Today we are concluding our summer sermon series on some of the classic Sunday school lessons with the story of Esther. The story of Esther is different than the other stories we have looked at. There is no fire or brimstone raining down from heaven in this story, no visions of the future, and no seas that are parted. The story of Esther is not a story about our powerful God working mighty miracles through extraordinary people. This is a story about our God quietly working behind the scenes through ordinary people like you and me.
The story takes place in the citadel of Susa (a town in the Khuzestan region of southwest Iran). From this citadel king Xerxes ruled the Persian empire. Now some of you guys know who Xerxes is. About 20 years ago they made a movie called 300. In the movie Gerard Butler played a perpetually shirtless king Leonidas who along with his personal guard of 300 Spartans held off the advances of the evil Persian god-king. Well, the evil Persian god-king in that movie is Xerxes. I made Michelle watch that movie with me last Wednesday, telling her it was part of my sermon study. I don’t know if I can recommend the movie, it is a bit racy and abundantly bloody. If you want to learn more about Xerxes without the blood and guts, you can read the historian Herodotus. Herodotus describes Xerxes not as an evil god-king but as a hot-head lunatic. Herodotus records an incident when a pontoon bridge that Xerxes built for his army to cross over into Europe was destroyed by a storm. Xerxes had the bridge builders executed and ordered that the sea be whipped and chained for the offense of destroying his bridge. The portrayal of Xerxes in the story of Esther matches the description of secular accounts. In the story of Esther, Xerxes is described as a vein, womanizing, drunk.
Somehow this degenerate lunatic managed to rule over the largest empire in the world. Which is why he matters to us. In 539 BC the Persian empire defeated the Babylonian empire. Now normally the rise and fall of ancient empires is not something we would concern ourselves with, but 50 years earlier the Babylonians had sacked Jerusalem and carried God’s people off into what we call the Babylonian captivity. When the Persians defeated the Babylonians, they acquired the Jewish captives. One of those captives was a young girl by the name of Esther.
Esther, as you might have guessed from the title of the book, is the hero of our story. Which is interesting because Esther does not set out to be a hero. As our story begins, Esther is doing her best to survive in a culture and among a people who are hostile to her faith. Truth be told her real name was not Esther, it was Hadassah. She possibly took the name Esther because it honored the goddess Ishtar (Aphrodite) and allowed her to blend in with the Persian pagans. Blending in with the Persian pagans was something Esther’s uncle Mordecai told her to do. Mordecai forbade Esther from revealing her nationality or family background to anyone.[1] As a result, Esther would have possibly lived her life in obscurity if she were not so beautiful.
Before Xerxes (the evil god-king who whipped a sea) sets sail for the shores of Greece to fight the 300 Spartans he threw a lavish party to celebrate the splendor and glory of his majesty[2] (As I said this guy is a piece of work). At this party and in a drunken stupor Xerxes decided he wanted a new wife. Being the romantic that he was, Xerxes forced all the beautiful young virgins throughout the providences of Persia to be brought to him so that they could be paraded before him in some sort of perverted pageant. Esther was one of those beautiful young virgins. Unfortunately for her, Xerxes “was attracted to Esther more than to any of the other women, and she won his favor and approval more than any of the other virgins. So, he set a royal crown on her head and made her queen.”[3]
It is not difficult for us to imagine what life in the citadel of Susa was like for queen Esther. No doubt compromises had to be made, excuses were offered, and justifications were invented. Compromises, excuses, and justifications are simply a way of life for the believer who seeks to live in secret among the heathen. Esther knew that way of life well, so well that she not only survived but seemingly thrived in the citadel of Susa.
Esther was able to make the best of a bad situation and probably would have lived, not necessarily happily ever after but at least tolerably ever after. That is if it were not for the Persian prime minister Haman. Haman hated the Jews, hated them so much that he convinced Xerxes (by offering him a large sum of money) to issue a decree that would allow Haman to purge the Jewish people form the Persian empire. When Esther’s uncle Mordecai learned about the king’s edict “he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the city, wailing loudly and bitterly.”[4] Esther tried to comfort her uncle, but Mordecai refused to be comforted. Instead, he pleaded with Esther “to go into the king’s presence to beg for mercy and plead with him for her people.”[5]
This was a problem for Esther. Mordecai was asking her to risk everything. He was asking her to reveal herself as a Jew and believer in the one true God thus risking her position in the court and influence among her peers. He was asking her to risk not only her life of privilege but life itself. Esther told Mordecai, “11 All the king’s officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned the king has but one law: that he be put to death. Mordecai was asking Esther to reason with a man who had a sea whipped; he was asking her to plead for mercy from a man who was willing to allow an entire race of people to be eradicated. Esther told Mordecai he was asking too much. Mordecai told Esther, “14… who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
For such a time as this. Last week I was sitting in a gymnasium in Saginaw Michigan as a delegate at the 67th Biennial Synod Convention of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. There I heard about some of the opportunities to do gospel ministry at home and overseas and the hunger for clear confessional biblically grounded teaching and I heard about our worker training system that is the envy of other church bodies for its ability to consistently produce confessional biblically grounded pastors and teachers and, knowing I was about to preach a sermon on the book of Esther, I couldn’t help but wonder if the WELS exists for such a time as this. As I drove back to Georgia from Michigan my thoughts naturally settled on our gospel ministry here at Messiah. I know we have not yet decided whether or not it is feasible for us to start a preschool but, since that is the ministry we are currently considering, it is what kept coming to my mind, I thought about our empty classrooms, our strategic location, our success with science camp and I could not help but wonder if Messiah exists for such a time as this. When I returned home and dug deeper into this text, my focus narrowed to the individual. I could not help but think of the communities we live in, the companies we work for, the coworkers or classmates we sit by, and the conversations we find ourselves having and I cannot help but wonder If you and I exists for such a time as this.
I don’t know where we the members of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod should send our next missionary. I cannot guarantee starting a preschool here at Messiah is the right thing to do. I do not know which of your conversations are going to change a person’s life. All I know is our God does not intend for us to be spectators or space fillers in His story. With a word of His mouth our God created the heavens and the earth and with a word of His mouth He paid for the sins of all people of all time. Our God can do and has done mighty miracles to advance the gospel, but sometimes our God simply chooses to use you. Which is why I do not believe you are here to simply survive in a culture and among a people who are hostile to your faith. I do not believe you are meant to simply make the best of a bad situation. I believe you live in your community, are a member of this congregation, and have joined this church body for such a time as this.
Mordecai helped Esther see what she could do to advance the gospel. Esther first asked her uncle and her fellow believers to pray for her and then she used all the resources available to her, her beauty yes, but also her discretion and diplomacy. Knowing her husband’s fondness for food and drink she invited him to not one but two banquets. At the second banquet, with wine goblet in hand, Xerxes asked, “Queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be granted.”[6] With a show of shrewd restraint and tactful humility Esther answered, “If I have found favor with you, O king, and if it pleases your majesty, grant me my life—this is my petition. And spare my people—this is my request.”[7] Remarkably, some might say miraculously, Xerxes the evil god-king who whipped a sea and was willing to eradicate an entire race of people agrees to grant her request. As a result of Esther’s efforts, the Jewish people were saved, and the promise God made through them was preserved. No fire from heaven. No ominous prophecy. No defying the laws of nature. Just as a young girl who recognized God has placed her in the citadel of Susa for such a time as this.
I’ll entrust the rest of Esther’s story to your personal bible study. The story contains so many examples of God quietly working behind the scenes, especially in the interactions between Esther’s uncle Mordecai and the Persian prime minister Hamann that it really is worth the read. But I pray I have told you enough of this story to show you our God does not always advance His gospel through mighty miracles and extraordinary people. Sometimes He chooses to quietly work behind the scenes through ordinary people like you and me. I want you to keep that in mind. As you think about the work we do as a church body, as you think about the opportunities to spread the gospel message here at Messiah, as you think about the conversations you have with the people around you I want you to allow uncle Mordecai’s words to ring in your ears, “who knows but that you have come to your position for such a time as this?” When those times come I pray God grant you the courage of Esther. Amen.
[1] Esther 2:10
[2] Esther 1:4
[3] Esther 2:17
[4] Esther 4:1
[5] Esther 4:8
[6] Esther 7:2
[7] Esther 7:3