The beauty of the Cross is Christ’s and the ugliness is ours. The eternal Son of God had a beauty that outshone Esther’s like the sun outshines a candle. Yet, it is on the Cross that Christ exchanges that beauty for our sinful ugliness. What is more, in taking our ugliness upon himself, Christ becomes even more attractive.

Luther didn’t seem to be a big fan of the book of Esther. He’s not alone. Many commentators point out that the book never once mentions God. And, though many modern retellings tend to package Esther as a sanitised 20th/21st Century romance, the Biblical book itself it dark, violent, and the plot pivots on sexual exploitation.

It was a word from Luther, however, that directed me in my attempt to retell this epic in The Girl and The Guardian. In his commentary on the Psalms, Luther wrote, ‘Whoever makes himself beautiful, is made ugly. On the contrary, he who makes himself ugly is made beautiful.’

Luther never wrote a singular work on the subject of beauty. But his view on the subject is revealed by various comments he made in his works. For Luther, the Cross of Christ was the interpretative lens through which a Christian should understand beauty.

This was a big shift in emphasis for the church.

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