdom for another woman to be his queen. Esther was found, and became the wife of the King. Her uncle, Mordecai, also her guardian, suggested that she not say that she was a Jew.
The King’s adviser Haman plotted to get rid of Mordecai, and slaughter the Hebrew people. Mordecai learned of the plot, and sent a message to Esther, who decided to speak with the King. Two nights in a row, Esther and Haman and the king had dinner, and Esther told Xerxes that she was a Jew. She asked him to spare her people. - and when Xerxes learned from Esther that Haman was the leader of this movement, he ordered that Haman be hung on the very gallows which was to be used for Mordecai.
Here’s the missing part before we get to the feasts and celebrations. The Jews, led by Mordecai, then proceed to slaughter virtually everyone perceived to be an enemy. The edict for the killing was extended for an extra day, and the ten dead sons of Haman were hung in public. It is a violent and bloody massacre, ostensibly in self-defense.
Then, because the Hebrews were spared, the people are told to celebrate and feast their deliverance, on the 14th day of the month which had been set for their extermination. This is the origin of the Feast of Purim. It is not a Holy Day, but nevertheless a day of observance. Everyone dresses up in costumes, and has big parties - but every party stops while the whole story of Esther is read.
Rev. Judith Evenden, says that “at one level it is a great story of victory over oppression.” The victory of Esther, and in fact the courage of Vashti! Where all of us preachers get squeamish is the massacre, after the threat of their being killed had passed. So Judith asked for some comments from Rabbi Ruth Abusch-Magder. (1)
Rabbi Ruth comments “This is a relatively late biblical book. The story is one that has no connection to history in a way that makes sense. As a result, one must view it as a farce; a carnival story written by a diaspora people, disempowered and imagining their potential to reinvent themselves and avenge the wrongs perpetrated upon minorities.” (2) So the story of Esther, on one level, is a kind of humorous morality play - representing the wishful dreaming of a people in exile - a king who is a buffoon, a cartoon-character villain who comes to a sad end, a woman who outsmarts most of them. At the reading of Esther during Purim, those who are dressed in costume - and the audience - boo and hiss the villains, ridicule the foolish king, and celebrate Esther, a woman with great wisdom and skill.
“One of the four ritual obligations at Purim is to read Megillat Ester, the scroll of Esther. We are obligated to listen to the whole story, start to finish. Despite what one might think sitting in a contemporary synagogue with noisemakers, we are obligated to hear every word of the story. We cannot gloss over the challenging parts. We need to pay attention to the frivolity of the King, his excess of food and drink, and the consequences for those in his immediate family and those over whom he reigns. The Jewish people are both the victim and the beneficiaries of the King's tendency to indulge. His lack of involvement allows his advisor Haman to pursue a personal vendetta against the Jews. His fondness for food and drink (and beautiful ladies) draws him to Esther's feast where he is persuaded to save the Jews.” (3)
In fact, the house of King Xerxes was not a house ruled by wisdom. Xerxes prized only the beauty of his wife Vashti. His murder of her set back women’s freedoms throughout Persia for ages; internal plots and intrigue brought the life of the entire Israelite nation into danger. Esther’s actions did save the day, but they also left the Persians not in awe of God, but in mortal fear of the Israelite people. Her request that her people be spared resulted not in peace, but in a death warrant based in the rationale of self-defense. To the contrary, Esther’s actions kindled a violent civil war.
We watch Haman, whose single-minded evil and anger leads to his undoing. We learn that physical survival is full of challenge. For Esther, surviving means giving up her name and community, going into hiding, being sexually compromised. Mordecai has to give up his ability to protect her, and has to rely on the protection of others. (4)
If we use the Hebrew practice of ‘midrash’, interpreting the text in its historical context, and then interpreting it for modern times, one of the messages that sits in this story is the ability of those who are oppressed to become the oppressor; we see that the lines between power and powerless, frivolity and insanity are not as clear as we might like to think. We see those with power using it unwisely, and the powerless showing great wisdom.
The country of Zimbabwe might be a good example. From being a revered leader of an oppressed people, Robert Mugabe became the oppressor, even of his own people. He demonstrated that those lines are not as clear as we might like. Think back to Idi Amin and the nightmare of Uganda; or the horrors of Angola.
Or China - a country which once was occupied by Japan, armies marching through a slaughtering Chinese civilians without a thought. Now China invades and claims places like Tibet as its own. The oppressed have become the oppressor.
The Jewish people have been the object of hatred in many parts of the world for centuries. Six million Jews were exterminated during World War II. Many Jews changed their names, or lied about their origins, just as Esther did - fearing persecution. As of 1950 the historic home of both Jew and Arab was divided into Israel and Palestine. Yet in its claims of self-defense, Israel has slaughtered many, even while holding up the Holocaust to the world. Land which is rightly that of Palestine is being taken over and settled. Yet Israel is not all to blame. The Palestinian leaders deliberately provoke response. They know full well that if they attack Israel the response will be swift and devastating. Innocent people are used as shields and become collateral damage in a power struggle without end. Should Palestine ever get the upper hand, I am sure they would do exactly what is being done. Both claim they act in self-defense.
I keep returning to Rabbi Ruth’s comment - that the lines between power and powerless are not as clear as we might like to think. So how does this relate to us as Christians? On a global scale it’s not hard to comment, but what about the local?
The characters in the story did not use their power for the good of others, except perhaps Esther. The king, Mordecai and Haman had power and each used it unwisely to dominate and control others; Esther, who was supposedly powerless, found great power and used it wisely.
Here in this congregation I think the question is how do each of us use our power? Do we use it to be destructive, or do we use it for good or for ill? Everyone has power, whether or not they know it. Sometimes we can use our power in a way that has ripples throughout the community, causing harm. Sometimes we can use that power in such a way that the ripples produce great good, even beyond our community. It seems to me that the lesson from this story is how we use the power we have to build up all the individuals in our community, the body of Christ in the world, so that the whole body is healthy and productive.
For we believe we are the body of Christ in the world - every one of us - and every one of us has a function. Our role, in a community, is to recognise the contributions of each, and support and encourage them, help them grow and be productive members of the congregation. May it be so.
Sources:
1. Rev. Judith Evenden, Land o’ Lakes Emmanuel United Church congregation.
2,3,4. From a sermon by Rabbi Ruth Abusch-Magder, scholar in residence at University of Chicago Hillel, Director of Joint Commission on Sustaining Rabbinic Education.
5. Feasting on the Word, essay by Telford Work, Associate Professor of Theology, Westmount College, Santa Barbara, CA. 2009.
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