SUNDAY, JULY 18, 2010
July 18—Guest Blogger Stated Clerk Rebecca Blair
Esther 8-10/ Luke 13
If you ever find yourself in a Jewish synagogue when the book of Esther is read during the Festival of Purim (from the Hebrew plural form of "lots" or "lottery" to mark Haman's acts of casting lots with the sacred dice, the pur, for the extermination of the Jews), you might be surprised at the reaction. Those in the congregation respond much like the audience for a melodrama—hissing at Haman, the villain, and applauding the courageous heroine, Esther. This is certainly not the staid response that we may commonly be used to when scripture is read.
As we have seen in the blogs over the first seven chapters leading up to today, the plot of this drama, which is really a morality play, takes us to a number of banquets, during which Queen Vashti is deposed because she will not leave her own banquet, and Esther's becoming queen is celebrated at her own coronation banquet. Indeed, Esther's strategy to influence the king involves inviting him to banquets to soften him up a bit. Now we all know that gathering and feasting together eases conflict and helps us to relate to each other more closely as human beings (who can really resist a good church dinner?), and food is a frequent motif in narratives of women, who are always in less powerful positions, confronting powerful men. Yet, we get early hints in the narrative that much more rests upon these banquets than we might suppose, for the king is not aware of Haman's planned persecution of the Jews who have chosen to stay in Persia following Cyrus of Persia's conquering Babylon (538 B.C.E.). By Chapter 4, Mordecai implores Esther to use her new status to save her people. "Who knows?" Mordecai muses, "Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this." And Esther, whose name means "star" in Persian, takes center stage to do just that over the next few chapters.
To put her strategy into action after the three-day fast, Esther must break the rules. She must defy the ban on women in the harem approaching the king without a kingly summons to invite him and the villain Haman to the first banquet. Miraculously, the king agrees, even asking her to state her request during the banquet and assuring her that her request will be granted. Strategically, she requests another banquet since she knows the king will be more likely to grant her true petition, and Haman will be puffed up even more in his self-importance, as he certainly is, by his second exclusive dinner invitation. In fact, he is so full of himself that he misses the fact that the king is asking him how Mordecai should be honored for foiling the assassination plot rather than asking what honor should be showered upon Haman himself. And so the tables begin to turn in this morality play.
Chapter 7 relates Esther's petition to the king upon behalf of the Jewish people and Haman's execution after his devious plans are revealed. Now we might think the story is finished at this point, but one more important plot twist remains to unfold in chapters 8-10.
On the day the pur had selected for the slaughter of the Jews, the Jews kill five hundred Persians, since the king has issued the decree that the Jews may defend themselves, and Queen Esther makes two further successful petitions that all of Haman's ten sons be executed and another day of Jewish defense be authorized (during which 75,000 more Persians are killed). Chapters 9 and 10 explain how the Feast of Purim in inaugurated out of this narrative, emphasizing that it is out of the written word, Mordecai's letters to all the Jewish people living in the provinces, that the festival is legitimized since it is not included in the Torah, and directing that this is a festival of "feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and presents to the poor."
So what are we to make of this seemingly historical narrative that does not mention God even once? First, it is not a reliable guide to Persian history, which is modified so that the morality play may proceed in more absolute terms of good and evil, and, secondly, it should not be read as Biblical advice to completely slaughter one's enemies. Instead, the Jewish community is advised to feast and share food and presents with the poor. Yet this IS a narrative about providence. God's plan of deliverance for the Jews, the chosen people of God, in Persia proclaims that God does plan a great and sustaining future for God's people—so much so that God does not need to be explicitly named.
We see this message about God's care for God's people further expanded by the three parables, the healing of the woman whose body is bent, and the concluding exhortation of the necessity of discipline for salvation in Luke, Chapter 13. However, in Luke, the perspective shifts. While the narrative in Esther presumes a Jewish audience, Luke is writing for Gentile believers—for you and me essentially—about Jesus speaking to a Jewish audience. The conventional Jewish view assumes that one's suffering in life is indicative of one's sin, just as one's prosperity is proportional to one's piety. In contrast, Jesus issues a more universal call for repentance and fruitfulness of action. And the theology also shifts as Jesus responds to the synagogue leader. Both men speak of loving God with one's whole heart and soul and strength and that this love needs to show itself in action. But while the synagogue leader affirms that one shows this love by keeping the commandments, Jesus shifts the focus to our relationships with people and the whole of God's creation. In other words, Jesus seems to be telling us in Luke 13 that commandments, rules, and laws are essential means, not ends. They become the foundational instruments through which we relate to God's creation—means of generosity and giving, restoration and healing, encouragement and renewal. Indeed, as Jesus concludes, suffering is not exclusively a sign of God's judgment nor prosperity a sign of God's favor since "some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last."
· What DOES God require of us? What does it mean to be faithful?
· Is there some kind of relationship between suffering and sinfulness?
· How might we understand Esther's action through the lens Jesus provides in Luke 13? Does faithfulness involve, perhaps even require, rule-breaking?
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