Did You Know Jesus Celebrated Hanukkah?

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Did you know that Jesus celebrated Hanukkah?

Most Christians don’t have a clue that their Messiah celebrated this holiday! In fact, this holiday is not noted in the Torah or Old Testament, but rather in the book of John, in the New Testament!

So you were probably reading along and read that in winter time Yeshua (which is the Hebrew name of Jesus) went to something called Feast of Dedication. You probably like me didn’t have a clue that what he went to was actually Hanukkah!

Hanukkah in Hebrew means dedication or to dedicate! It’s so exciting when you search and study God’s word what you find out. I’ve never been to one Christian church that taught this biblical truth, only through prayer and study did I find out. God is so good, all the time!

All this time, I never knew how significant this holiday should be for Christians!

What’s so incredible is that Yeshua chose this event to announce to world that he was the Son of God! This was super bold, considering the history behind this feast.

Hanukkah or Feast of Dedication was a celebration which marked the restoration of the temple after it was desecrated by an evil Syrian King.  Antiochus IV Epiphanes was a detestable ruler who regarded himself as Zeus, hence his title, epiphanes, which means ‘manifestation of God.” So Antiochus presented himself to the world as a manifestation of the Greek god Zeus.

Antiochus, which sounds like Anti-Christ to me, set up a statue of Zeus in God’s Holy Temple!  Not only did this man put his idols in the Lord’s temple, but he desecrated the the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem  when he sacrificed a pig.

Antiochus terrorized the Jews forbidding them to read the Torah or obey the commands of God. He forced many Jews to partake in detestable immoral pagan practices. Many lost their lives refusing to defile themselves.

With God’s help a group of Jewish brothers called the Mattathias was from a rural priestly family from Modi’in decided to stand up and do something. They rebelled and rose up against the Syrian forces. The group of rebels were later called the Maccabees, which means hammer. Hammer symbolized their strength and heroic qualities in helping save the Jewish people. With God’s help, this tiny force conquered these evil giants over and over again.  Finally, the Jews were able to take back God’s temple and not only cleanse it, but rededicate it to the Lord.  For Jews, the victory 164 B.C.E. marked the restoration of the temple, and a celebration was birthed called today Hanukkah.

 So now that you have some back history. Let’s move up to Jesus’s time. It’s the winter and Jesus goes to Hanukkah and announces at the temple that He is the Christ!

How bold was Yeshua to pick this time and place to make His announcement, especially considering the history of Antiochus, who thought he was a manifestation of the Greek god Zeus.

So now we have a man named Yeshua saying that he is the Son of God on that special celebrated week! WOW, you can see why a lot of Jews wanted to stone Him.

Yeshua was bold, and God’s timing was perfect.   So let’s see what our bibles says about Yeshua, our Messiah, going to celebrate Hanukkah:

John 10: 22-40

²² At that time the Feast of the Dedication took place at Jerusalem; ²³ it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon. ²⁴ The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, “How long ^[a]will You keep us in suspense? If you are ^[b]the Christ, tell us plainly.” ²⁵ Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me. ²⁶ But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. ²⁷ My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; ²⁸ and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.

^29 [c]My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. ³⁰ I and the Father are ^[d]one.”

³¹ The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him. ³² Jesus answered them, “I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?”

³³ The Jews answered Him, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.” ³⁴ Jesus answered them, “Has it not been written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? ³⁵ If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), ³⁶ do you say of Him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?

³⁷ If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; ³⁸ but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may^[e]know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.”³⁹ Therefore they were seeking again to seize Him, and He eluded their grasp.

⁴⁰ And He went away again beyond the Jordan to the place where John was first baptizing, and He was staying there.

So now, as followers of Christ, we look at Hanukkah much differently.

First, if Yeshua celebrated, and if we long to imitate him; then perhaps we should all consider celebrating this bible based holiday too.

During this special feast, it is customary to light 8 candles on the Menorah, one each day during the 8 day celebration. But on this particular holiday Menorah, it’s a bit different than the traditional Temple menorahs, it has 9 candles!

There is a ninth candle, called the shamash, which means “helper” or “servant.” This candle is used to light all other candles. Who do we know came to serve and not to be served?  You got it, Jesus! He is our Shamash!

 Mark 10:45 “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Jesus also said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” In John 8: 12

So Yeshua came to serve not only God the Father but also his brethren, which is all of us. He is that special shamash that brings light into the world and into us through our Faith and imitation of Him.

Celebrating Hanukkah is a special way that Christians can celebrate God’s love for us and His only Begotten Son.  This is a special time to remember that our Messiah announced to the world that He is Christ, the Son of God. When we celebrate, we focus on the Lords love for us with each lighting of the candle and each prayer. For 8 days, we focus on the light Yeshua brought into the world and also how we can be the light to others.

When we hold the glowing servant candle in our hand, which symbolizes the Son of God, we should be overjoyed because Jesus is our Light, Our hope and our Salvation. He reconciles us with our merciful Father in Heaven.

So now you know that this holiday, Hanukkah is biblical, and that Jesus celebrated it. So you can be completely excited to celebrate it too as a Christian and further relating to your Jewish messiah, the Light of the World.