“For such a time as this,” he said. It rolled off his tongue with a tone of spiritual authority that met the urgency of the moment. 

I’ve heard Esther 4:14 used in similar fashion my whole life — from the pulpit, the pew, even the porch. The older African American man who said it was responding both to the deepening authoritarianism in our nation and the hope that I would rise up as a leader like Esther, Joseph, Moses or, in our world, the next Dr. King. 

This is the Esther 4:14 principle at work: We look for the chosen leader “for such a time as this” who can guide us through the storm and through the night. 

We hold our breath for the charismatic one who’ll march us across the Red Sea of injustice and into freedom and flourishing. Meanwhile, government money that aids people in poverty is cut off, Black and Indigenous communities disproportionately suffer, DEI programs are dismantled, American history is domesticated or concealed, ICE agents terrorize and deport our neighbors, people in Sudan and Palestine face a humanitarian crisis. 

While we wait, oppression and violence keep rolling on. 

Waiting for an Esther 4:14 leader has caused many people to abdicate their own calling, agency and discipleship to Jesus.

We’ve twisted the Esther principle to fit the mythic chosen-leader paradigm — one that echoes more of nostalgia than of the present activity of our resurrected Messiah. 

When we think God’s ­going to raise up one person to fix our mess, we become passive to the pains and cries of suffering around us. We watch everything from a distance. 

Yes, Esther was chosen. Yes, she had proximity to power. Yes, she risked her life to save her people. 

But let’s not forget the whole story. Esther was shaped by a people. 

Mordecai, her cousin, saw the danger and counseled her. Jewish people across the empire entered into fasting and prayer. 

There were collective risk, grief and action. Esther was not alone. She never carried the burden by herself. Survival and liberation depended on the commitment and agency of a wider community.

The work of God has never been confined to a single, heroic figure. This was true of Joseph, Moses, Daniel and Paul. Yet we idolize, or place our hope in, one supposedly chosen leader while neglecting our entire community’s calling and agency. 

I’m not saying we don’t need people to step up in leadership. I do believe that gifts, knowledge and skill play an important role in peacemaking and social transformation. 

But leadership that diminishes our collective potential is problematic. Who taught us that justice and peace depend on the agency of one rather than the faithfulness of many?

This is where the wisdom of Ella Baker is helpful. She was a leader who had a huge impact on the Civil Rights Movement despite the patriarchy that restricted her ability to fully use her gifts because she was a Black woman. We can learn from the way she questioned and challenged the charismatic leadership model that defined much of 20th-century faith-based activism. 

Baker said it plain: “Strong people don’t need strong leaders.” She believed in the capacity of ordinary folks to do extraordinary things. In her vision of leadership, the movement wasn’t led by one person, but by many. 

What if that’s the kind of “for such
a time as this” moment we are in? Maybe we don’t need a new MLK (though even Dr. King was more a product of the movement than a producer of it). Maybe it is time for the community of God to bring our collective gifts to bear as we participate in God’s healing of the world. 

The Apostle Paul taught the Corinthians that we are many parts, but one body. The Spirit fills the whole community with power.

“For such a time as this” doesn’t belong to charismatic leaders. It belongs to the newly baptized, the teacher, the mechanic, the teenager, the grandma, the minimum wage worker. We are all empowered to participate in the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. 

Let’s stop waiting for a singular leader to deliver us. We already have Jesus, who invites us to participate in his body through the Spirit in the world. Because “for such a time as this” isn’t just about Esther or Moses or Dr. King in the past. It’s about us, right now.