Today, being the 12th day of December, means that there are only 13 days left for those who accuse Christmas of being a pagan holiday to kvetch over it.
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I want to mention, first and foremost, that I am Jewish and never celebrated Christmas, Easter, or any of the traditional Christian holidays, so I am not defending anything. In fact, I am attacking- I am attacking ignorance, I am attacking misinformation, and I am attacking zeal that is definitely misplaced.
Over many years, I have heard people who have rejected much of the traditional Christian teachings because they have come to realize that to truly follow Yeshua (Jesus), they must turn from Christian teachings that reject the Torah, and become more Torah observant, which is the way Yeshua lived.
But in some cases, they go from one end of the spectrum to the other, from loving to celebrate Christian holidays to hating them, calling then pagan.
You know what? I have heard that term, pagan, thrown around like a hot potato, and I really wonder if anyone actually knows what it means. So I went to the Webster Dictionary, and there were two different definitions that I think are apt:
This one had a warning it might be offensive and was old-fashioned:
a person who is not religious or whose religion is not Judaism, Islam, or especially Christianity.
There was another definition, this one categorized as being literary:
one who has little or no religion and who delights in sensual pleasures and material goods : a non-religious hedonistic person.
I asked Google (our friend) how do I recognize something as pagan, and some of the ways it said were:
- anything other than Jewish, Christian, or Muslim;
- there is worship of gods and goddesses (polytheism);
- events tied to seasonal changes;
- magical practices; and
- focuses on nature
So, there are definitely some elements of Christmas that we could say are similar to pagan practices, such as a Christmas tree being a focus on nature (but it isn’t the same thing Jeremiah talked about), and there is a lot of talk about Christmas miracles (like in my favorite Christmas movie, “Miracle on 34th Street”) and it is seasonal, in that we celebrate it on a winter solstice.
But what about polytheism? Other than the argument about the Trinity (three gods in one is still three gods, which is polytheistic by definition), Christmas is really all about Yeshua, one person, and his father, Adonai, one and only one God.
Pagan things are not in the Jewish, Christian, or Muslim religions, so Christmas must be OK. After all, Christians created it!.
Just because something isn’t in the Bible or is celebrated at the same time ancient peoples celebrated a pagan event, doesn’t mean that holiday is pagan.
What is pagan is something that celebrates paganism! DUH!
So when we celebrate the birth of the Jewish Messiah, is that pagan? NO!
When we celebrate the resurrection of the Jewish Messiah, is that pagan? NO!
When we reject and accuse Christian made holidays celebrating and giving thanks to the one and only, true God- the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob- for sending his son to save us, is that pagan?
No, it is just misplaced zeal and misplaced hatred of having been lied to.
That’s right- I believe much of the zeal against Christmas (and Easter, for that matter) is misdirected hatred for having been lied to for so long, by so many, including religious leaders, friends, and family.
Really, how can giving thanks to God be wrong?
Honestly, how can celebrating the existence of the Messiah be a bad thing?
In fact, if we reject the holiday that celebrates the birth of our Messiah, isn’t that the same as rejecting the Messiah?
Yeshua said if we reject him, we reject the one who sent him (Luke 10:16), so if we reject the holiday created specifically to celebrate his birth, then aren’t we also rejecting the event of his birth? And if we reject celebrating the birth of the Messiah, isn’t that the same as rejecting the Messiah?
Think about this: if we wanted to, we could proclaim some Holy Days, those commanded by God (in the Torah) as pagan because they are definitely seasonal: Shavuot is based on the wheat harvest, and Sukkot on the barely harvest, and Passover is always in the springtime.
I know, what I just said sounds ridiculous, but really not any more ridiculous than saying Christmas is pagan because it is on the same day Saturnalia occurred.
Look, it’s like I said at the start, I am not defending Christmas or any Christian holiday. What I am defending is the right of those who celebrate Christmas not to be insulted as being paganistic, or to insult God and Yeshua by saying events created to celebrate them are pagan just because they happen to fall on the same day an ancient pagan event was celebrated. And because a holiday may have some of the same characteristics of a pagan celebration, that doesn’t make it pagan.
Celebrating the Messiah and giving thanks to God can never be a bad thing, but denying others the right to do so just might be.
Thank you for being here and please don’t forget to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. After all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.
That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!
