Jesus and Hanukkah

Did you know that Jesus celebrated Hanukkah?

"Then came the Festival of Dedication (Hanukkah) at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon's Colonnade" (John 10:22-23).

Hanukkah wasn't one of the festivals required for observant Jews to travel to Jerusalem. In fact, many Jewish families would observe this festival in their homes: a sign of the shift from Temple-centered to synagogue-centered Jewish religion.

Hanukkah is not mentioned in the Torah because it arose out of an event that occurred in 165 B.C. The story is told of the great military leader, Judas Maccabaeus, in 1 & 2 Maccabees, of the recapture and cleansing of the Temple after it had been profaned by Antiochus Epiphanes. He had sacrificed a pig to Zeus on the altar and placed pagan statues in the Temple.

The great Jewish historian, Josephus, tells of the institution of the Festival of Dedication in Antiquities 12.316-25: "And from that time to the present we observe this festival which we call the festival of Lights, giving this name to it, I think, from the fact that the right to worship appeared to us at a time when we hardly dared hope for it." During the time of Jesus, the reality of God's great deliverance from pagan oppression and the reclaiming of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem would engender intense thankfulness.

So, there are two names for this festival: Dedication and Lights. I believe we Christians can benefit from understanding these aspects of Hanukkah.

Christians can not only celebrate the recapture, cleansing and rededication of the physical Temple in Jerusalem, but in many ways God would have us think about the way that "temple" is used symbolically for the Christian.

The Church is likened to a temple: "Don't you know that you yourselves (plural) are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in your midst? " (1 Cor. 3:16). Should we think about the things that we have allowed to become idols in our midst, clear them away, and rededicate our churches to following and serving Him?

We are also each individually a temple. God wants us to be cleansed of sin and wholly dedicated to Him.

But why is Hanukkah also the "Festival of Lights?" With the Dedication of the Temple, the Jews decided to celebrate a delayed Sukkoth (Feast of Booths) which lasts eight days. A later Talmudic tradition says that a miracle occurred at this celebration where a one-day supply of oil for the Temple light lasted for the eight days of the Feast. Whatever actually occurred, the menorah, a stand of eight candles with a ninth center candle to light the others, has become one of the national symbols of the state of Israel. Each night of Hanukkah, another candle is lit until, on the last night, all eight candles are blazing.

For the Christian, Jesus, the Light of the World, has penetrated the darkness and brought God's salvation into the world in the form of the infant born in a stable in Bethlehem. "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12).

"In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (John 1:4-5).