Esther is a story of genocide averted. Haman had "cast lots" (Purim, in Hebrew) against the Jewish people in Persia, but because of Esther’s courageous leadership, his efforts were ended and even reversed. ("If it had not been for the Lord on our side" from Psalm 124 is the perfect Psalm response for this reading!)
In Esther, genocide was averted. Today however, genocide still continues. Sometimes it is targeted against people of a particular type (women, children, religious groups, sexual minorities, or persons of different family or tribal heritage). Sometimes, it is against a whole people by the government to stop or reverse calls for the leaders to leave office, as some say today about Syria. And sometimes, it is simply about asserting power over land and resources, as we are seeing at the border of Sudan and South Sudan, and, heartbreakingly, once again in the North and South Kivu regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo along the border with Rwanda.
The Jewish festival of Purim celebrates not vengeance against Haman (which would only perpetuate rather than end the cycle of oppression and violence), but rather God’s undoing of oppression and vengeance. And God’s undoing of these things happened because someone spoke up, exposed the genocidal plans, and called for the powers that be to end them. If your congregation has not yet been engaged actively and intentionally in efforts to end genocide and government persecution of people groups, this text provides perhaps the best opportunity in the three-year cycle for a biblical warrant to begin.
Overall, we might say today that Esther was incredibly astute politically in how she handled her request and responses. It was no accident Jesus himself called on his disciples to be "wise as serpents," (Matthew 10:16) noting that, in general, the "children of this age are more savvy than the children of light" (Luke 16:8), but that it needn’t remain so!
And in the end, the result was not simply vengeance against Haman. It was, rather, deliverance for a people, an increase of honor for the king because he had demonstrated his commitment to justice and protection of the vulnerable, and a new celebration in which the people were instructed primarily to "send gifts of food to one another and presents to the poor" (Esther 9:22). The celebration itself thus continued the acts of goodwill and mercy begun with the king’s decree in response to Esther’s request.
In this tumultuous time we live in, give thanks that the ‘Lord is on our side’.