On Sunday evening Anne and I were privileged to be part of the eighth and final night of a Hanukkah celebration – an important annual Jewish festival and event that is thousands of years old. This Hanukkah celebration was organised and led by Pastors Lawrence and Louise Hirsch who lead the Beit HaMashiach Messianic Community in Caulfield (one of our Jewish-Christian Churches of Christ in Victoria). Lawrence and Louise also head up Celebrate Messiah, a ministry that now takes the Gospel of Christ to Jews all around the world.
This Hanukkah was tinged with sadness. Just seven days before, on the first night of Hanukkah, 15 Jews were brutally murdered at Sydney’s Bondi Beach. The pain and heartache of that atrocity was still raw. Ps Lawrence led the service and others, including myself, took part in leading prayers for the families of those killed in Sydney and for the Jewish communities of Australia. It was a very moving experience. The worship was heavy with sorrow, certainly, and there were tears of sorrow shed. But there was also hope expressed and celebrated, too … “our hope is not yet gone”, Lawrence said several times. And that’s what Hanukkah is about – the shining of light in the darkness. Even the darkest darkness is dispelled by light.
Hanukkah, the Jewish "Festival of Lights," celebrates the miraculous rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in the 2nd century BCE after a small band of Jewish rebels (the Maccabees) defeated invading Seleucid Greeks to reclaim their holy site -against overwhelming odds they succeeded. Hanukkah commemorates a miracle where a tiny bit of pure olive oil, meant to last just one night, burned for eight days, symbolising Jewish perseverance and the triumph of light over darkness. Ever since, Hanukkah, has been marked by the lighting of candles on a nine-branched menorah on each night of the festival.
Here's a bit more backstory. Around 175 BCE, King Antiochus IV outlawed Jewish practices and desecrated the Temple, forcing Jews to worship Greek gods. He even had a pig offered as an offering to the Greek gods, in the Jewish temple – clearly designed to humiliate the Jews and desecrate their holiest place. A Jewish man, Judah Maccabee led a revolt against the much larger occupying Seleucid army. The “Maccabees” won, and reclaimed Jerusalem (c. 164 BCE), and then cleansed the Temple which had not only been desecrated but befouled in many ways. When they went to relight the Temple's menorah, they found only one day's worth of pure oil but, as I mentioned, it miraculously burned for eight days straight until new oil was prepared.
On Sunday, an electronic menorah was lit in Caulfield Park. The central ritual on each of eight consecutive nights, starts with one candle being lit, and then lighting one more each evening, using a helper candle (shamash) to light them. On the last night the eighth candle is lit and the festival ends with worship and dance. The Hebrew word "Hanukkah" means "dedication". The Hanukkah festival continues to be a powerful reminder to the Jews that light will never be overcome by darkness. It commemorates also the fight for religious freedom and Jewish survival against assimilation.
In John’s Gospel it is written of Jesus, the Christ, who came into the world …
John 1:4-5 (NIV)
“In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
Jesus is our Hanukkah light. His light still shines brightly despite the darkness of this world. That light is hope and more. And the darkness will never overcome it.
Isaiah 9:2 (NIV)
“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.”
Enjoy this Christmas season and the beautiful worship that is so special as we celebrate the Word become flesh. And remember, as we do so, to pray for our Jewish brothers and sisters – and thank God for that first Hanukkah all those centuries ago. Without it, we wouldn’t have Christmas. Without the Jews, we wouldn’t have Jesus.
O Come, O Come, Immanuel (1851)
“O come, O come, Immanuel,
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Refrain:
Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel.
O come, O Wisdom from on high,
Who ordered all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show
And teach us in its ways to go.
O come, O come, great Lord of might,
who to Your tribes on Sinai's height
In ancient times did give the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.
O come, O Branch of Jesse's stem,
Unto Your own and rescue them!
From depths of hell your people save,
And give them victory o'er the grave.
O come, O Key of David, come
And open wide our heavenly home.
Make safe for us the heavenward road
And bar the way to death's abode.
O come, O Bright and Morning Star,
And bring us comfort from afar!
Dispel the shadows of the night
And turn our darkness into light.
O come, O King of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind.
Bid all our sad divisions cease
And be Yourself our King of Peace.”
Think on these things, and give thanks to God.
Ps Milton
[This is the final pastor’s BLOG for 2025, and commemorates 21 years of Newsletter BLOGs at RPCC & ReChurch]