Because the Hebrew calendar is lunar based, the dates of Jewish holidays vary from year to year. Most Christians are vaguely aware that Hanukkah, or the Festival of Lights, typically occurs during the Christian season of Advent. Only six times in the last 100 years, including in 2024, has Hanukkah begun on December 25. That happy convergence with Christmas in this joyful season should cause us all to reflect on a few things.
For starters, it would do well for Christians to ponder the silly and very unchristian claim of the so-called “war on Christmas” first made popular by certain conservative Christian commentators like Bill O’Reilly twenty years ago. That retailers should choose to use “Season Greetings” or “Happy Holidays” in their advertising campaigns is simply the very decent recognition that Christmas is not the only holiday of the season and Christianity is not the only faith tradition of the land.
Writing for the Huffington Post, Jeff Schweitzer summed it up best in 2014: “There is no war on Christmas; the idea is absurd at every level. Those who object to being forced to celebrate another’s religion are drowning in Christmas in a sea of Christianity dominating all aspects of social life. An 80 percent majority can claim victimhood only with an extraordinary flight from reality.”
I say it is unchristian to whine about this so-called “war” because at its heart is a claim for Christian hegemony that is the antithesis of the teachings of Jesus. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says, “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them…. [W]henever you pray, go into your room and shut the door…” In the gospel of Luke Jesus tells his disciples “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them… But not so with you, rather the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves.”
The importance of humility is a common theme of Jesus. At one point he calls for a child and tells his followers, “Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in God’s realm.” On another occasion he tells them that those who are exalted will be humbled and the humble will be exalted. When making his “triumphant” entry into Jerusalem he rode not a grand stallion as did the Roman rulers, but a lowly donkey.
Insisting that businesses, public officials, schools and everyone else pay homage to our holiday and especially while simultaneously ignoring the plight of the unhoused and hungry, is the kind of religious arrogance that Jesus abhorred. “Woe to you,” Jesus says to the societal leaders of his time and ours, “hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy and faith.” True today as then. If there be a war on Christmas, then it is this, that strangers are not welcomed, the hungry are not fed, the naked are not clothed and the sick and in prison are not visited. “Truly I tell you,” Jesus says in Matthew 25, “just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.”
Light in the darkness
The juxtaposition of Hanukkah and Christmas also provides us a wonderful opportunity to reflect on themes of darkness and light, common to both traditions. The origins of Hanukkah date back to the Maccabean revolt 164 years before the birth of Jesus when Jerusalem was liberated from an oppressive regime that had defiled the temple. To purify the temple, a lamp with special, uncontaminated oil was required but only a single flask, enough for one day, could be found and it would take eight days to make more. Nevertheless, the lamp was lit and the process of purification begun. Miraculously, the lamp continued to burn for eight days until new oil could be obtained. Thus during Hanukkah one candle is lit on each of the 8 nights in celebration of the original miracle.
Where Matthew and Luke have a birth story at the beginning of their gospels, John has a creation story and like the creation story in Genesis 1, it is a story about light overcoming darkness:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him, not one thing came into being. What came into being in him was life, and life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it.
One does not have to be deeply religious to understand the significance of light in the midst of darkness. A North Star to guide us. A light at the end of the tunnel. A light of hope, vision of the way forward. A torch of knowledge and wisdom. The dawn of a new day.
There is a tradition, common in many churches, of ending Christmas Eve services in a circle with candles lit from the Christ candle while singing Silent Night. It is for me one of the highlights of the year. It has even more meaning for many when done at midnight, the darkest point of the night (at least symbolically) and then ending the service in silence. At any time of night there is a certain beauty and power that comes with the simplicity of a circle of candlelight, illuminating the faces of each quiet soul pondering the wonder of it all. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. I live for such moments of illumination in this often dark world.
Love against oppression
Finally, there is one more common element in the two faith traditions, often overlooked: political oppression. In Matthew’s birth account, the family of Jesus is forced to flee Judea due to the threat to Jesus’ life by the current ruler. The significance of Jesus beginning his life as a political refugee has largely been lost in today’s push to deport millions of immigrants from our country. Ironically, if Jesus were born today in the U.S., it would be to a family facing deportation.
Luke makes a point of telling his readers that Jesus was born under the reign of Emperor Augustus. Whereas his uncle Julius was elected to the office by the Roman senate, Augustus took it by force in a decade-long civil war against the conspirators who assassinated Julius. Thereupon Rome ceased to be the seat of the republic and henceforth would hold the throne of the empire, and in empires, oppression is the coin of the realm. Indeed, historically we know that a small and misguided attempt at revolt in Judea around the time Jesus was born was violently put down by Rome, concluding with the crucifixion of thousands of Jews. Such is the way that empires maintain power.
Hanukkah represents a victory over political oppression, not under the Romans but the Greeks who ruled Judea after the conquest of Alexander the Great. The revolt led by the Maccabees began when King Antiochus IV Epiphanes banned Jewish religion and converted the temple in Jerusalem to a site for pagan worship, the ultimate offense. Starting in the countryside with guerrilla tactics, the Maccabees slowly built an army that eventually succeeded after three years in liberating Jerusalem and then purifying the temple. Though Hanukkah pales in significance to Passover in the Jewish tradition, both bear witness to the importance of freedom from oppression for religious life.
Discussion of political topics often makes people of faith uncomfortable. Christians, however, should never forget that when Jesus was born, the political power of the time had decreed that the Son of God was already incarnate and sitting on the throne of Rome. Hence the proclamation that a peasant in lowly Palestine was the true incarnation of God was in direct contradiction to the legitimacy of Caesar’s rule. We should also never forget that crucifixion was a particularly cruel form of execution used by the Roman government exclusively for political opponents involved in active resistance against Roman power. In short, Jesus was born under political oppression and executed as an act of political oppression. Opposition to the rule of empire is not an occasional by-product of Christian faith, it is at the core of Christian identity. Jesus’ message about the “Kingdom of God” is not about an alternative to life on earth, but an alternative to the throne in Rome. This realm is where power is shown not by force and violence but by God’s love and justice.
And so a star guides the wise through the darkness of the world to a place of humble birth, Immanuel, God with us. And the light of Hanukkah grows brighter each night as one more candle is lit to remind us that God’s light still burns bright in the world, no matter how dark the night.
Thank you, Dan.