The Jewish Novella of Esther

Read Esther 1 & 2 This sermon was intended to be a part of a series on Esther. I cover the first two chapters. Because of the devastating floods in Kerr County, I did not preach this text.

Oddballs and Misfits Series

We have done this series for years. During that time, we’ve tried to highlight stories from the Bible that are rarely preached in our three-year lectionary cycle. We’re spending a month with Esther.

This book appears once in three years,  and it’s only a short section cut from chapters 7 and 9 (and the preacher has another OT option to choose from that day). So, you could be in an Episcopal Church your whole life and never hear a sermon on Esther. You're going to hear four.

Jews and Christians have struggled with Esther. The biggest gripe is that God is never mentioned. Kind of a big deal for both Jews and Christians. However, from a Jewish perspective, it’s peculiar that Esther and her cousin Mordecai seem fully assimilated into Persian society; they don’t observe kosher dietary laws, and they have Persian names (Mordecai’s name is a variation of the Babylonian god Marduk, which is not ideal). No one ever prays. And women are blatantly objectified…yikes. Eastern Orthodox Christians and even Martin Luther wanted to strike it completely from the canon. It’s no wonder Esther is rarely preached…we don’t know what to do with it.

But our approach at Riverway is: "We choose to study Esther this month, not because it is easy, but because it is hard."

Orient Yourself

When I studied in Jerusalem and we’d go on field trips, we always carried a map with us. When we got off the bus, the professor would tell us to grab our maps and orient ourselves with the landscape before us; we need to do the same with the Book of Esther.

It is located in the Bible between Nehemiah and Job, the end of the historical section, and right before the wisdom section.

It is set in the Persian Empire. This is after the exile in Babylon, following King Cyrus of Persia's permission for those in exile to return to Jerusalem. This story happens specifically in the city of Susa, one of the Persian capitals. The king would rotate going to cities depending on the season of the year, and he would typically be in Susa during the spring.

This book was intended for Jews living in the diaspora (those who were away from the Promised Land), and there were Jewish communities throughout Mesopotamia and Egypt. It was offering a vision of how to survive (and even thrive) under a Gentile ruler. This was intended to bring some inspiration to those away from home, wondering what God might be up to.

One helpful way to think about this story is that it is a Jewish Novella. There are so many twists and turns in this story. Just the portion we read this morning is filled with drama, intrigue, and betrayal. There’s an overarching plot and subplots. Love (or at least lust) and death. There’s plenty of tension that builds throughout, which is helped by numerous forms of symmetry that appear, and even the reversal of fortune for a few of the characters. One thing is for certain in the Book of Esther: the status quo is bound to change.

Due to its emotional complexity within a few pages, it doesn’t read like most other parts of the Bible. It can honestly feel like a telenovela.

Banquets, in particular, will play an important role in the story—there are 10 banquets in all, and they are all paired to create fascinating symmetry. One banquet will foreshadow another. We left out in our reading this morning that Queen Vashti refused the king’s request, in part, because she was hosting her own banquet.

Men and women are also paired throughout the story, and most of the scenes are in pairs. It’s fascinating how this story is crafted. There’s a lot more going on in this story than meets the eye.  

Today, I want to consider how we should approach this story, as we honestly don’t know what to make of it. We don’t know how to read it, and this will significantly affect whether we think it is relevant to us or not.

A Ridiculous King

If this book is a Jewish novella of sorts, then, like in many plays and novellas, we must recognize that it’s being written to encourage those in exile and help them navigate the world they find themselves in; a world that doesn’t always make sense.

If Yahweh is the one true God, and he’s made specific promises to his people, then why are his people flung hither and yon? Somehow, someway, even while far from the walls of the Holy City, Jews had risen through the ranks. It first happened with Joseph rising in Pharaoh’s court all those years ago, and then to Daniel in Nebuchadnezzar’s royal court.

In the Book of Esther, we get close to power. King Xerxes, the ruler of the great Persian Empire, plays a strange role. He is powerful, that’s not in question, but he rarely acts rationally. He’s not a very thoughtful, wise king. Actually, the more you look at his decision-making and how rash it is, he becomes a comical caricature, more than anything else.

I think that is key to reading this story, especially the first two chapters. The author is telling the story plainly, with no commentary, but the author introduces the over-the-top, ridiculous circumstances as a way of saying, “Do you see this? This is silly, right?”

With a keen ear, we can hear a playfulness in how the author describes the situation that Esther and Mordecai find themselves in. 

Take the king’s banquet, for example. Kings host banquets, which is not surprising, but we are told that this particular banquet lasted for 180 days. Clearly, he’s not that good of a king if he’s spending 6 months partying.

King Xerxes gets drunk and demands that his wife make a grand entrance to be eye candy for his friends. She was told to wear a crown; we’re not really sure if she was supposed to wear anything else. A similar situation occurs in the New Testament, involving Herod Antipas and Herodias’ daughter, which ended with John the Baptist’s head on a platter. Watch out for banquets in the Bible. 

He becomes so offended when she says no, and this little marital spat turns into a national security issue. The whole kingdom may come crumbling down because of her, and an edict needs to be sent to remind wives to listen to their husbands.

We bristle at this, and that’s actually the author’s intention. This king is a small man, easily swayed. What wise king sends out an edict like that? IF you were asking some of those questions during the reading, you’re on the right path.

King Xerxes reminds me of some of the hapless villains in many '90s movies. I thought about the bad guys in 101 Dalmatians and Home Alone. They’re not really evil; they’re just selfish and easily swayed. Evil will enter the story later in the book of Esther, but as for King Xerxes, he’s just a bad ruler.

This may be a stretch, but this book is kind of like one of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operas. My grandfather introduced me to the wonders of Gilbert and Sullivan when I was in middle school. It completely changed my perspective on operas, which doesn’t sound like a good time for most middle schoolers (I was in that camp). But a Gilbert and Sullivan is not your typical opera.  

What makes their shows so great is that they are silly, a bit ridiculous, and they would poke fun at British society and the elite whenever they could. Queen Victoria, known for her lack of humor, considered their work rather frivolous. She just didn’t get it. She was too serious, too a part of the system to be able to look outside of it and see the ridiculous.

King Xerxes reminds me of Sir Joseph Porter in the Gilbert and Sullivan opera HMS Pinafore. Sir Joseph was so inept at his job that he didn’t know the first thing about ships, and yet he became the commanding officer of the British Navy. He was able to rise through the ranks because the British government was so inept at its job that he continually received promotions.

They sent him off to Parliament, and he sang of that experience:

“I always voted at my party's call, And I never thought of thinking for myself at all. I thought so little, they rewarded me By making me the Ruler of the Queen's Navy!”

He was not promoted because of his leadership or extraordinary character; he was an airhead party man who didn’t know the first thing about running the British Navy, but his advice was:

“If your soul isn't fettered to an office stool, Be careful to be guided by this golden rule — Stick close to your desks and never go to sea, And you all may be rulers of the Queen's Navy!”

Sir Joseph has the uniform and title of a great leader, but he lacks what it takes. King Xerxes is kind of the same. In the story of Esther, we are presented with the ridiculous and over-the-top nature of the Persian royal court. Xerxes has the title and the power, but not the backbone or brains to use his leadership competently. One scholar described him as a “dim-witted monarch.”[i]

For Jews living in the diaspora under foreign rule, the message was pretty straightforward: No matter how irrational and fearsome earthly rulers might be, there is a greater king who works behind the scenes. Don’t fear rulers like Xerxes; they are able to hurt the body, but they cannot destroy the soul.

There is so much in these first two chapters that makes us scratch our heads, especially as modern readers. But if we see the writer pointing things out in a serious, matter-of-fact tone, that doesn’t mean that he’s not smirking and going, “Do you see this, this is crazy, right?”

Reading it wrong would be like getting dressed up and thinking you are going into a very serious opera, but what’s actually happening on stage is satire. Most people who open the book of Esther are reading a comic opera and never realize it.  

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This lens can be helpful in thinking about the beauty contest to fill Queen Vashti’s seat. The women have to spend a year essentially getting a spa treatment. Again, this is a little much, a little overboard, and that’s the point. This empire has its values in the wrong place. It doesn’t make logical sense to us, and it wouldn’t have for the original audience either.

Everything we’ve read today lays the groundwork for what we will see transpire over the next few weeks. As for today, I think there are a few takeaways.

First, God can work through anything, even when he’s not mentioned. In any part of our life that seems illogical, even ridiculous at times, God can work through it all. It may not be apparent at the time, but for every Xerxes in our life and dysfunctional system we find ourselves in, we can be like Esther and Mordecai, who find a way to navigate through it.

That leads to my second point: a significant question addressed in these two chapters concerns the nature of power and influence. Who has the power? Who is able to influence that power?

Xerxes is easily manipulated and without a clear vision for himself, his household, or his empire. Everyone is affected. Yet, as we’ll see, others like Esther and Mordecai are able to affect the kingdom as well. What does it mean to be a person of influence without being an influencer? Without being the one making all the decisions?

Jesus said to his disciples, “I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16, NRSVUE). Being a powerless person with significant influence may be characterized as a shrewd sheep.

Lastly, it may be helpful for us to be reminded in life that the status quo does not last for long. If you pause at any moment in this book, different people will be feeling extremely high, while others will be feeling extremely low.

This story is built around the reversal of expectations. There’s always a twist on the next page. This can leave us anxious, worrying about what will or won’t happen in our lives—but again, this book addresses people living in a foreign land, wondering how to navigate their somewhat unpleasant reality.

Surprisingly, there is an undercurrent of hope throughout this book. Things may not be good right now, but life is never static. Thank goodness, the book of Esther is not just these two chapters, and Esther is not the only book in the Bible. The overarching narrative of the Bible informs how we see our passage today.

God is over all things, and though we may not see it in the present moment, he is a good king who rules all things with pure justice and an abundance of loving kindness. The people reading Esther knew that, I think Esther knew that, and that should give us hope too.

[i] New Interpreter's Bible v. III. Esther by Sidnie White Crawford. Cover Photo by Sarah Penney on Unsplash