Hanukkah, Christmas, and You

Right now we are in the midst of the Jewish season of Hanukkah.  When I was in school my understanding of Hanukkah could be summarized as, “That thing with the candles when the Jewish kids get presents for eight days.”

It was only much later that I’d learn the history of the thing.

In the second century before Christ, the Jewish people in Israel came under intense persecution by the kings of the Seleucid kingdom.  In the year 165 BC, the Hebrew forces – led by Judas Maccabeus – retook the Temple in Jerusalem for the sons of Jacob.

By this time the Temple was littered with garbage and had been desecrated in every way imaginable.  So Judas led his men in rebuilding the interior of the structure and re-consecrating it to God.  Then they all celebrated for eight days.

Today I wanted to look at three questions.  One, where is Hanukkah mention in the Bible?  Two, why don’t Christians celebrate it today?  Three, what does it have to do with you?

To the Bible!

There is one mention of this festival in the New Testament.  John’s Gospel mentions it here:

"The feast of the Dedication was then taking place in Jerusalem. It was winter.  And Jesus walked about in the temple area on the Portico of Solomon." - John 10:22–23

But what about the instantiation of this celebration?  Is that in the Bible?

Well… depends whose Bible you pick up.

The Bibles used by Catholics and non-Catholics share the entirety of the New Testament, but differ in which books are included in the Old Testament.  The difference is seven books contained in the Catholic Old Testament which are not in the non-Catholic Old Testament.  These books are referred to by Catholics as “the Deuterocanon” and by non-Catholics as “the Old Testament Apocrypha”.

I bring this up not because I want to sort through that issue here – (I do address it here) - but only because the instantiation of Hanukkah is described in one of those seven books.

So if you want to read it, you’ll have to sneak into the house of one of your Catholic friends, find his Bible, remove the dust and cobwebs, and open it up to First Maccabees.

You’ll find the following:

“Then Judas and his brothers said, 'See, our enemies are destroyed; let us go up to cleanse the sanctuary and dedicate it.'  So all the army assembled and went up to Mount Zion. There they saw the sanctuary desolate, the altar profaned, and the gates burned. In the courts they saw bushes sprung up as in a thicket, or as on one of the mountains. They saw also the chambers of the priests in ruins. Then they tore their clothes and mourned with great lamentation; they sprinkled themselves with ashes and fell face down on the ground. And when the signal was given with the trumpets, they cried out to Heaven. 

Then Judas detailed men to fight against those in the citadel until he had cleansed the sanctuary. He chose blameless priests devoted to the law, and they cleansed the sanctuary and removed the defiled stones to an unclean place. They deliberated what to do about the altar of burnt offering, which had been profaned. And they thought it best to tear it down, so that it would not be a lasting shame to them that the Gentiles had defiled it. So they tore down the altar, and stored the stones in a convenient place on the temple hill until a prophet should come to tell what to do with them. Then they took unhewn stones, as the law directs, and built a new altar like the former one. They also rebuilt the sanctuary and the interior of the temple, and consecrated the courts. They made new holy vessels, and brought the lampstand, the altar of incense, and the table into the temple. Then they offered incense on the altar and lit the lamps on the lampstand, and these gave light in the temple. They placed the bread on the table and hung up the curtains. Thus they finished all the work they had undertaken. 

Early in the morning on the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month, which is the month of Chislev, in the one hundred forty-eighth year, they rose and offered sacrifice, as the law directs, on the new altar of burnt offering that they had built. At the very season and on the very day that the Gentiles had profaned it, it was dedicated with songs and harps and lutes and cymbals. All the people fell on their faces and worshiped and blessed Heaven, who had prospered them. So they celebrated the dedication of the altar for eight days, and joyfully offered burnt offerings; they offered a sacrifice of well-being and a thanksgiving offering. They decorated the front of the temple with golden crowns and small shields; they restored the gates and the chambers for the priests, and fitted them with doors. There was very great joy among the people, and the disgrace brought by the Gentiles was removed. 

Then Judas and his brothers and all the assembly of Israel determined that every year at that season the days of dedication of the altar should be observed with joy and gladness for eight days, beginning with the twenty-fifth day of the month of Chislev.”  - 1 Maccabees 4:36-61

Not a Christian Holiday?

So why don't we celebrate Hanukkah?   The history of the Jewish people is part of our patrimony, after all.

Well, there are some Jewish holidays which we don't celebrate because of theological issues.  For instance, Christians really cannot celebrate Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, since we believe Jesus has made atonement for all time.  But that isn't the case with Hanukkah.  There isn't anything theologically at stake here.

A second explanation is that holidays are cultural markers.  As groups drift apart (especially when doing so on bad terms) they purposefully differentiate themselves.  This is particularly true of Jews and Christians.

The first major controversy in the Church was whether Christians were required to observe the Law of Moses and attend to the Jewish liturgical calendar.  There was much debate, but the answer was no.

Still, the controversy did not die down over night.  This is why Saint Paul had to explicitly remind his audience:

"Do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.  These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ." - Colossians 2:16-17

So imagine an early Christian still observing the Jewish feast days.  He runs the risk of people looking at him and saying, “Whose side are you on?”

That makes for a very practical reason why celebrating Hanukkah did not becomes a Christian practice.



The True Temple:

But there might be yet another reason...

The aforementioned quote from Paul mentions that the major figures of the Old Testament are shadows and images which point forward to a fulfillment in Christ.  This is a claim made again and again in the New Testament.

One which is explicitly named and explained is the Temple.  We are told in John’s Gospel that the REAL temple – the real dwelling place of God on earth – was Jesus himself:

"Jesus answered them, 'Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.'  But the temple he had spoken of was his body." - John 2:19,21

So if you are a Christian… which do you want to do?  Do you want to have a feast celebrating a shadowy image of Christ… or something celebrating the Messiah it pointed to?

In that way, we can actually see a sort of fulfillment of Hannakuh in Christmas.  Hannakuh is a celebration of a kind of re-birth of the Temple.  Christmas is a celebration of the birth of the true Temple.

Or Maybe…

But perhaps we can an even better New Testament analogy.

When Judas Maccabeus came to the temple in 165 BC, it was a ransacked mess which had been given over to false worship.  So they carefully restored it to it proper orientation.

This is very much like what God does for each of us.  In Saint Paul’s letter to the Corinthians he says that the bodies of Christians have been made into temples of God:

"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body." - 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

So when I read the battles of Judas Maccabeus, I think of the spiritual combat each Christian is engaged in - a battle to master one's own soul and body.  Each of our temptations must be put to the sword and mercilessly crushed like the Seleucid soldiers who fell to Judas Maccabeus.  

Happy Advent and Happy Hanukkah.