Message at Lenten Lunch hosted by St. Luke Lutheran Church
What follows is the message that I offered to the 65 or so people that were in attendance at St. Luke today:
Iran is very much in the news these days. Not everyone is aware that we read about Iran in the Old Testament. In those days Iran was known as Persia. It is an ancient civilization that has risen and fallen and risen again several times.
You read about Persia in the last chapter of 2 Chronicles, Isaiah 44-45, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. Persia has never claimed the Lord our God as their God. However, God used Persia anyways, because God can. God used Persia to defeat the Babylonian empire. After Persia laid claim to Babylon, King Cyrus declared that all slaves may return to their homes. This initiated the first wave of Jews to return to Judah. The temple began to be used again. Nehemiah returned to rebuild Jerusalem proper. Not all Jews returned to Israel. Many stayed where they were. Many others migrated to Persia proper for business opportunities.
The events described in the book of Esther happened in the 5th century before Christ in the capital city of Susa in Persia. I want to focus for a few minutes on the person we know as Esther because she is an example for all of us. She is a person of extraordinary courage that God uses to preserve His chosen people. She is the right person at the right time with all the necessary wisdom and diplomatic skills to thwart an influential person who intends to exterminate all Jewish people within Persia and beyond if possible. She could have stayed quiet. She could have had a comfortable life in the palace as the Queen. Instead, for the sake of her cousin Mordecai, and all her people, she stepped forward and spoke out.
We do live in challenging times. We do not know what the future will bring. We do not know where this military conflict with Iran will take us or what the long-term impact will be upon us politically or economically. We also live in a time when a lot of people do not know the God that is revealed to us in Jesus Christ. They see crosses, but do not have the understanding or faith to grasp its significance for them. In the midst of our challenging times, God needs His people to be people of prayer, faith, and courage. In many ways Esther’s courage is a source of inspiration for us.
We meet Esther when King Ahasuerus is in need of a queen. Esther was eventually selected from the population because of her beauty and grace. Her identity as a Jewish person never comes up. Through her cousin Mordecai, Esther learned that Haman, a man close to the King, has managed to get legislation certified by the king that all Jewish people in any area controlled by Persia, will be killed on a particular day. Mordecai begs Esther to intervene. The problem is that even though she is queen, in that ancient culture, she could never presume to appear before the King unless she is summoned by Him. In fact, by law, if she appears before Him and he does not want to see her, she will be killed.
When Esther expresses her grave concern about the precarious position she is in, Mordecai lays it out on the line:
“Do not think to yourself that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. 14 For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”(4:13-14)
What a decision that she is faced with! It is never easy to live as Mordecai says, “in such a time as this.” If she does nothing, horrors that she will never be able to live with, will follow her all the rest of her days. If she does what Mordecai wants her to do, she may die a painful death, and her people will be annihilated. Esther thinks fast, and you can see her almost exhale as she makes her decision, and says to Mordecai, 16 “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.” (Esther 4:16)
Esther is not only courageous, but she is also wise and has remarkable people skills. She goes before the King who receives her gladly. She then arranges for the King and Haman to be in the same room together when she reveals herself and Haman’s evil intentions to the king.
When the moment is right, Esther says, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be granted me for my wish, and my people for my request. 4 For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have been silent, for our affliction is not to be compared with the loss to the king.” 5 Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who has dared to do this?” 6 And Esther said, “A foe and enemy! This wicked Haman!” Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.”
Haman’s evil plans are thwarted and he is hung. The law cannot be changed, but the King decrees that the Jewish people are permitted to defend themselves against any potential violence. They do. They live. Israel is preserved. And a few centuries later, one night in a stable in Bethlehem, Mary gives birth to Jesus. In celebration, the heavens open and shepherds hear the angelic announcement that the Christ is born. Glory to God in the highest and peace to God’s people on earth.
One of the reasons we know Christ as our Savior is because a beautiful, graceful, intelligent, young woman became queen in a foreign land. She did not forget her people. She acted with courage. Mordecai was right. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this? God worked through her to accomplish his grander purposes.
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