Once Esther musters the courage to ask on behalf of her people for an act of advocacy and liberation from the king, the tide turns immediately. The king is happy to be in his wife’s corner and happy to turn on Haman, having him executed for his violent insanity (Esther 7). In the wake of Haman’s removal from the story, the king elevates Esther and Mordecai to Haman’s former position of authority. Once again, we can hear the faint voice of Jesus and his beatitudes coming through in Esther’s story: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5) And we immediately see the night and day contrast of what power looks like in the hands of Haman versus what it looks like in the hands of Esther and Mordecai. In the hands of Haman, power coerces and abuses and kills. In the hands of Esther and Mordecai, power shows deference. It advocates for and liberates those who suffer.
If we’re honest, when Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth,” it sounds like nonsense, like wishful thinking. The logic of our world dictates that the earth belongs to those who will subdue it and take it, the strong and capable, the natural born leaders, the charismatic and persuasive. Jesus’ announcement that the earth actually belongs to the meek, those who never grab at power, who never subdue and persuade with their charisma – it seems like it can’t be possible. But the story of Esther clearly believes it’s possible. The story of Esther is saying to us, “Okay, you’ve seen what the world looks like in the hands of traditionally authoritarian people like Haman. Now watch Esther and Mordecai do it. Watch what happens when the meek inherit the earth.”
All of scripture proclaims: God is king of the world. All the evidence appears to prove the opposite, that God is completely powerless in our world, but it’s not true. Our world is not beyond his reach, not beyond his gentle and loving influence. Believe it or not, God’s will is being done in the world and will continue to be done in the world. The world is always slipping through Haman’s fingers. The Esther’s and Mordecai’s are blessing this world with their love and gentleness more than we realize. Mustard seeds like them are being planted and nurtured by God everywhere we look (if we’ll actually look for them).
Haman imagines a world that exists in total submission to him. And you and I are never going to escape Haman’s imagination unless we make habits of coming to Jesus, sitting at his feet, and hearing him say again and again, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” We will escape Haman’s imagination when we allow ourselves to be caught up in Jesus’ imagination, because Jesus imagines a world that operates by the opposite logic, logic that says the kingdom of God belongs to the poor and to the poor in spirit, logic that says the kingdom of God is not a palace and a military, but a mustard seed, logic that says the meek are inheriting the earth. Are we willing to listen to the logic of Jesus, and trust it, and live by it?
Our world belongs to God and those who are possessed by his love and meekness. We will always be given reasons to not believe this, but it’s true. May we be captured by the imagination of Jesus, and his beatitudes, and see a world that belongs to him and to all his Esther’s and Mordecai’s.
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