The Deputy

If we're looking at the lessons we can learn from the characters in Esther's story, we absolutely must talk about Haman. We're not sure what exact position he held, but we know he was very high up in the king's hierarchy, a man with great responsibility and honor under Xerxes. 

We could talk for days about Haman's flaws, about his heart, about his personality, about all of the things we can learn from him - from the arrogance it takes to demand that everyone bow down to you (even though you aren't the actual king) to the irony of accidentally erecting the pole on which your own dying body will be put on display. The lessons are many. 

The one I want to pick up on, though, is one that tends to slide by us a little more easily than others. Probably because it doesn't seem central to the grand arc of the story. And yet, God chose to include it anyway. 

As Haman is on his way to talk to the king about what they can do about that wicked Mordecai, that annoying little Jew who refuses to bow down to the kingdom as commanded, the king is looking over some records of his administration and discovers that Mordecai at one point saved his life by reporting to him the secret scheme of two of his guards, who were plotting to kill him. 

Haman then comes into the king's presence, and the king says, "Oh, good. You're here. Let me ask you something.... What should I do for an amazing man who has given me great honor?" 

And Haman thinks, of course, that the king must be talking about him. 

Haman believes that he is the best thing since sliced bread. (Did they have sliced bread in the Babylonian empire?) Haman believes if there's anybody who has ever done any good in the world, it's him. Haman believes that he is the man who is most loved, most favored, most honorable in all of Xerxes' kingdom. The fact that he's in a position of relative power and prestige only seems to confirm this for him. Haman believes he is the man. 

As a result, in his own mind, there's no one better than him. No one more deserving. No one else who has ever done a good thing, at least, not a thing good enough to ever deserve honor for it. Honor is for him and him alone. 

It's this bias that we all have toward ourselves. 

We wouldn't do the things we do if we didn't think they were the right things to do. We wouldn't criticize others if we didn't think they were wrong about something. We wouldn't be able to live with ourselves if we knowingly went against our own conscience. So our entire life is lived in a confirmation bias of our own goodness - we know our heart, we know our motivation, we know our understanding (or the things we think we understand), and we believe ourselves to be acting in good, righteous, and honorable ways. 

So of course we are good persons. Of course we deserve honor. Of course we deserve praise. We do everything with the purest of intentions. And everyone else? Well, it's hard to tell sometimes. 

When the world says, then, that someone should be honored, it doesn't take much for us to think that of course, they're talking about us. Who else would be worthy? 

But what if...what if there are actually other good persons in the world? What if there are others who are doing more than us? Who are doing better than us? Who are having more of an impact than us? Or not even "more" - what if there are others who are having the same kind of impact that we are, doing the same things we are, living just as good of lives as we are? 

Have we stopped to consider the possibility that there are other good persons among us? 

After all, no one compares themselves to the bread slice, but to the sliced bread - which is, necessarily, made up of more than one piece of the whole.