I DON'T CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS.
CHRISTMAS IS A PAGAN HOLIDAY!
These kind and loving words were delivered by me a few years ago when Shabbat fell on December 25th and I was seeking to share with my family that I wanted to go to Shabbat services and skip my family's Christmas day celebration (I would still take the gifts).
So then our current posting.
We are now about 6 days away from the 25th of December.
The day of great anxiety for many people in the Jewish world and especially for us in Messianic Judaism, wherein the non-celebration of Christmas has become a marker of our fidelity to the Jewish people by not celebrating a Christian holiday.
The great extreme as noted by my comments above is the hard line take that Christmas is a pagan holiday, being that the 25th of December was the celebration of Saturnalia until Constantine co-opted it and changed the day to a celebration of the birth of Yeshua.
As a child after I found out about the pagan backstory of Christmas, I thought that it was making an unholy day (celebrating a pagan deity) to be holy by honoring Yeshua's birth. Though this was a good perspective as I look at it now, the above later anti-Christmas attitude was built into my Messianic psyche.
Like "church bashing", we need to realize that we cannot build our Messianic Jewish identity by attacking the Church and Christian practices, yes where the Church is wrong like in anti-Judaism and anti-Torah attitudes we must respond, but in areas of the Church's religious observances that can be seen as an attempt to honor G-d in "Gentile space" we need to have a proper perspective.
My mom is a hardcore Christmas celebrant, 365 days a year there is some Christmas themed knic-nac or artwork around her home. She even wore a "Jesus is the Reason for the Season" sweater when she bought me my Rebbe Soul and Neshama Carlebach CD's at the local Judaica shop a few years ago (I imagine that confused them a bit).
So then does my mom worship a pagan deity in her observance of Christmas? No she is living out her Christian faith in her own "Gentile space" and she is celebrating the birth of her Saviour and L-rd, namely Yeshua, who she acknowledges as the Jewish Messiah and the Saviour of the World.
So then we need to understand that there are many devout Christians who seek to celebrate the birth of Yeshua and they celebrate it on December 25th.
Yes, there is a vast number of people caught up into the secularized "Holiday Season" and we can see that these people are not seeking to honor the birth of the Messiah, but there are also a lot of people who do seek to honor G-d at this time of year.
It is ironic that a local Conservative synagogue that I attend on occasion is next to a Catholic church and I was thinking that as the Jews are concluding Shabbat this year that next door the Catholics would be preparing for Christmas a few days later.
So then let us all come to see Christmas in a proper perspective and honor the fact that in the Church there are non-Jews honoring the birth of the Messiah.
This leaves me a thought for us in the Messianic Judaism community for us to work on in house, that being the need for us to develop an appropriate celebration for the coming of our Messiah. We have as our distinctive as a Judaism our belief that the Messiah has come, we should build into Sukkot, which is believed to be an appropriate season for Messiah's birth, a liturgy that celebrates the birth of Yeshua at this time that we focus on living in tabernacles, we should take the opportunity to celebrate when our Messiah tabernacled with us.
So then we have two tasks:
1. Step back and appreciate Christmas in the context that it is a celebration in "Gentile space" and that many celebrants are seeking to celebrate the birth of Yeshua, their L-rd and Saviour and not to celebrate a pagan holiday.
2. We as a Messianic community need to develop a celebration of the coming of our righteous Messiah as a part of Sukkot.
May all followers of Yeshua honor him on the 25th of December (and every day!), either with gifts, carols and egg nog or as I and others who practice Judaism by glorifying our Messiah by honoring Him and lifting him up before our world by living a Torah life.
Shalom to you all and to all a good night...
(originally posted on 12/22/04 on towardblog)
http://www.towardblog.com
The great extreme as noted by my comments above is the hard line take that Christmas is a pagan holiday, being that the 25th of December was the celebration of Saturnalia until Constantine co-opted it and changed the day to a celebration of the birth of Yeshua.
As a child after I found out about the pagan backstory of Christmas, I thought that it was making an unholy day (celebrating a pagan deity) to be holy by honoring Yeshua's birth. Though this was a good perspective as I look at it now, the above later anti-Christmas attitude was built into my Messianic psyche.
Like "church bashing", we need to realize that we cannot build our Messianic Jewish identity by attacking the Church and Christian practices, yes where the Church is wrong like in anti-Judaism and anti-Torah attitudes we must respond, but in areas of the Church's religious observances that can be seen as an attempt to honor G-d in "Gentile space" we need to have a proper perspective.
My mom is a hardcore Christmas celebrant, 365 days a year there is some Christmas themed knic-nac or artwork around her home. She even wore a "Jesus is the Reason for the Season" sweater when she bought me my Rebbe Soul and Neshama Carlebach CD's at the local Judaica shop a few years ago (I imagine that confused them a bit).
So then does my mom worship a pagan deity in her observance of Christmas? No she is living out her Christian faith in her own "Gentile space" and she is celebrating the birth of her Saviour and L-rd, namely Yeshua, who she acknowledges as the Jewish Messiah and the Saviour of the World.
So then we need to understand that there are many devout Christians who seek to celebrate the birth of Yeshua and they celebrate it on December 25th.
Yes, there is a vast number of people caught up into the secularized "Holiday Season" and we can see that these people are not seeking to honor the birth of the Messiah, but there are also a lot of people who do seek to honor G-d at this time of year.
It is ironic that a local Conservative synagogue that I attend on occasion is next to a Catholic church and I was thinking that as the Jews are concluding Shabbat this year that next door the Catholics would be preparing for Christmas a few days later.
So then let us all come to see Christmas in a proper perspective and honor the fact that in the Church there are non-Jews honoring the birth of the Messiah.
This leaves me a thought for us in the Messianic Judaism community for us to work on in house, that being the need for us to develop an appropriate celebration for the coming of our Messiah. We have as our distinctive as a Judaism our belief that the Messiah has come, we should build into Sukkot, which is believed to be an appropriate season for Messiah's birth, a liturgy that celebrates the birth of Yeshua at this time that we focus on living in tabernacles, we should take the opportunity to celebrate when our Messiah tabernacled with us.
So then we have two tasks:
1. Step back and appreciate Christmas in the context that it is a celebration in "Gentile space" and that many celebrants are seeking to celebrate the birth of Yeshua, their L-rd and Saviour and not to celebrate a pagan holiday.
2. We as a Messianic community need to develop a celebration of the coming of our righteous Messiah as a part of Sukkot.
May all followers of Yeshua honor him on the 25th of December (and every day!), either with gifts, carols and egg nog or as I and others who practice Judaism by glorifying our Messiah by honoring Him and lifting him up before our world by living a Torah life.
Shalom to you all and to all a good night...
(originally posted on 12/22/04 on towardblog)
http://www.towardblog.com
Posts
5 comments:
Wednesday, December 19, 2007 1:07:00 AM
Sean, I appreciate how much you want to build bridges, but you're going in the opposite direction of the way even the Gentile Church is moving. Every year, I hear from more and more Christians who KNOW Christmas is pagan, don't want to celebrate it, and are asking me both about Hanukkah AND about when we celebrate Messiah's birth!
I think we need to get out there and show that Nimrod is the reason for the season of December 25, and be a light by positively showing that Jesus would celebrate Hanukkah, not Christmas at this time of year!
Wednesday, December 19, 2007 5:48:00 AM
I am an observant Messianic Jew. And I don't celebrate Christmas, because it's not part of my culture, it's not part of my Judaism (which is Messianic).
But I do believe in Yeshua, and I have accepted Him as my L-rd and Savior. I have a personal relationship with the living and triune G-d of Israel through Him. And through Him, and only Him, is there atonement and redemption for the souls of mankind - be they Jewish or Gentile (non-Jewish).
So, Gentile Christians: Have a very Merry Christmas, and G-d bless you as you celebrate the virgin birth of our divine Messiah/Christ!
Christmas is NOT pagan: http://www.orlutheran.com/html/chrmas_pagan1.html
Monday, December 24, 2007 10:46:00 PM
I am a first time visitor to your site. I wanted to say that don't celebrate Christmas either. Once I learned the truth about its orgins, I was convicted!
Over and over the word of G-d calls us to be Holy for I am Holy.
This is what we are supposed to strive for.
Aren't we called to be salt and light in this world?
And can MAN change the Sabbath and call it Holy? Only G-d can declare something Holy. Not just the Sabbath but his appointed times and customs.
Our Messiah was not politically correct in his day. He didn't wory about offending or hurting someone's feelings! I mean when you tell one of your disciples; your of you father the devil!
I struggle with the,"I am ok your ok" mentality of the subject of not only Christmas but also Easter.
I'll give credit where credit is due; some are now calling it Resurrection Day instead of Easter.
Perhaps we Messianic's can change the world one heart at a time.
Shalom
Sunday, January 27, 2008 7:11:00 PM
greetings and shalom... found you thru Ahavat Zion... we used to be members when we lived in cali. Our rabbi stu baptized me :)
Great to find you and this blog as well Wish our stu had comments enabled :)
Shalom
Cid and Dan Busarow
http://etchedbystone.wordpress.com
http://www.fishcreekhouse.com
Monday, December 29, 2008 9:03:00 AM
As a Christian who was not blessed to be of Jewish lineage, I see Christmas as less problematic than Easter, at least in design. The intent of Christmas was well-meaning, to ve what was pagan rebirth by celebrating the author of our rebirth. Easter however gives me problems because it does not fall directly on pass over because, to me, Jesus is of little significance if He is not our pass over lamb.
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