It all started when Ahasuerus, king
of one hundred and twenty seven provinces of Persia, potentate of countless
subjects, ruler of vast tracts of near-Eastern lands, got drunk. He threw a huge party for all his ministers
and officers at his winter palace, and it lasted for seven days. And the wine flowed like water, and guests
arrived in limos, and paparazzi lay in wait, and flashbulbs popped in everybody's
faces, until on the very last night Ahasuerus staggered up off of his couch and
called for his wife, Queen Vashti, so he could parade her in front of his
guests and show off her beauty. Now
Vashti, who'd been partying with the women somewhere else, wouldn't come. Maybe she was hung over herself, maybe she
was busy, or maybe she just didn't want to be treated like a piece of prize
pork. Whatever it was, it irritated Ahasuerus,
so he called up all his sages and wise men, all his legal advisors, the supreme
court and the joint chiefs of staff, and he asked them “According to the law,
what is to be done to Queen Vashti because she has not performed the command of
King Ahasuerus?”
And all his advisors got together and
cast lots and e-mailed their colleagues in Alexandria and after a couple of
weeks came back and said “Queen Vashti has done a horrible disservice to the
whole country. All the women in Persia
will look at her and say 'She was commanded by her husband, and yet didn't
obey.' All the ministers of the land, and lo, even commoners, won't be able to
do a thing with their women.” And
so the king called a press conference, covered by all the major networks,
and declared a law forbidding Vashti from coming near the palace again.
But then Ahasuerus had no queen, and
he got to thinking fondly about Vashti's . . . queenly qualities . . . and he said “Bring me some virgins!” So a
decree was sent across the land, by sea and by air, that beautiful young
virgins be rounded up and kept in a special harem so they could receive makeup
tips and mani-pedis, and then he would choose from among them his new Queen.
Now just by coincidence, there
was a Jew named Mordecai on the king's payroll, who just by coincidence had
a cousin named Esther. She was fair and
beautiful, and lo, she was a virgin. So
when her uncle heard about the kingly call, he sent Esther along to see what
she could do. The only thing he said was
“Do not reveal that you are a Jew, for we are not universally admired within
the kingdom, and it might affect your chances.”
Now, each woman was admitted to the
king in the evening, and if her . . . queenly characteristics . . . were
insufficient, she'd leave in the morning and never be asked back. When it was finally Esther's turn, the king
fell head over heels in love – and
crowned her Queen right on the spot. And
all the palace was abuzz at how this woman came out of nowhere and beat all the
celebrities' daughters – all the regional pageant winners, all the local
cattle-queens like Miss Hospitality of Haran or Miss Sheep-camp of
Samaria. How could this unknown cousin
of a minor palace functionary – what was his name, anyway? – become the
Queen of Persia, consort to the great Ahasuerus?
Not long after that, two of the
king's eunuchs hatched a plot to kill him.
And by merest coincidence, Esther’s cousin Mordecai heard about
the plot and sent word to the Queen, and she told Ahasuerus, and the
plot was foiled. And it was properly
recorded in the annals of the king, and promptly forgotten. After all, plots to kill Ahasuerus were a
dime-a-dozen.
Meanwhile, an Amelekite named Haman
became the king's chief of staff. And he
decreed that all of the king's other servants would bow before him,
which wasn't any skin off of anybody's nose except Mordecai. So he didn't bow before Haman, and this
really ticked Haman off, and he hatched a plot against Mordecai's relatives –
all the Jews in Persia. He told the king
“There's a certain people scattered around the kingdom, and they live by other
laws and they make more money than anybody else. They can't be tolerated, because they'll
destabilize the international monetary system and undermine the work ethic of
the people. They already own all the
banks and all the department stores, and they don't follow the laws of the
king.” And then the clincher – “I'll pay
ten-thousand talents into the royal treasury to help, ah, recoup the costs of
the pogrom.” The king agreed to it, and
the machinery of state was set in motion – decrees were decreed, and letters
written and mailed to all the minor functionaries and regional
governments. On a certain day, in a
certain month, all the Jews, would be slaughtered, annihilated, wiped off the
face of the Persian empire. After all
this was decreed, after the kingly plans were set in motion, Haman and the king
went out for a beer.
Now, all that running around and
decreeing is hard to keep quiet, and in due time Mordecai heard about it. You'll remember that – just coincidentally – his
niece was Queen of all Persia. Of course
that meant she was also a Jew, although nobody in the palace knew it. So Mordecai, who couldn't get in to see his
cousin because nobody knew she was his cousin – are you following this?
– put on sackcloth and ashes, and marched around outside the palace wailing and
gnashing his teeth to get Esther's attention, which he finally did. Esther sent a eunuch to find out what's going
on, and Mordecai told him, and she sent the eunuch back with a message: “What
can I do? If there's one iron-clad rule around here, it's this – no one,
and I mean no one is to go into the presence of the king without being
called. It's death for anyone who breaks
this rule, and I haven't been called for a month now.” Mordecai sent a message back, saying, “You
don't think your being in the palace will save
you, do you? When he finds out you’re a Jew . . .” Finally she agreed – she'd go to see the
king, and if she's killed she's killed – so be it.
And that's what she did – she went
into the great hall where Ahasuerus was sitting on his throne, and stood there,
waiting. And when the king saw her, somehow
he was smitten all over again and she won his favor. In spite of all the rules, he held out his
scepter and said “What is your request? It shall be given to you, even to half
my kingdom.” And Esther knew she had him
– his kingly pride would never let him back down off this promise.
But she decided to mess with him a
little. She said “If it pleases the
King, bring Haman to a little banquet I've prepared today.” So the king said “Quick – find Haman and get
him over here so we may do what Esther desires.” And they brought Haman, and they sat down,
and they began to drink wine, and the King said “what is your petition?” And
Esther said – “This is my petition and request – if I have won the king's
favor, let the king and Haman come tomorrow to another feast, and then I will
do as the king has said.” And so they
did.
Now, Haman, for one, was happy – even
though he passed that blasted Mordecai in the gate as he went home, he bragged
to his wife and friends about his status, and all his riches and splendor. “Even Queen Esther let no one but me come
with the king to the banquet. Yet all
this does me no good so long as I see the Jew Mordecai sitting in the king's
gate.” Then his wife, and all his
friends said “Let a gallows fifty cubits high be made, and in the
morning tell the king to have Mordecai hung on it. Then go on to the banquet in good
spirits.” Well, this perked Haman right
up, as the thought of a good hanging always did, so he had the gallows
built and went to bed.
Meanwhile, in the palace, the king
couldn't sleep. So he had his servants
bring him the annals of the king, in the hopes that would help. So he propped himself up in bed and began to
read, and along about morning, he came
to the part where Mordecai had foiled the plot to assassinate him. And he said “What honor or distinction has
been bestowed upon Mordecai for this?” His servants said “Nothing, my Lord.” And this offended his kingly sense of honor,
so he said “Who is in the court?” And by coincidence, Haman had just
come in to see about Mordecai's hanging.
“Send him to me,” said the king.
Well, Haman came in, and right off
the bat the king said “What is to be done for the man the king wishes to
honor?” And Haman thought “Whom would the king wish to honor more than me?” So
he said to the king, “Let royal robes be brought, which the king has worn, and
a horse that the king has ridden, with a royal crown on its head. Let the robes and the horse be given to one
of your most noble officials; let him robe the man whom the king wishes to
honor, and let him conduct the man on horseback through the streets of the
city, proclaiming before him: 'Thus shall it be done for the man whom the king
wishes to honor.'” And the king said “Quick, take the robes and the horse, and
do so to the Jew Mordecai who sits at the king's gate. Leave out nothing that you have mentioned.”
And so Haman went and robed Mordecai
in the kings robes, put him on the king's horse and led him around the city saying
“Thus shall it be done for the man whom the king wishes to honor.” And Haman was mortified – he just knew
he'd be the laughingstock of all of Persia, and be killed in the gossip
columns, not to mention on the six o'clock news. And all his advisors and lawyers and even his
wife took this as an omen of his
untimely demise.
The next day he and the King went in
to feast with Esther the Queen, and everything went OK for Haman on the first
day, and so he began to think “Ha! this isn't so bad . . . perhaps I’ll get out of it after all.” But on the second day, while they were
drinking wine, the king again asked Esther – “What is your petition? Even to
half my kingdom, I will grant it.” And
Esther answered “If it pleases the king, let my life be given me, and the lives
of my people. That is my request. For we have been sold to be destroyed, to be
killed, and to be annihilated.”
Ahasuerus flared with anger and said to the Queen “Who is he, and where
is he, who has presumed to do this?” And Esther pointed right at Haman, who was
at that moment edging toward the door, and said “A foe and enemy, this wicked
Haman!” And the king went into the garden to cool off, he was so angry, and
Haman knew that the jig was up, so he threw himself onto the Queen's
mercy. Unfortunately, he also threw
himself onto the Queen's lap. and
when the king came back in he took one look and said “Will he even assault the
queen in my presence, in my own house?” And his words completed Haman's
humiliation, and covered him with shame.
Then a eunuch said helpfully “Look,
the gallows Haman built for Mordecai stands at Haman's house, fifty cubits
high.” And the king said “Hang him on
that.” And so they did – they hanged
Haman on the gallows he'd built for Mordecai, and you know what? That perked
the king right up, like a good hanging always did.
That day the fortunes of Esther and
Mordecai and all the Persian Jews changed for the good. Ahasuerus gave Esther the house of Haman, the
enemy of the Jews. And to Mordecai he gave
his signet ring, and thus great power in all the land, and Esther put Mordecai
in charge of the house of Haman. And the
plot of Haman was foiled, and all the enemies of the Jews were defeated in the
land of Persia, and a great feast – the feast of Purim – was declared to
celebrate their deliverance from the hands of their enemies.
You may have noticed that not once
did I mention God in this story . . . and there's a reason for that – nowhere
in the book of Esther is God mentioned, even indirectly. Not once.
And yet the story, as it was passed down through the years, first in
oral then in written form, became beloved of the Jewish people. So much so that when their Bible was
finalized in about 100 AD, it was included in their holiest of books and thus,
in our Old Testament. And the question
is – why? What can a story in which God is absent tell us about our God?
It tells the story of the Jewish
people in exile, helpless before the might of the Persian empire and how a dire
plot against them was foiled by the action of one courageous woman. It is skillfully told, downright funny in
places, and its plot is driven by a series of outrageous coincidences – by coincidence,
a Jew named Mordecai worked for the king.
By coincidence, he had a beautiful cousin named Esther, who just
by coincidence became Queen of all Persia. Just by coincidence, Mordecai foiled a
plot against the king, and just by coincidence, Haman was the first in
the Palace when Ahasuerus was reading about it.
And sitting around the supper table,
or around the campfire, or in the synagogue where the story was told, Jewish
audiences had no trouble figuring out who it was behind all the coincidences,
behind all the “acts of chance” in the story.
It was the same “who” who led them out of bondage again and again.
And when God seems to be nowhere
present in our own lives, when we can't see God or feel God anywhere at
all, remember the story of Esther and the king of Persia, and maybe laugh a
little. Maybe laugh a little, and then
remember our own little “coincidences”, the little instances where God's
hand poked into our lives, and tweaked them for the good. Amen.
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