Links for today’s readings:

Read: Esther 6 Listen: (2:40)
Read: 1 John 3 Listen: (3:21)

Scripture Focus: Esther 6.6-13

6 When Haman entered, the king asked him, “What should be done for the man the king delights to honor?”

Now Haman thought to himself, “Who is there that the king would rather honor than me?” 7 So he answered the king, “For the man the king delights to honor, 8 have them bring a royal robe the king has worn and a horse the king has ridden, one with a royal crest placed on its head. 9 Then let the robe and horse be entrusted to one of the king’s most noble princes. Let them robe the man the king delights to honor, and lead him on the horse through the city streets, proclaiming before him, ‘This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor!’ ”

10 “Go at once,” the king commanded Haman. “Get the robe and the horse and do just as you have suggested for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king’s gate. Do not neglect anything you have recommended.”

11 So Haman got the robe and the horse. He robed Mordecai, and led him on horseback through the city streets, proclaiming before him, “This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor!”

12 Afterward Mordecai returned to the king’s gate. But Haman rushed home, with his head covered in grief, 13 and told Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him.

Luke 1.50-53

50 His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.

Reflection: Regular Reversals — Hope of Advent

By John Tillman

In one of many famous scenes from When Harry Met Sally, the pair, played by Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan, are shopping for friends. However, Harry keeps finding gifts that are more for him than their friends, including a karaoke machine that we see later in Harry’s apartment.

We’ve all experienced shopping for someone else and being drawn to look at presents for ourselves. This little selfish tendency we often experience is miniscule compared to the egotistic self-centeredness of Haman.

Xerxes asks Haman how to honor someone. Haman is so egotistical he assumes the honor will be for him. Haman then describes the extravagant gifts and honors that he desires. Then, in painful and humorous irony, he is forced to give the honors he desires to the person he hates, Mordecai.

Mordecai, a few pages before this, was mourning at the king’s gate in sackcloth and ashes and refusing Esther’s gifts of new clothes. It is reasonable to assume that Mordecai is still in his mourning clothes when he experiences a remarkable reversal. The ruler intending to crush him must lift him up. The one intending to hang him on a pole must hang a robe on him instead. The one breathing threats against him must sing his praise.

After Haman robes Mordecai in the king’s robe, places him on the king’s horse, and praises him in the king’s name throughout the city’s streets, Mordecai returns to the king’s gate and Haman goes home, “head covered in grief.”

The reversals of Haman the proud and Mordecai the mourning should not shock those familiar with our God. God lifting the humble and opposing the proud is not a one-off or outlier. Reversals are the regular pattern of God’s action in the world.

Mary, when encouraged by Elizabeth, bursts into prophetic song describing the magnificent reversals God has and will perform through Jesus. Those proud in their inmost thoughts are scattered. Rulers are brought low and the humble lifted up. The hungry are full and the rich empty.

Let us rely and set our hope on God’s reversals—especially those that come through the gospel of Jesus. Sinners will be saved. The blind will see. The deaf will hear. The dead will be made alive.

These gifts are better than any we could selfishly wish for ourselves and they are the best gifts we can imagine giving to our loved ones.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

For God alone my soul in silence waits; truly, my hope is in him. — Psalm 62.6

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

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