Purim Party! and Palm Sunday

Interactive Sermon

Interact with the story - feel free to laugh, cry, shout, dance and celebrate with the characters in the story.

The story will be read from the Message Bible with just a few edits.

It will be read in Six Acts.

When you hear certain characters, you can cheer or boo as is appropriate.

Haman is the bad guy. Boo for Haman, Jewish traditions says his name should not be heard. The noise makers are to drown out his name.

Mordecai is the good guy. Clap or cheer whenever you hear his name.

Esther is the heroine. When you hear her mentions exclaim Aah! That’s what everybody thinks, even if they don’t say it. because she is beautiful in every way.

King Xerxes is another main character who is mentioned the most. Whenever you hear the king mentioned give a little “duh-du-du-duh! trumpet fanfare. You will feel like you are in the royal palace.

Queen Vashti is supporting actress who needs encouragement. Give her a “you go girl!” when you hear her mentioned.

There are a few other servants or Eunuchs who are mentioned by name. I you feel like giving them a shout out like “bro!” or “dude!” I’m sure they will appreciate it.

Try to quiet down again quickly so we can get through this and everybody can hear the next line.

But if you get a little carried away, that would be normal for a Purim celebration.

After all, it is a time to let loose and celebrate freedom.

There is one more character who is never mentioned at all in the story, but who is really the most important character of all.

God or YHWH is never actually mentioned in the book of Esther, but His Presence is behind everything.

If you look and listen carefully, you will see Him, sometimes working or speaking through the other characters.

If you see God at work in the story, silently put up a hand and give Him praise!

Esther 1–10:3 (The Message)

The Beauty Contest

This is the story of something that happened in the time of King Xerxes. In the third year of his reign he gave a banquet for all his officials and ministers.

For six months he put on exhibit the huge wealth of his empire and its stunningly beautiful royal splendors. At the conclusion of the exhibit, the king threw a weeklong party for everyone living in Susa, the capital—important and unimportant alike.

The party was in the garden courtyard of the king’s summer house. The courtyard was elaborately decorated with white and blue cotton curtains tied with linen and purple cords to silver rings on marble columns.

Silver and gold couches were arranged on a mosaic pavement of jewels, marble, mother-of-pearl, and colored stones. Drinks were served in gold chalices, each chalice one-of-a-kind. The royal wine flowed freely— cheers to a generous king!

Meanwhile, Queen Vashti was throwing a separate party for women inside the royal palace. On the seventh day of the party, the king, high on the wine, ordered the seven eunuchs who were his personal servants to bring him Queen Vashti resplendent in her royal crown. He wanted to show off her beauty to the guests and officials. She was extremely good-looking. But Queen Vashti refused to comes.

King Xerxes lost his temper. Seething with anger over her insolence, the king called in his counselors, all experts in legal matters. It was the king’s practice to consult his expert advisors. He asked them what legal recourse they had against Queen Vashti for not obeying his summons.

Memucan spoke up in the council of the king and princes: “It’s not only the king, she has insulted, it’s all of us. The word’s going to get out: ‘Did you hear the latest about Queen Vashti? King Xerxes ordered her to be brought before him and she wouldn’t do it!’

When the women hear it, they’ll start treating their husbands with contempt. The day the wives of the Persian and Mede officials get wind of the queen’s insolence, they’ll be out of control. Is that what we want, a country of angry women who don’t know their place?

“So, if the king agrees, let him pronounce a royal ruling and have it recorded in the laws of the Persians and Medes so that it cannot be revoked, that Vashti is permanently banned from King Xerxes’ presence.

And then let the king give her royal position to a woman who knows her place. When the king’s ruling becomes public knowledge throughout the kingdom, extensive as it is, every woman, regardless of her social position, will show proper respect to her husband.”

The king and the princes liked this. The king did what Memucan proposed. He sent bulletins to every part of the kingdom, to each province in its own script, to each people in their own language: “Every man is master of his own house; whatever he says, goes.”

Later, when King Xerxes’ anger had cooled and he was having second thoughts about what Vashti had done and what he had ordered against her, the king’s young attendants stepped in and got the ball rolling: “Let’s begin a search for beautiful young virgins for the king. Let the king appoint officials in every province of his kingdom to bring every beautiful young virgin to the palace.

Hegai, the king’s eunuch who oversees the women; he will put them through their beauty treatments. Then let the girl who best pleases the king be made queen in place of Vashti.” The king liked this advice and took it.

Now there was a Jew who lived in the palace complex in Susa. His name was Mordecai. His ancestors had been taken from Jerusalem with the exiles and carried off into exile. Mordecai had reared his cousin Hadassah, otherwise known as Esther, since she had no father or mother. The girl had a good figure and a beautiful face. After her parents died, Mordecai had adopted her.

When the king’s order had been publicly posted, many young girls were brought to the palace complex of Susa and given over to Hegai who was overseer of the women. Esther was among them.

Hegai liked Esther and took a special interest in her. Right off he started her beauty treatments, ordered special food, assigned her seven personal maids from the palace, and put her and her maids in the best rooms in the harem. Esther didn’t say anything about her family and racial background because Mordecai had told her not to.

Every day Mordecai strolled beside the court of the harem to find out how Esther was and get news of what she was doing.

Each girl’s turn came to go in to King Xerxes after she had completed the twelve months of prescribed beauty treatments. When it was Esther’s turn to go to the king, she asked for nothing other than what Hegai, the eunuch in charge of the harem, had recommended. Esther, just as she was, won the admiration of everyone who saw her. She was taken to King Xerxes in the royal palace.

The king fell in love with Esther far more than with any of his other women—he was totally smitten by her. He placed a royal crown on her head and made her queen in place of Vashti. Then the king gave a great banquet for all his nobles and officials—“Esther’s Banquet.” He proclaimed a holiday for all the provinces and handed out gifts with royal generosity.

A Game of Chance

On one of the occasions when the virgins were being gathered together, Mordecai was sitting at the King’s Gate. All this time, Esther had kept her family background and race a secret as Mordecai had ordered; Esther still did what Mordecai told her, just as when she was being raised by him.

On this day, with Mordecai sitting at the King’s Gate, two of the eunuchs who guarded the entrance, had it in for the king and were making plans to kill King Xerxes.

But Mordecai learned of the plot and told Queen Esther, who then told King Xerxes, giving credit to Mordecai. When the thing was investigated and confirmed as true, the two men were hanged on a gallows. This was all written down in a logbook kept for the king’s use.

Some time later, King Xerxes promoted Haman the Agagite, making him the highest-ranking official in the government. All the king’s servants at the King’s Gate used to honor him by bowing down and kneeling before Haman—that’s what the king had commanded.

Except Mordecai. Mordecai wouldn’t do it, wouldn’t bow down and kneel. The king’s servants at the King’s Gate asked Mordecai about it: “Why do you cross the king’s command?” Day after day they spoke to him about this but he wouldn’t listen, so they went to Haman to see whether something shouldn’t be done about it.

Mordecai had told them that he was a Jew. When Haman saw for himself that Mordecai didn’t bow down and kneel before him, he was outraged. Meanwhile, having learned that Mordecai was a Jew, Haman hated to waste his fury on just one Jew; he looked for a way to eliminate not just Mordecai but all Jews throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes.

In the first month, of the twelfth year of Xerxes, the pur—that is, the lot—was cast under Haman’s charge to determine the propitious day and month. The lot turned up the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar.

Haman then spoke with King Xerxes: “There is an odd set of people scattered through the provinces of your kingdom who don’t fit in. Their customs and ways are different from those of everybody else. Worse, they disregard the king’s laws. They’re an affront; the king shouldn’t put up with them.

If it please the king, let orders be given that they be destroyed. I’ll pay for it myself. I’ll deposit 375 tons of silver in the royal bank to finance the operation.” The king slipped his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman the Agagite, archenemy of the Jews. “Go ahead,” the king said to Haman. “It’s your money—do whatever you want with those people.”

The king’s secretaries were brought in. The orders were written out word for word as Haman had addressed them. They were written in the script of each province and the language of each people in the name of King Xerxes and sealed with the royal signet ring. The orders were to massacre, kill, and eliminate all the Jews—on a single day, and to plunder their goods.

The king and Haman sat back and had a drink while the city of Susa reeled from the news.

The Stakes are Raised

When Mordecai learned what had been done, he ripped his clothes to shreds and put on sackcloth and ashes. As the king’s order was posted in every province, there was loud lament among the Jews—fasting, weeping, wailing. And most of them stretched out on sackcloth and ashes.

Esther’s maids and eunuchs came and told her. The queen was stunned. She sent fresh clothes to Mordecai so he could take off his sackcloth but he wouldn’t accept them.

Esther called to get the full story of what was happening. Mordecai told her everything that had happened to him. He also told him the exact amount of money that Haman had promised to deposit in the royal bank to finance the massacre of the Jews. Mordecai also gave a copy of the bulletin that had been posted ordering the massacre so they could show it to Esther along with instructions to go to the king and intercede and plead with him for her people.

Esther sent this message back to Mordecai: “Everyone who works for the king here, knows that there is a single fate for every man or woman who approaches the king without being invited: death. The one exception is if the king extends his gold scepter; then he or she may live. And it’s been thirty days now since I’ve been invited to come to the king.”

Mordecai sent her this message: “Don’t think that just because you live in the king’s house you’re the one Jew who will get out of this alive. If you persist in staying silent at a time like this, help and deliverance will arrive for the Jews from someplace else; but you and your family will be wiped out. Who knows? Maybe you were made queen for just such a time as this.”

Esther sent back her answer to Mordecai: “Go and get all the Jews together. Fast for me. Don’t eat or drink for three days, either day or night. I and my maids will fast with you. If you will do this, I’ll go to the king, even though it’s forbidden. If I die, I die.” Mordecai left and carried out Esther’s instructions.

Three days later Esther dressed in her royal robes and took up a position in the inner court of the palace in front of the king’s throne room. The king was on his throne facing the entrance. When he noticed Queen Esther standing in the court, he was pleased to see her; the king extended the gold scepter in his hand. Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter.

The king asked, “And what’s your desire, Queen Esther? What do you want? Ask and it’s yours—even if it’s half my kingdom!”

“If it please the king,” said Esther, “let the king come with Haman to a dinner I’ve prepared for him.”

“Get Haman at once,” said the king, “so we can go to dinner with Esther.” So the king and Haman joined Esther at the dinner she had arranged. As they were drinking the wine, the king said, “Now, what is it you want? Half of my kingdom isn’t too much to ask! Just ask.”

Esther answered, “Here’s what I want. If the king favors me and is pleased to do what I desire and ask, let the king and Haman come again tomorrow to the dinner that I will fix for them. Then I’ll give a straight answer to the king’s question.”

Haman left the palace that day happy, beaming. And then he saw Mordecai sitting at the King’s Gate ignoring him, oblivious to him. Haman was furious with Mordecai. But he held it in and went on home.

A Turn of Events

Heman got his friends together with his wife and started bragging about how much money he had, all the times the king had honored him, and his promotion to the highest position in the government. “On top of all that,” Haman continued, “Queen Esther invited me to a private dinner she gave for the king, just the three of us. And she’s invited me to another one tomorrow. But I can’t enjoy any of it when I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the King’s Gate.”

His wife and all his friends said, “Build a gallows seventy-five feet high. First thing in the morning speak with the king; get him to order Mordecai hanged on it. Then happily go with the king to dinner.” Haman liked that. He had the gallows built.

That night the king couldn’t sleep. He ordered the day-by-day journal of events to be brought and read to him. They came across the story there about the time that Mordecai had exposed the plot of the two royal eunuchs who guarded the entrance and who had conspired to assassinate King Xerxes.

The king asked, “What great honor was given to Mordecai for this?” “Nothing,” replied the king’s servants who were in attendance. “Nothing has been done for him.”

Now Haman had just come into the outer court to talk to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows he had built for him. When Haman entered, the king said, “What would be appropriate for the man the king especially wants to honor?”

Haman thought to himself, “He must be talking about honoring me—who else?” So he answered the king, “For the man the king delights to honor, do this: Bring a royal robe that the king has worn and a horse the king has ridden, one with a royal crown on its head.

Then give the robe and the horse to one of the king’s most noble princes. Have the prince lead him on horseback through the city square, proclaiming before him, ‘This is what is done for the man whom the king especially wants to honor!’ ”

“Go and do it,” the king said to Haman. “Don’t waste another minute. Take the robe and horse and do what you have proposed to Mordecai the Jew. Don’t leave out a single detail of your plan.”

So Haman took the robe and horse; and led Mordecai through the city square, proclaiming before him, “This is what is done for the man whom the king especially wants to honor!”

Then Mordecai returned to the Gate, but Haman fled to his house, thoroughly mortified, hiding his face. When Haman had finished telling his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him, they said, “If this Mordecai is in fact a Jew, your bad luck has only begun. You don’t stand a chance against him—you’re as good as ruined.” While they were still talking, the king’s eunuchs arrived and hurried Haman off to the dinner that Esther had prepared.

A Change of Fortune

At this second dinner, the king again asked, “Queen Esther, what would you like? Half of my kingdom! Just ask and it’s yours.”

Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor in your eyes, give me my life, and give my people their lives. “We’ve been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed—sold to be massacred, eliminated.

King Xerxes exploded, “Who? Where is he? This is monstrous!”

“An enemy. An adversary. This evil Haman,” said Esther.

Haman was terror-stricken.

The king, raging, left his wine and stalked out into the palace garden.

Haman stood there pleading with Queen Esther for his life—he could see that he was doomed.

As the king came back from the palace garden into the banquet hall, Haman was groveling at the couch on which Esther reclined. The king roared out, “Will he even molest the queen while I’m just around the corner?” When that word left the king’s mouth, all the blood drained from Haman’s face.

Harbona, one of the eunuchs , spoke up: “Look over there! There’s the gallows that Haman had built for Mordecai, who saved the king’s life. It’s right next to Haman’s house—seventy-five feet high!”

The king said, “Hang him on it!”

So Haman was hanged on the very gallows that he had built for Mordecai. And the king’s hot anger cooled.

That same day King Xerxes gave Queen Esther the estate of Haman, archenemy of the Jews. And Mordecai came before the king because Esther had explained their relationship.

The king took off his signet ring, which he had taken back from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. Esther appointed Mordecai over Haman’s estate.

Then Esther again spoke to the king, falling at his feet, begging with tears to counter the evil of Haman the Agagite and revoke the plan that he had plotted against the Jews. ”How can I stand to see this catastrophe wipe out my people? How can I bear to stand by and watch the massacre of my own relatives?”

King Xerxes said to Queen Esther and Mordecai the Jew: Go ahead now and write whatever you decide on behalf of the Jews; then seal it with the signet ring.”

Mordecai wrote under the name of King Xerxes and sealed the order with the royal signet ring; he sent out the bulletins by couriers on horseback, riding the fastest royal steeds bred from the royal stud.

The king’s order authorized the Jews in every city to arm and defend themselves to the death, killing anyone who threatened them or their women and children, and confiscating for themselves anything owned by their enemies. The day set for this in all King Xerxes’ provinces was the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar.

Mordecai walked out of the king’s presence wearing a royal robe of violet and white, a huge gold crown, and a purple cape of fine linen.

The city of Susa exploded with joy. For Jews it was all sunshine and laughter: they celebrated, they were honored. It was that way all over the country, in every province, every city when the king’s bulletin was posted: the Jews took to the streets in celebration, cheering, and feasting. Not only that, but many non-Jews became Jews—now it was dangerous not to be a Jew!

The Allotted Day

On the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, the king’s order came into effect. This was the very day that the enemies of the Jews had planned to overpower them, but the tables were now turned: the Jews overpowered those who hated them!

Mordecai by now was a power in the palace. As Mordecai became more and more powerful, his reputation had grown in all the provinces. So the Jews finished off all their enemies with the sword, But they took no plunder.

The king told Queen Esther, “In the palace complex alone here in Susa the Jews have killed five hundred men, plus Haman’s ten sons. Think of the killing that must have been done in the rest of the provinces! What else do you want? Name it and it’s yours. Your wish is my command.”

“If it please the king,” Queen Esther responded, “give the Jews of Susa permission to extend the terms of the order another day. And have the bodies of Haman’s ten sons hanged in public display on the gallows.”

The king commanded it: The order was extended; the bodies of Haman’s ten sons were publicly hanged. The Jews in Susa went at it again. On the fourteenth day of Adar they killed another three hundred men in Susa. But again they took no plunder.

Meanwhile in the rest of the king’s provinces, the Jews had organized and defended themselves, freeing themselves from oppression. The next day, the fourteenth, they took it easy and celebrated with much food and laughter. But in Susa, since the Jews had banded together on both the thirteenth and fourteenth days, they made the fifteenth their holiday for laughing and feasting.

Mordecai wrote all this down and sent copies to all the Jews in all King Xerxes’ provinces, regardless of distance, calling for an annual celebration on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of Adar as the occasion when Jews got relief from their enemies, the month in which their sorrow turned to joy, mourning somersaulted into a holiday for parties and fun and laughter, the sending and receiving of presents and of giving gifts to the poor.

And they did it. What started then became a tradition, continuing the practice of what Mordecai had written to them. Haman had schemed to destroy all Jews. He had cast the pur (the lot) to throw them into a panic and destroy them. But when Queen Esther intervened with the king, he gave written orders that the evil scheme that Haman had worked out should boomerang back on his own head. He and his sons were hanged on the gallows.

That’s why these days are called “Purim,” from the word pur or “lot.” Therefore, because of everything written in this letter and because of all that they had been through, the Jews agreed to continue. It became a tradition for them, their children, and all future converts to remember these two days every year on the specified dates set down in the letter.

These days are to be remembered and kept by every single generation. These days of Purim must never be neglected among the Jews; the memory of them must never die out among their descendants.

Esther made sure that the tradition of Purim and was written in the book.

King Xerxes did what kings do - imposed taxes from one end of his empire to the other. All of his other extensive accomplishments, along with a detailed account of the brilliance of Mordecai, whom the king had promoted, that’s all written in The Chronicles of the Kings of Media and Persia.

Mordecai the Jew ranked second in command to King Xerxes. He was popular among the Jews and greatly respected by them. He worked hard for the good of his people; he cared for the peace and prosperity of all people.