As I write, I am sitting in my cozy Sukkah enjoying a sleepy
fall morning. Last evening was spent
with friends - laughing, enjoying good food, singing, blessing God, and of
course feeling silly while shaking the lulav.
This is our third year celebrating the Sukkot, the Levitical feast of booths
or tabernacles. Every different set
apart time on God’s Calendar in Leviticus 23, blesses me in a different way.
Sukkot in particular, makes me long for the Messianic Age, when there will be
no more parting. This morning while we
were cooking our breakfast in the backyard, I daydreamed about how much fun it
would be if all of our family and friends had built Sukkot in our backyard and
were right now joining us for breakfast.
What a joyous occasion that would be!!
Although we have not personally experienced it, in my
research and readings on what the festivals mean to Christians, I have often
encountered a unexplainable prejudice toward actually keeping these appointed
times. Some Christians actually theorize that if you keep these festivals you
are denying Jesus sacrifice for you. It
is often said they are Jewish festivals, not meant to be kept by Christians. This is a bias that I have a hard time
understanding. I in no way believe that
you have to keep these festivals to be “saved”, but I also cannot understand
why we, Christians, ever gave up these appointed times of joy. Take for example the Christian holiday of
Christmas, no one believes that you have to celebrate Christmas to be saved,
and yet there are not many Christians who do not celebrate this man made day of
remembrance. Why? Do we do it to be saved? No!!
Christians celebrate Christmas because they see it as a remembrance of
Christ’s birth. How much more should we
take pleasure in what God calls HIS FEASTS?
When God laid out what he called His feasts, in Leviticus
23, most if not all of the Israelites did not know that they pointed forward to
a future event. They were simply a remembrance of past experiences. The list
begins with the weekly Sabbath, which of course is a reminder of creation and
the fact that God rested from His creative activity on the seventh day. The purpose of Passover/Unleavened Bread was
to recall God’s deliverance from Egypt. Shavuot was connected to the giving of
the law on Mt. Sinai, although whether this was a connection made later or at
the time of its institution is not really known. Feast of Trumpets, or what is called Rosh
Hashanah today, is called a day for remembrance when God instituted it,
although God does not say what you are supposed to remember. The Rabbi’s later connected it to the day
that Adam and Eve were created, and thus on that day God was crowned King of
the World. Yom Kippur does not appear to
have any past event connected with it. However
if you do a little math, you find that Yom Kippur lines up very closely with
the day that God forgave Israel for their worship of the Golden Calf. On that day He once again promised that He
would go before them into the land, instead of just sending His angel. We certainly might be able to draw a logical
conclusion then, that Yom Kippur might be a day to remember God’s great
forgiveness in the past. Looking at the
day through this event, helps explains why Jews today believe that individual judgement
for the following year is sealed at the end of every Yom Kippur. The solemn day of Judgement is followed by a
seven day festival of rejoicing that lasts 8 days. This week too is for remembering. “Ye shall keep it a feast unto the LORD seven
days in the year. It shall be a statute forever
in your generations: ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month. Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that
are Israelites born shall dwell in booths:
That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to
dwell in booths, when I brought them out
of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.” Leviticus 23:41-43 From the fact
that the festivals began as seasons of remembrance, we can draw the conclusion that
even though our Messiah came and gave the festivals greater meaning, this does
not mean God meant us to now quit observing them, instead we as Christians have
an even greater meaning to keep them.
Admittedly all of these celebrations all had specific Temple
worship and sacrifices specified for each festival, because there is no
physical temple, there is no way to follow these specific commands. But with almost all of the times, there are
non-temple worship instructions attached to observance instructions, these
certainly can be easily followed. I
would also argue that the Rabbis have spent 2000 years studying the festivals
and how to keep them without a temple, and while you might not agree with all
their conclusions, their deductions are at least are a good place to start
deciding how you might observe. Oh that
we as Christians had done the same thing when the temple was destroyed, instead
of throwing out God’s festivals and putting our own, or worse some other god’s
holidays, in their place. If we had done
this, would we have discovered that maybe we don’t need a temple lamb sacrifice
for Passover? Jesus is our lamb. How much more should this festival mean
to us? Not only that but Jesus seems to
point to some future observance or fulfillment when He says on the night before
His crucifixion, “With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you
before I suffer: For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it
be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”
Luke 22:15-16 Jesus is planning on eating Passover with us. How wonderful is that? He is our unleavened bread. How
much more should eating unleavened bread for seven days mean to us? He is
the first fruits of the resurrection. The Holy Spirit came down on Shavuot. How
much more should this festival be lauded with joy and celebration? While different sects of Christianity have
different viewpoints on how Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur will be or have been
fulfilled, we can all agree, I think, that Jesus is our great high priest
serving us in the Heavenly Tabernacle.
Because of His sacrifice, our sins can be not just covered, but blotted
out completely when we ask for forgiveness.
How much more should we be
humbled before God on Yom Kippur than the Israelites of old? Also on both Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah
there are blasts on the “trumpet” or shofar.
All followers of the Messiah long for the day that Jesus will come again
with blasts on the trumpet. How much more should these days mean to
us? And finally, Sukkot, the set apart
week that my family is currently enjoying.
Not only is Sukkot a picture of what Messiah did when he tabernacled
here with us 2000 years ago, but also every Christian commentary and even the
Jewish ones that I have read, point to Sukkot as a picture of the world to
come. That wonderful time in the future,
when we will dwell with God and He with us.
How much more should we build
our Sukkahs and wave our palm branches in anticipation of that day?
We as Christians are supposed to be disciples of our
rabbi. When you take a close look at
what that means, it is not something to take lightly. The picture of Middle Eastern discipleship is
not just to learn everything the rabbi knows, but instead the goal is much more
far reaching. You are to follow your rabbi
so closely that you become WHO he is. So
much so, that when people look at you and they know who you follow, because
even though you are still you, everything you do reflects who your teacher is. My favorite example of how serious this
commitment is, to both the rabbi and disciple comes from a throw away line that
I have heard from one of my favorite teachers, Ray Vanderlaan. Talking about this commitment He shares that
disciples will even follow their rabbi into the bathroom, because they don’t
want to miss how the rabbi behaves in every situation. There might be a blessing or some other form
of behavior or protocol that they need to imitate. While this is an extreme example, and might
be a little too personal to us Westerners, this is exactly the kind of commitment
Jesus asks from us, to imitate Him on all levels. If we find Jesus doing something, we should
be imitating Him to the best of our ability.
Not only do we find Jesus delighting in the festivals that were put in
place by God, we also find him, in John 10:22-23, celebrating Hanukkah, a man
made festival commemorating a great miracle of God. “And it was at Jerusalem the Feast of
Dedication and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch”. Hanukkah is translated as dedication in
English. The festivals are another way
that we can walk in His footsteps.
Ultimately, the festivals tell the story of the world from
beginning to end. They bring a wonderful
rhythm to the life of the believer that cannot be duplicated. They
were designed by God to not only remember past deliverances, but future
redemptions. While I don't believe these festivals are designed to save you, I do think they are designed to teach you about salvation through physical acts. Because while we live in a Greek thinking world, God knew that deep down inside, we all need physical (Eastern) ways of learning our faith. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if
all of God’s family started to celebrate these seasons of remembrance together?
