This year, Christmas and Chanukah actually coincide! So, I got out my Sherlock Holmes spy glass to investigate what Jesus did at Chanukah and how they connect
Was Jesus Born at Christmas?
Christmas marks the birth of Jesus, although nowhere are we told that he was born in December. In fact, the presence of shepherds and sheep living out in the nearby fields (Luke 2) suggests to me that his birth was not in winter.
Bethlehem, where Luke tells us Jesus was born, is a mere 6 km (4 miles) from Jerusalem. It seems plausible that the shepherds had brought one-year- old sacrificial lambs to sell for Pesach (Passover), which occurs in spring. Every family, resident and pilgrim, would purchase one of these, or a kid goat, for the feast. It was big business. So, I would opt for an April birth.
Others suggest that Jesus was born at Sukkot, the Festival of Tabernacles, a festival of light and living water where Jews dwell in booths. In Jesus’ time it was more important than today and was called The Festival. It remembers the fragility of life and our dependence on God for shelter and food.
We may never know in this lifetime when Jesus was born. The important thing is that he was.
What is Chanukah All About?
The week-long Jewish festival of Chanukah (Dedication) marks a miracle of light and freedom from oppression. It is historically grounded in the 2nd century BC Maccabean family triumph over the power of the Syrian Greeks. After securing a great victory , against all the odds, Maccabean warriors and priests found the Temple ransacked, with everything upside down, including the holy oil for the ner tamid, (the eternal light of God that should never be allowed to go out). There was just enough oil for the lamp to burn for a single day and it would take a whole week to purify more.
They relit the lamp anyway and rededicated the Temple. Miraculously, it burned for 8 days, until more holy oil had been purified and was ready to use!
You can read this story in the apocryphal books of 1 and 2 Maccabees.
Jews commemorate the miracle by lighting candles on a nine-branch candlestick known as a Chanukiah and singing Moaz Tzur (Rock of Ages).
The Shammash, Servant Candle, is used to light all the others, in the same way as Jesus lights us, I feel.
Foods like latkes, (potato fritters), and many other non-slimming, sweet treats, are typical.
What did Jesus do on Chanukah?
The connection between Chanukah and Christmas turns out to be Jesus, who we find in John 10 walking in the forest of white columns that constitutes Solomon’s Porch in the Temple, where he would normally sit and teach. It is the Feast of Dedication (Chanukah), and it is winter.on
He may be hugging himself as he walks with his cloak wrapped around his body, blowing steam onto his hands to warm them. (It can be nippy in Jerusalem in December. It can even snow.)
Miracles
Perhaps he was expecting those who objected to him to turn up. When they did, they demanded to know, “If you’re really the Messiah, then say so!”
Jesus responds that his miraculous works, “bear witness of me,” (10:25). If they don’t believe him, it is because they are, “not of my sheep (because) my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one,” (10:28-30).
It is very appropriate that Jesus should talk of his miracles now during Chanukah, the season of miracles. He is claiming here to be their ner tamid (eternal light), one with his Father: ‘God is light and in Him is no darkness at all,’ 1 John 1:5.
But the crowd is set against him. They don’t believe. They are deeply offended at his claim to be one with God. They pick up stones to stone him.
Walks Through the Crowd
Jesus asks, “Which miracle are you intending to stone me for?”
They accuse him of blaspheming by calling himself one with God.
Jesus responds like the rabbi who knows his stuff that he is. He quotes from Psalm 82:6 which asserts that every judge of Israel is a ‘god’.
Still they wanted to seize Jesus, but, tantalizingly,
“he escaped out of their hand,” (10:39),
similarly to the way he walked through an angry crowd of his own neighbours bent on throwing him off a Nazareth cliff because they didn’t like the message he was preaching.
חג חנוכה שמח
Happy Chanukah!
Happy Christmas!
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