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Wednesday 18 December

Esther

By Devin McLaughlan

Esther 4.12-16

“Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.”

The Book of Esther tells the story of a Jewish woman born in Persia who foils a genocidal plot against her people by the royal advisor Haman. Esther’s story is the core of the celebratory Jewish festival Purim, a gripping drama of the perils and responsibilities of privilege and power, celebrated with a festive liturgical pantomime.

But in this passage, Queen Esther faces a stark choice: She can protect her own life, at the risk of the lives of all her people — many of them strangers to her. Or she can put her life in peril, where the likelihood of her own death is almost certain and the chance of success in saving her people a slim, marginal hope.

Sacrifice and salvation make Esther’s story a foreshadowing of the Easter story, pleading on behalf of her people at the risk of her life. But she is also a type for the Christmas story — a story of power and vulnerability, of privilege and sacrifice. Esther tells the story of a woman born to poverty, who rises to become a Queen and then risks it all to save her people.  Christmas tells the story of a King when then came to us in poverty, and gave his life that all might live. Esther came to royal dignity to save her people.  And Jesus emptied himself of royal dignity to save all people. 

It’s also hard to read the Book of Esther and not be struck by how heavily J.R.R. Tolkien draws on the themes of Esther’s story. One could be excused for describing Mordecai as Esther’s Gandalf! It’s the following quote, however, that particularly comes to mind:

“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

There is a freedom in the inevitability of Advent — in preparing to remember Christ’s coming, and in remembering to prepare for the second Advent which is to come. We cannot run from judgement, nor hide from the hard choices that are set before us. Rather than wasting time with regret or what-if’s, Mordecai’s words can give us great clarity in those moments of crisis:  Who knows? Perhaps you are here for just such a time as this.

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Esther 4.12-16

When they told Mordecai what Esther had said, Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, ‘Do not think that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.’

Then Esther said in reply to Mordecai, ‘Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will also fast as you do. After that I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.’