Jesus and Hanukkah

By Jim Hammond

Intro:  We are about to light the candles for the remaining portion of the service.  Let me give you brief instructions then a story.  Here are the instructions:  reach with the unlit candle to receive the flame from the lit candles.  Once your candle is lit, don’t reach.  Hold it straight, after yours is lit.  After your neighbor’s candle is lit, you may lift the cup protector just above the flame.

We began this evening with a question from the drama of people at a Christmas Eve Service, the question, “Why do we light Candles on Christmas Eve?”  I want to get at this question with a story, but before I tell you the story, let me ask you a question.  Did you know that Jesus lit candles?  Jesus celebrated Hanukkah. 

John 10:22-23 (NIV) ^{22} Then came the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem . It was winter,
^{23} and Jesus was in the temple area walking in Solomon's Colonnade.

Jesus participated in the Feast of Dedication, which is the feast “Hanukkah”, which has been celebrated by Jews since before Jesus’ day.  As we light our Christmas Eve candles this year, I want us to imagine together Jesus’ home as he grew up celebrating Hanukkah.  Picture him at age 10 at the lighting of the first candle on the first day of Hanukkah.

 “Papa?” young Jesus enquired.

“Yes, Son”

“I have two new questions about the Hanukkah candles.”

“Come sit here.  What do you want to know?”

“I have studied the Torah, and have found the story behind all our festivals except Hanukkah.  Where is the story of the Hanukkah found?  I cannot find it in the scriptures. 

“Ok, that’s one question.  You said you have two questions.  What’s the other question?” 

“The Hanukkah Menorah is a candelabra with 8 candles with a servant candle, 9 lights in all.  But as I have been reading in the Torah, it describes the Temple menorah as having 7 lamps in its Menorah and these are lit lamps of oil.  Why are these different?” 

“My son, you ask more and more difficult questions all the time.”  Joseph looked over to Mary, “Mary, have you heard such questions before?”  Mary just smiled first at Joseph, then at Jesus, as she continued to get out the Hanukkah Menorah. 

  “Let me think a moment from what I have learned from my father, and he from his father. These questions I have not even considered.  But I will give you what I think is the answer.   As we light the first candle tonight, let me tell you again the story of Hanukkah, and this time, I will keep your two questions in mind.  It was long after the light of our Father Abraham two thousand years ago, and long after our Father Moses, one thousand five hundred years ago.  It was long after our Father David one thousand years ago.  This story, the answer to both your questions, comes less than two hundred years ago.  That is the reason you have not found the story of this feast in any of our Hebrew Scriptures, the last book of which was written 400 years ago.  The Hanukkah Feast started less then 200 years ago.” 

“Papa, is the story true?”

“The history happened, yes, and it is written down for us, but not in our scriptures.” 

“Abba, if it is not in our scriptures, why do we celebrate it?”

“It is part of our Heritage.  It is tradition, and I think you will like the story of God’s faithfulness to us in this tradition.  It is a story of the battle between darkness and light.  The darkness was very dark indeed.  The darkness was caused by evil Gentile Kings, and the dark rulers behind them.  The Gentile kings were very wicked.  They forced our people to stop circumcising our boys.  These kings tried to make everyone the same following the ways of the Greeks.  They commanded that if any baby be circumcised that the babies be killed for such disobedience.  These wicked kings even forced people to sacrifice pigs on the altar.  They desecrated the temple.  The worst of it was during the reign of wicked Antiochus Epiphenes who sacrificed a pig to Zeus on the Altar in our Temple ”

Jesus, gasped.

“One of the lights is the Hanukkah story was a man by the name of Judas called Maccabeus.”

“Maccabeus” like our hammers in the shop?” Jesus asked,

“Yes” Joseph said with a chuckle, “like the hammers in the shop.  He was called the “Hammerer” because he was a mighty warrior that pounded the Greeks over and over.  Judas Maccabeus led a revolt with a much smaller army but was able to win battle after battle against all odds.”

Jesus said, “Papa, then it is like the prophet Zechariah predicted,.when he saw the vision of the 7 lamps in the second Temple, that it would be rebuilt, “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty.”

Mary smiled again with a knowing look at Joseph, then at Jesus.  They were often amazed at the depth of his rapid learning of the scriptures he studied so earnestly.  Joseph then said, “Was it the reading of the prophet Zechariah then, that brought on the question of the 7 lamps?”

“There and in the books of Moses.  Why, the difference Papa?”

“The reason we light these eight candles in the eight day feast of Hanukkah, is to commemorate the Dedication of the Temple after it was cleansed of the Gentile sacrilege and restored.”

“Papa, why eight candles?”

“I’m getting to that.  It was eight days because of the miracle that took place.”

“What miracle, Papa?”

“When they went to light the lamps, of the Temple Menorah , there was only enough consecrated Oil that had not been defiled by the Gentiles to last one day.  There was fear that the oil would run out before more undefiled consecrated oil could be brought.  But that one days’ worth of oil lasted eight days until the other oil arrived.  So for the Hanukkah feast we light one candle for each day of the miracle.  This miracle is also the reason we eat foods fried in oil during the Hanukkah.

“Papa?”

“Yes, my Son”

“It is good I think that the servant candle is different the other candles?”

“Why, son?”

“The servant candle represents the Glory of God in the temple, the light of God’s glory, that lights other candles for others to see.”

“What do you mean, my Son?”

“Don’t you see, Father.  The light in the temple comes from the consecrated Oil.  The servant represents the Christ, the anointed one of God lighting the lights for all to see the glory of God.”

“I have never thought of it that way before, my Son.  But I agree, it is good that the servant lights candles for all to see the Glory of God.  The glory of the Father is to be seen by the whole world.” 

As Jesus stared at the candle pondering, Mary and Joseph stared at the boy Jesus with amazements in their hearts; they looked at each other and back again at the boy, the Christ, the anointed one, the Servant Light of the World.

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Later in Jesus' ministry He said, 

(John 8:12  NIV)  ... "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.""

Jesus didn't claim to be "a light" but THE light of the world.