Meditation for December 24th, 2016
Jesus Doesn’t Celebrate Christmas
This is a continuation of the Cracked Pot Meditations war on Christmas
How did Christianity happen? Jesus never claimed to start a new religion, nor did Paul, who was the one who opened the door for gentiles to join. Something this momentous couldn’t have just happen, right?
Jesus and his desciples were Jews, and they practiced Moses law which was the law then, only supersceded by the occupational Roman laws.
Even in speaking about religion, Jesus says in Mathew 5:17, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
He is saying that without being a strict follower of Jewish Moses Law, you will not be called to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Jesus had no plans on beginning a new religion, but to save the one that already exists. Even in his trial in front of the Sanhedrin, who only heard cases by Jews, and if Jesus didn’t think he was a Jew, the Sanhedrin would haven’t have heard his case. The Romans would have heard it.
Paul, even trying to witness to Gentiles, didn’t believe he was helping to start a new religion. He was Jewish trying to spread his carpet empire at the worse, or thinking Jesus meant to convert non-Jews at the very best of intentions.
He too sat in front of the Sanhedrin and didn’t claim anything but his Jewishness, and if he had said he was Christian and not Jewish, they wouldn’t have heard his case, for they only uphold the Torah’s Law.
It wasn’t until after the Council of Nicaea that Christians began to seperate themselves from the Jewish roots of Christianity. They began to even blame the Jews for the death of their messiah. It was the turning of the back on the Jewishness of the very first Christians that gave way to the Spanish Inquisition, the Protestant reformation, and lastly the Holocaust.
So if Jesus came back, he wouldn’t be at the mall waiting to get a picture with Santa, nor would he be heading to Christmas Mass (yes, that is saying mass twice). He would be doing what any good Jewish man, he’d be getting ready to light the first candle in the Menorah for Chanukah.