Some of us may have a basic idea of what Hanukah is all about.  I remember in third grade I had a Jewish kid in my class who shared with us a little bit about this “festival of lights” and the dreidel games his family played.  However, it wasn’t until earlier this year when I was doing some research for my April Newsletter article that I was totally blown away by how significant Hanukah truly is.

In my research I was wondering what other Jewish holidays Jesus would’ve celebrated that we, as Christians, don’t celebrate today.  Of course we know from Luke 2:41, Matthew 26:18, Mark 14:12, Luke 22:8, etc. that he celebrated Passover, but did you know that he celebrated Hanukah as well!?  In John 10:22 it says, “²²Then came the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, ²³and Jesus was in the temple area walking in Solomon’s Colonnade.”  The word Hanukah is derived from the Hebrew verb “to dedicate”.  Jesus was at the temple in Jerusalem probably to observe Hanukah as was (and is) the Jewish custom.

According to mainstream Jewish tradition, the story of Hanukah goes something like this.  In 167 BC the Holy Land was ruled by the Seleucids (Syrian-Greeks), who persecuted and forcefully sought to Hellenize the people of Israel.  The Syrian King, Antiochus Epiphanes, forbade circumcision and keeping of the Sabbath; he erected a statue of Zeus in the temple; and he sacrificed pigs on the altar and splashed the blood in the Holy of Holies. This was a defilement of both the temple and the people.

These outrages finally incited rebellion and in 165 BC, the Jews, led by Judas Maccabee, revolted and eventually succeeded in evicting the Syrian-Greeks from Israel. The temple in Jerusalem was liberated but needed to be rededicated for Jewish worship and sacrifices once again.  The Jews had to have consecrated oil to fuel the menorah in the temple which was required to burn throughout the night every night, but they only had enough for one night.  Miraculously it burned for eight days, which was the length of time it took to press, prepare, and consecrate fresh olive oil.  An eight day festival was declared to commemorate this miracle.

As a Jew, Jesus probably celebrated Hanukah every 25^th of Kislev.  Another cool little tidbit is that not only did Jesus celebrate Hanukah; he celebrated it in the exact same temple that had been cleansed and rededicated only a few generations earlier!  It was here that many asked if he was the coming Messiah — referring back to the liberation of the earlier Maccabees. During the Hanukah season of remembering miracles, Jesus pointed out that the works that he did attested to his claim to be the long-awaited Messiah of the Jewish people (John 10:22-42).

For believers in Jesus, the festival of lights, or festival of dedication, reminds us that the deliverance we have is through “the Light of the world” (John 8:12).  His works and character clearly displayed the true Light of who he was, and these works still shine to us today.  Jesus was and forever shall be the greatest Jew who ever lived upon the earth. 

Maybe take some time this year to observe Hanukah by remembering the miracles God has done by sending his “Light” into this darkened world, and celebrate Christmas by sharing the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” with someone you know.

Hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy Hanukah!

Passover is the oldest holiday in Judaism (which, by the way in case you missed it, is the direct precursor to Christianity).  It is a biblically-mandated holiday that celebrates 1) the Lord’s protection of the children of Israel when the firstborn of Egypt were struck down, and 2) how God delivered the Jews out of the hands of the pharaoh.  God told Moses and Aaron in Exodus 12:14 “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord – a lasting ordinance”.  Later on in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, Moses gave instructions about how Passover should be celebrated (Lev 23:4-8, Deut 16:1-8).  These instructions guided many Jews for hundreds of years, including Jesus, in their observance of this holy festival.

Passover is one of the three festivals during which the entire Jewish populace historically made a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem to sacrifice a lamb for their Passover meal.  (They ate lamb because it is what God told them to use as their meal and as the sign on their doorposts on the eve of the exodus.)  This trip was Jesus’ custom as well.  The one story we read of Jesus as a child, is when he and his family went to Jerusalem for Passover (Luke 2:41).  Another example is when Jesus made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem; he was going there to celebrate the Passover (John 12).  However, since the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD, no animal sacrifices are offered for Passover or any other time.  Instead, the succeeding rabbis taught that fulfilling God’s commandments is what earned merit with God, making animal sacrifices unnecessary. 

Today, Passover is still the most important holiday to Jews everywhere.  They gather with their family and partake in the Passover Seder which is the meal that includes food that resembles what they ate in the book of Exodus. 

So what does any of this Passover talk have to do with us?  As Christians we don’t celebrate any of the Jewish holidays (which in my opinion is unfortunate).  A few years ago, some friends and I got together and had our own Passover Seder.  We are all Christians, so we had to do a lot of research to get it as accurate as possible.  For me, I walked away from that celebration with a better understanding of what Jesus did while he was on the earth.  That one event changed how I view and relate to Christ.

One of the most important reasons that Jews celebrate Passover today is to remember how God freed them from slavery in Egypt.  They remember the redemption of Israel as a foreshadowing of the future redemption of all mankind.  In Exodus, the blood of the sacrificial lamb caused the wrath of God to pass over those that trusted in Him to be their provision for redemption.  We as Christians can celebrate Passover with the knowledge that Jesus, the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”, is the Messiah whose blood redeemed all of humanity (John 1:29).

Baruch HaShem! (Praise God)

In my research for this article I rediscovered my interest in Judaism and how that fits with Christianity today.  In the next few posts I will be looking at other Jewish holidays that Jesus would have celebrated that, as Christians, we don’t today.

In Genesis 4:3-16, we see the very first reference to worship in the Bible. This is the story of Cain and Abel. We read that Cain was a farmer, and Abel was a rancher. Both of these men brought an offering to God from the products of their labor. Verses 3-5 say, “In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.”

The first idea about acceptable worship is that God has an opinion. We see in the scriptures that He has an opinion about worship, how we approach Him, our interaction with Him, etc. God gives us guidelines for worship which can be found in our road map, the Bible.

Did God favor Abel’s offering because it was from the blood of an animal? I do not believe that was the reason. Elsewhere in the Bible God rejects blood sacrifices when they offer out of their abundance (Isa. 1:4, 11 and Jer. 6:20). In Micah 6:6-8, the people of Israel had forsaken righteousness of the heart, justice, kindness, and humility and were seeking to attain it through prescribed rituals of worship. God bore witness of their righteousness or wickedness by accepting or rejecting their sacrifices. It was not the details of the offerings that were being inspected but the heart of the worshipper. The man was being judged rather than his offering.

Now back to Cain and Abel, we read, “The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor” (Gen. 4:4-5). Notice it does not say that Abel’s offering was what pleased the Lord, but rather Abel first, and then his offering. In Hebrews 11:4 we read some insight into that, “By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings”. God accepted Abel’s gift because of his righteousness.

By his rejection of Cain and his offering, God bore witness, not to an improperly detailed ritual of worship, but to the wickedness of the man. Centuries later John states that Cain “belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother… Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous” (1 John 3:12). Cain evidently sought to achieve righteousness by rituals of worship when he was evil in heart. Abel, on the other hand, did not make an offering to achieve righteousness. He was righteous already because of his faith. God bore witness to that fact by accepting him and his offering.

So worship is, and always has been, about the heart.

When we come to the worship service on Sunday, we should ask ourselves, “How is my heart today?” I must ask myself this question every week before I get up and lead. If my heart is not right with God, then it doesn’t matter what I do to go through the motions, God will not be pleased. On the contrary, if my heart is right, then everything else I do will glorify God. If my heart is right, it doesn’t matter if I clap, shout, dance, or even do a conga line, it will be pleasing to Him.

This week, and every week, make a special effort to be pleasing to God when you come in to worship Him.