Candles in the Dark: Jesus and Hanukkah

By Kelly Klages

We’ve been to the Christmas services. We’ve seen the TV programs. We’ve sung the carols. The baby in the manger, the shepherds, and the Bethlehem star have become permanently woven into our consciousness. So with the sixpointed stars and nine-branched candleholders peeking in amongst the trees and the mistletoe, what’s all this about?

The original story of Hanukkah is told in the ancient Jewish writings of I and II Maccabees. Christians refer to these books as part of the Apocrypha. While these books aren’t part of the inspired Word of God, they are still a useful way to get a picture of Jewish life and thought in the eras in which they were written.

Around the middle of the second century BC, the Jewish nation was being overrun by the Syrians, a group led by the cruel Antiochus Epiphanes. In his efforts to subdue and assimilate the Jews, Antiochus put laws in place forbidding people to read Scripture and offer proper sacrifices. He also imposed pagan beliefs and practices on the people. He desecrated the temple by offering an unclean pig on the altar and tried to force the people to do likewise.

The Jews revolted against their enemy under the banner of Judas Maccabeus, a Messiah-like figure, and eventually drove out their oppressors with a series of great military victories. When the priests returned to the temple to rededicate it, legend says that there was only enough sacred oil available to burn in the temple for one day, even though the consecration of proper temple oil required eight days. Miraculously, the small bit of oil lasted the full eight days. That is why Jewish people today light the menorah, a manybranched candleholder, for the eight nights of Hanukkah.

So there you have it. This festival is nowhere mentioned in the Old Testament and is considered to be a very minor Jewish holiday. So how did it get so predominant?

The fact is that Christian holidays aren’t the only ones prone to commercialism. A quiet, minor Jewish holiday runs headlong into a blazing, secularized North American Christmas celebration, and poof! They join up and become a massive card store and mall-shopping extravaganza complete with blue Star of David wrapping paper and Santa bobble heads. This is a source of annoyance to many Christians and Jewish people alike.

But the Hanukkah story does point to something significant—the reality that God does send deliverance for His own and that we are called to be faithful to Him even to death. Indeed, there is a message in Hanukkah for Christians. For example, did you know that although Hanukkah is nowhere mentioned in the Old Testament, it is mentioned in the New Testament?

Now, before you flip through the Gospels, searching in vain for stories of the apostles playing dreidel, direct yourself to John 10:22–23: “Now it was the Feast of Dedication [that is, Hanukkah] in Jerusalem, and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon’s porch” (NKJV). The previous two chapters give us some nice setup for this moment. In John 8, Jesus declares Himself the light of the world, the One who ultimately will deliver us all, not from mere political oppression, but from sin itself. In chapter 9, we see Jesus opening the eyes of a blind man. Today, it is tradition for Jewish people to give to charities for the blind during Hanukkah, because the blind cannot enjoy the Hanukkah lights. Not only was the blind man set free from his blindness and ready to witness his first view of light, but he was eye-to-eye with the great Deliverer Himself.

Jesus is now walking in the temple area, perhaps reflecting on the temple rededication of old. He is confronted by some of his own countrymen: “If you are the Christ, tell us plainly!” (John 10:24 NKJV). No doubt the great Syrian conquest and the miraculous, everlasting oil were on their minds during the holiday season. What nice timing for another messianic figure to come to the people doing great miracles and throwing off Roman oppression. But Jesus knows their hearts. Although He tells them plainly who He is, they will not believe. A suffering Savior, a bloody cross, a heavenly Kingdom—these don’t fit into their mold. Jesus still refuses to fit into the molds that our sinful natures try to force Him into, but in His grace, He reaches out to us through His Word and Sacraments and opens our eyes.

This doesn’t mean that we ought to don yarmulkes and prayer shawls and start having bar mitzvahs. Judaism does not teach that Jesus is the promised Messiah, nor that He has saved the world from sin, death, and the devil. Obviously, there are some huge theological differences between the two religions. But that doesn’t mean that we give up. Not long ago, I attended a Hanukkah party with my college’s Jewish student group. A Jewish friend of mine, pleased that I came, said to me before I left, “It’s really great that you know about Hanukkah. I don’t know anything about Christmas.” There are still eyes that haven’t seen Jesus, the one who will never stop trying to bring light to the Jewish people. This is still the time to be faithful. Keep lighting your candles.

Kelly Klages lives in Winkler, Manitoba, and is married to Pastor Alex Klages of Trinity Lutheran Church. She enjoys youth leading, painting, writing, playing weird instruments, and playing with cats. Her e-mail address is kellyklages@mts.net.