Esther 3:4 (ESV)

And when they spoke to him day after day and he would not listen to them, they told Haman, in order to see whether Mordecai’s words would stand, for he had told them that he was a Jew.

Mordecai had been repeatedly warned by the king’s servants that he should bow down to Haman. He responded that he was a Jew. Just as Daniel’s friends refused to bow to Nebuchadnezzar’s statue, so Mordecai refused to bow to a man. For Mordecai, to bow is to worship. It would be wrong for him to show to Haman what is due only to God. For Haman his reaction to Mordecai was about money and ego, but that is a discussion for another time. For Mordecai, it was about his faith.

Jesus said that the world would hate us because it hates him. Some of us, as believers, have been looked at as though we are a bit weird. That usually because we are a bit weird. There is nothing particularly commendable about that. Some of us, in our changing society, have experienced a bit of opposition because we have made a big deal about things that probably shouldn’t be a big deal. For example, on the one hand it says a lot about our society when prayer is taken out of the school and the Ten Commandments are no longer posted on the court house lawn. That is a big deal, but is is really such a big deal? Will restoring placards and prayer really change anything? The truth is that those things are symptoms of a much larger issue. When we fight over the Ten Commandments on the court house lawn we may be missing the point. It is like trying to give an energy pill to someone because they are tired, when the real problem is that they have pneumonia. Treating symptoms sometimes needs to be done, but if the root cause is never addressed then nothing changes even if we win a few battles.

All of that to say that we sometimes like to think that we are suffering for our faith, but I’m not sure we’ve even come close to that yet. When the government says that all prayer is wrong what will we do? See Daniel. When the government says that only the government can be worshiped, or that the government needs to be worshiped in the same way that we worship God, what will we do? See Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. For that matter, see the early church when they were required to bow before statues of Caesar and pay homage as they traveled. What then? I fear that we are all too quick to fight battles over symptoms, but when the real persecution comes we will fold like a poorly built kite in a strong wind.

Where are the Daniels and Mordecais that aren’t out to make a name for themselves? They aren’t reacting emotionally. They aren’t fighting windmills. They are just quietly and faithfully remaining true to their faith. Where are those people in the church? They are the ones that truly get the Enemy roiled up. They are the ones who truly know what it is that they believe. They are the ones that will eventually experience real persecution like Jesus prophesied. I believe that we have far too many reactive Hamans in the church. What we need are more Daniels and Mordecais who are willing to quietly stand and do the right thing no matter the consequences. Where are they in the church today?