“THE FATE OF THOSE WHO HATE”

ESTHER 7:1-10

7:1  So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther.

2  On the second day, as they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, "What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled."

3  Then Queen Esther answered, "If I have won your favor, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me--that is my petition--and the lives of my people--that is 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 held my peace; but no enemy can compensate for this damage to the king."

5  Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, "Who is he, and where is he, who has presumed to do this?"

6  Esther said, "A foe and enemy, this wicked Haman!" Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.

7  The king rose from the feast in wrath and went into the palace garden, but Haman stayed to beg his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that the king had determined to destroy him.

8  When the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman had thrown himself on the couch where Esther was reclining; and the king said, "Will he even assault the queen in my presence, in my own house?" As the words left the mouth of the king, they covered Haman's face.

9  Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, "Look, the very gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, stands at Haman's house, fifty cubits high." And the king said, "Hang him on that."

10  So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the anger of the king abated.

Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me.

That’s what we used to say when we were kids right?

Of course, you and I both know that it’s not true.

It’s not true because those names do hurt.

They hurt because everyone wants to be liked. I know I do and I bet you do too. Of course, you might not want to be liked the way soccer player Steve Morrow was liked back in 1992. That was the year that Steve Morrow scored the goal that vaulted his Arsenal team to the English Cup championship. Shortly after he scored the goal his teammates started to celebrate by picking him up and tossing him in the air.  There was only one problem though. When he came back down they didn’t catch him and Morrow end up with a broken arm. He had to be carried off the field on a stretcher with an oxygen mask over his face.

Despite that odd turn of events, I think, it’s safe to say that everyone wants to be liked.  That’s why the nightly news these days is so discouraging!  Turn the television on and you’ll be reminded very quickly that a lot of people around the world don’t like us. In fact, a lot of people around the world actually hate us.  That’s especially true in the Muslim World. 

There isn’t a week that goes by where you don’t see a crowd in Pakistan or Iran or Indonesia chanting death to America or declaring another jihad against us because we’re just a bunch of ignorant infidels. Just last week a nun was brutally murdered in Somalia.  Or how about the man in Afghanistan who was sentenced to death earlier this year because he had the audacity to convert and become a Christian? Eventually the man, Abdul Rahman, was allowed to leave the country. That only happened though after a court decided that he couldn’t be held responsible for his actions because he was mentally insane. If that isn’t bad enough the United Nations has estimated that up to 200,000 Christians have been killed by Muslim militias in the Dafur region of the Sudan. 

So, what do you think about all of that violence, vindictiveness, vilification and verbal abuse? Does it make you angry?  Does it make you sad?  Here’s an even better question for you. How do we as disciples of Jesus Christ respond to all of this horrific hatred?  I bet there have been times when you thought it would be great if all those hate filled Muslims got a taste of their own medicine.

It’s called getting even and it gives you the same sense of satisfaction that a man felt when he came up with a really creative way to yank his ex-wife’s chain.  He did that by taking advantage of a special service offered by his bank out in California. It seems the Bank of Marin offered a special service that allowed customers to have a personal picture printed on their checks.  So, that’s what the man did.  He ordered special checks that he only used when making his monthly alimony payments to his ex-wife.  Do you know what he put on those checks? On the alimony checks he put a picture that showed him passionately kissing his beautiful new wife.

Sometimes that’s what you want to see happen when someone hates you.  You want to see that person get a taste of his or her own medicine.  Sometimes that’s what you want to see happen to all those Muslims who hate us so much.  Before you give in to that temptation though you might want to take another look at Esther and what happened that day at the banquet that she gave.

By the way, I’ll bet you didn’t know that the Book of Esther almost didn’t make it into the Bible.  The reason the Book of Esther almost didn’t make it into the Bible is because it’s the only book in the entire Bible that doesn’t mention God.  God’s name doesn’t appear anywhere in the story.  The Book of Esther wasn’t included in the Bible to honor God. It was included in the Bible to tell the story behind the Jewish festival of Purim. 

So, you won’t find God’s name in the Book of Esther, but you will find God’s wisdom. There’s some wisdom there that you need to remember whenever you come face to face with someone who hates you.  There’s some wisdom there that can help us when it comes to all those Muslims who hate us so much.

This is what we know about Esther.  Esther was an orphan who was raised in Persia by her uncle Mordacai.  It was with his help that Esther came to the attention of King Ahasuerus and eventually became his wife. That proved to be a blessing when the evil Haman conjured up a plot to exterminate all the Jews from one end of the kingdom to the other. When Esther found out about the plot she invited King Ahasuerus and Haman to a banquet and it was during that banquet that Esther turned the tables on Haman.  When King Ahasuerus asked Esther what he could do for her she filled him in on the plot against both her life and the lives of her people. Now it’s important to understand that up until this point neither King Ahasuerus nor Haman knew that Esther was Jewish.  So, you can imagine the surprise when Esther cried out, “If I have won your favor, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me--that is my petition--and the lives of my people--that is my request. 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 held my peace; but no enemy can compensate for this damage to the king.”  When King Ahasuerus heard that he flew into a rage and asked Esther who is behind the plot.  That’s when Esther pointed her finger at Haman who now realized that he’d been had.  Esther pointed her finger at him and said very forcefully, “A foe and enemy, this wicked Haman!”  In a short period of time Haman went from being the executioner to the one being executed.

That’s something to remember the next time you come face to face with someone who hates you and you feel a little hatred welling up in your heart.  Hatred may or may not destroy your enemy, but it will destroy you.  Just ask Haman. Hatred doesn’t solve problems.  It only makes them worse.  Hatred will also poison your heart and it will poison your mind. It will twist your thinking until you loose all sense of reason. You can see that in the assumption that Ahasuerus made when he saw Haman on Esther’s couch.  Haman was actually begging for his life, but Ahasuerus was so full of hate at that point that he was convinced that Haman was sexually assaulting her.

Hatred may or may not destroy your enemy, but it will only destroy you!  That’s true when you hate the bully at school or the nosey neighbor down the street or the pushy guy at work who doesn’t show you any respect at all.  It’s also true when it comes to Muslims who chant death to America and burn and bomb our churches in their countries.  There’s a saying.  When you hate you better dig two graves; one for your enemy and one for yourself.

That’s what we learn from Haman. There’s also something that we can learn from Esther.  Esther didn’t allow herself to be made into a victim.  She said what needed to be said.  She didn’t sugar coat the truth either.  When the king asked Esther who was plotting to destroy her people she pointed her finger at the guilty conspirator and said very forcefully, “A foe and enemy, this wicked Haman.” 

If you’re a disciple of Jesus Christ that doesn’t mean you have to let yourself be vilified and victimized.  It doesn’t mean you have to let yourself be terrorized and traumatized. It doesn’t mean you have to let yourself be unfairly criticized and crucified.

When that happens it’s important to speak up and speak out.  It’s important to do what Esther did that day.  Here’s the key though. You need to speak the truth not out of the hatred in your heart, but out of the hurt in your heart.

So that’s what I’d say to my Muslim sisters and brothers.  Do you realize how much it hurts to be called infidels?  Do you realize how much it hurts to see Muslims dancing in the streets when so many Christians and Jews were killed on September 11^th? Do you realize how much it hurts to read how thousands of Christian men, women and children in Dafur are starving to death because the Muslim militias won’t led the relief workers to bring them the food that they need? Then I would ask my Muslim sisters and brothers can you love me enough, can you love us enough to stand up to the sinister souls who are using your faith to bring about all this death and destruction?  Can you love Allah enough to say no to the sinister souls who are twisting the teachings of your faith to justify all the bombs and the bullets?

I would also challenge all of us as disciples of Jesus Christ to be honest with ourselves; to look at our own prejudices and misperceptions when it comes to Muslims. After all, if we really want to be like Esther we also have to be honest with ourselves.  Otherwise we’ll find ourselves in the same situation a father found himself in one day with his four year old son. The father was explaining to his son that if you want to be a Christian you have to be like Jesus. You have to be humble and forgiving and ask for forgiveness when you sin against someone else. “That,” the father said, “is what it means to be a Christian.” The little boy thought about it for a moment then asked, “Daddy, have I ever met a Christian?”

We need to be honest with ourselves and we need to be honest with our Muslim sisters and brothers. We need to share with them not the hate in our hearts but the hurt in our hearts and listen for the heart in their hearts.  If enough of us can do that then maybe, just maybe, the day will come when we won’t have to dig any more graves.  Amen.

Rev. Dr. Richard A. Hughes

October 1, 2006