Over the last few years I have been actively doing more to combat the anti-Christmas people. (And anti-Jew as well) I put up a bigger Nativity, say Merry Christmas to everyone, hand out Christmas cards at work that SAY “Merry Christmas” inside. I have never accepted the thought that I should not say it because it may offend someone else. This article shows why we all need to be culture warriors. Happy Hannauka and Merry Christmas!
Chanukah/Hanukkah is itself a very theistic holiday, and got mentioned in the New Testament as the “Festival of Lights.” The term Chanukah means “dedication.” It is about a significant inter-testamental event. The Jewish temple, long torn out of Jewish control, was seized again by Jewish zealots, and according to popular legend was blessed by God by causing the temple lighting, powered by olive oil, to continue operating until enough new oil could be gotten and consecrated by priests to replenish those lamps. Without an operating temple, Jesus could have had no meaningful nexus with it. The dreidl game that modern tradition ties to Hanukkah is tied to a Hebrew slogan that translates as “[A] great miracle occurred here” which could apply equally to the alleged oil miracle, or to the seemingly improbable seizure of the temple back from impious pagan control. One doesn’t have to be Jewish to appreciate what all this meant: God was once more hard at work setting the stage for the Savior of the world.
Another metaphor that the New Testament propounds is that the human body of the Christian is the “temple of the Holy Spirit.” Not much imagination is needed to see how the theme of Hanukkah and its rededication of a temple that was a physical building, carries over nicely into Christian faith and practice.