Festival of Purim: It's the little things

Psalm 27
Philippians 3:17-4:1
Luke 13:31-35

According to the Jewish calendar, today is the festival of Purim which began at sundown yesterday and will end, I believe, at sundown today. Unlike so many other festivals, Purim is more of an occasion to celebrate. Christie Storm of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette writes that “this isn’t a solemn, ashes-on-the-forehead holy day – it’s more like a Jewish Mardi Gras that celebrates God’s deliverance.”

The festival of Purim comes from the book of Esther even though there is no divine mandate to observe any such festival. Mordecai established and ordained the festival: “Mordecai instructed them to observe these as days of feasting and gladness, and sending delicacies to one another, and gifts to the poor.” Esther 9:22

The compulsion to celebrate Purim comes from grateful hearts cognizant of the Lord’s deliverance. The Jews are about to be obliterated by King Ahasuerus at the word of royal adviser Haman because Mordecai refused to bow down to him; he would worship only the Lord God and no other. Without getting into the whole story – which is a very good one, by the way – Esther saves the day, the Jews are spared, and Haman himself is put to death by the king.

What is significant about the festival is that the Lord Himself is not mentioned in the book of Esther. In fact, it is said to be the only book in the entire Bible in which the Lord God is not mentioned. So why, then, is Purim so significant especially in celebrating the Lord’s deliverance? There is no widespread call to the people to offer a sacrifice to the Lord as a prayer for deliverance, though Esther advises all the Jews to fast in her behalf while she and her maids will do likewise. She is about the enter into the presence of the king without being summoned, the penalty for which is death. Yet the people are spared seemingly because of Esther’s unwavering courage. Esther can certainly be upheld as a positive role model in the story, but there is a much more profound acknowledgement in the festival.

The Jewish tradition celebrates Purim in the subtle day-to-day presence of the Lord God in our lives without our awareness or even our acknowledgement. All too often we can move along in our lives being completely unaware of the Lord’s presence because we do not take the time to acknowledge His majesty in the simplest of things, things we often take for granted. Maybe it is that Purim is yet another spiritual discipline designed not only to give glory where glory is due but to also teach us to be more mindful and intentional about where the Lord fits into our lives such as in the miracle of drawing a breath without effort or thought.

Lent is typically referred to as a time of sorrow, a time to be more serious about acknowledging the sin that so permeates our lives, the sin which separates us from the Lord, and I believe this all to be part and parcel of the spiritual discipline necessary to fully appreciate the Sacrifice made in our behalf. Yet even in the midst of such sorrow we must also be mindful that even as we may feel a separation from the Lord, He is still there whether we acknowledge Him or not.

Consider the reading from Luke 13:34: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing!”

How is such a lamentation possible? I don’t think Jesus could have been talking about His own life and ministry because there does not seem to be a shortage of people coming to Him begging for mercy, asking to be healed. With the exception of the chief priests, the Pharisees, and the scribes, there are hundreds of people coming to Jesus; they like what they are hearing and seeing! The Divine Presence is glaring and obvious. So how can it be that Jesus is talking about the “here and now” when He laments about how so many were unwilling when He tried to gather them to Himself?

He must surely be speaking of the prophets of the past who were sent to the people of Israel, a stubborn people who were consistently turning away from the Lord and falling in love with the world, thus rejecting the Law and the Lord even as they may have not been aware of active and deliberate rejection. It is the same trap many of us fall into so easily. Even when Jesus was confronted in the wilderness with the evil one, the temptation of the bread after a 40-day fast was so subtle and not even inherently sinful in itself. After all, food is a gift given to us to nourish and strengthen our physical bodies.

The act of eating the bread itself may not have posed a spiritual problem. The source of the bread, however, and the context of time in which it was offered was indeed a spiritual problem. This time for Jesus had been designated as a time of preparation, a time devoted solely to the Lord God Himself. It was the sacrifice Jesus was willing to make and devote to the Holy Father. To have accepted the bread would have been to profane the sanctity of the moment and the sacrifice.

Even as we are in the season of Lent, a time when we acknowledge the impending Passion of the Christ and our part in it, we must also be aware that whether we fast and pray or not, the Lord is still present in our lives, more often than not in the most subtle ways, so subtle that perhaps it is that if we do not take time to have quiet in our busy lives, we may never notice.

It is in the simplest and yet the most profound of gifts we enjoy; the gift of life. Science can explain it, but we cannot fully comprehend the miracle of birth, the miracle of breath, the miracle of waking up each day as a gift. It is a gift that is all too often taken for granted and sometimes even a gift that is cursed by we who fail to acknowledge the Divine miracle it truly is. How subtle the majesty of the Lord God of Life.