Who Knows? - Reflections on Esther, Proper 21 Year B

by John Holbert on Monday, September 23, 2024

Proper 21. September 29, 2024.  Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22.  “Who Knows?”

          There are several biblical short stories that require the knowledge of the entire tale for it to make full sense. Jonah, Ruth, and Esther surely fall into that category. One plainly cannot choose merely a portion of these narratives and expect anyone to understand fully what they are finally about. When it comes to the book of Esther, this is especially true. Nearly everyone with any acquaintance with the Hebrew Bible at all will have heard those ringing lines from 4:14:

For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s family will die. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this?

This famous claim is spoken by Mordecai, Esther’s uncle, urging his niece to save her people from threatened destruction by the unpredictable and alcoholic Ahasuerus, monarch of the huge empire of Persia.  But to feel the full weight of what she is asked to do, it is crucial to know what brought her and her uncle to this place in the tale.

          The narrative begins with absurd literary overstatement. Ahasuerus is said to rule an empire that extends from India in the east to Cush (Ethiopia) in the west, comprising “over one hundred twenty-seven provinces.” Though it may be historically not far from accurate for a certain time in the Persian hegemony over the Near East, there is certainly no way to know at any time how many “provinces” made up the empire, assuming we know what a province may be. The huge number is the fertile imagination of a writer who is out to magnify the startling success of the diaspora Jews, trapped in foreign captivity. Ahasuerus sat on his mighty throne in Susa, the capital, from which in the third year of his reign, he decided to throw a party. This was not simply a brief evening soiree, but a debauched banquet, attended by “all his officials and ministers,” along with the army and the governors of all the provinces, at which the king “displayed the great wealth of the kingdom and the splendor and pomp of his majesty” (Esther 1:2-4). The party went on for 180 days!

          And even after that six-month romp, the king, still anxious to have more fun, decides to give another seven-day affair for the people in Susa in the court of the garden of the king’s palace. “Drinking was by flagons, with no restraint, for the king had given orders to all the officials of his palace to do as each one wanted” (Esther 1:8). In other words, Ahasueras ordered that everyone can do whatever they desired. Does one need orders for such wanton behaviors? Apparently one does in Susa! While all the men were drinking by the bowlsful, Queen Vashti threw a party for all the women of the palace.

          In a drunken stupor, the king demands that Vashti be brought to the male party, “wearing the royal crown (and nothing else?) in order to show the people and the officials her beauty” (Esther 1:11) She flat refuses, and the king is furious, so furious that he asks what should be done to the recalcitrant woman. Persian laws are consulted, and it is determined that if Vashti is allowed to get away with defying her lord, the problem will spread everywhere in Persia, and women will be defying their husbands in every place. That will not do! So, the king is advised to hold a beauty contest to choose another more pliant queen.

          Women come from all the provinces, and after a long beauty struggle, lasting more than a year, Esther wins and becomes queen. Meanwhile, Uncle Mordecai discovers a plot to assassinate the king, and tells Esther of it, who in turn tells her husband the king. The two men who plotted are dutifully hanged for treason, but the king, no doubt as usual in his cups, forgets what Mordecai has done to save him.

          Then the king promotes to chief official a man named Haman, who demands that all who meet him in public bow down to him in full obeisance. Mordecai refuses, and Haman is enraged. It is now discovered that Mordecai is a Jew, and the furious Haman determines to wipe all Jews from Persia and convinces the clueless Ahasuerus to make a decree that Jewish destruction should occur. The text is suitably overstated concerning the edict: “Letters were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces, giving orders to destroy, to kill, to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, in one day, the 13th day of the 12th month, the month Adar, and to plunder their goods” (Esther 3:13). Now, that is obliteration!

          Mordecai urges Esther, in those words I noted earlier, to intercede with the king to stop the proposed slaughter. But Esther knows all too well the unpredictable nature of her husband and claims that unless she has been invited to enter the throne room, she cannot risk going. But Mordecai’s plea to her convinces her to do so. However, instead of a straight plea, she merely invites the king to a dinner in her apartments. Nothing the king likes better than a party! Haman is invited, too, and as result he crows to all within earshot that he is very special indeed as an invitee of the queen.

          While at the party, Haman determines to have Mordecai hanged on a 50-cubit (75 feet) gallows. But then, during a sleepless night, Ahasuerus is reminded of the great act of Mordecai to save him, and decides to honor the deed, announcing the next day, to Haman, that he should decide what great honor should be given to one the king has decided to honor. Haman, of course, thinks it is he who is to receive the honor, so again parades about, showing his supposed prowess. But he soon discovers that it is Mordecai who is to be honored and that Haman is to lead the festivities! He is horrified but must attend a second banquet offered by Esther. While there, Esther reveals to the king that it is Haman who has decided to slaughter her people, the Jews, and despite the waffling reply of the king, and after the king discovers Haman seemingly assaulting the queeen on her own couch, he condemns Haman who is hanged on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. The edict for Jewish slaughter is rescinded, but in its place the Jews are given the right to slaughter their enemies on the same day Haman had determined that the Jews would die. Thus ends the rather painful tale of Esther, Mordecai, Haman, and Ahasuerus.

          The narrative is the reason for the yearly Jewish festival of Purim, a word meaning “lots,” which were cast for the destruction of the Jews. The story has devolved in many Jewish festivities into a children’s play with much laughter and joy at Jewish survival and triumph. The story surely is one of Jewish cleverness, courage, and trickery in the face of their enemies, which have proved almost endless throughout the ages. Children may now be asked to play the various parts of the drama, but there is nothing childish about the basic content of the story. Hamans continue to strive to destroy the Jews, and Mordecais and Esthers continue to arise to thwart their evil efforts. It is a straightforward morality story, but none the less significant for that. All people can join in the tale of survival against great odds due to heroes and heroines coming to the rescue.