Days and Years

Today, much of the Christian church celebrates that holiday-which-must-not-be-named.  (See the blog post before this one if that intrigues you).  For many years, I’ve called it “Resurrection Sunday,” and been quite pleased with that.  Recently, I’ve started calling it what it is… Pesakh, or Passover. 

But this year, there is an interesting lesson in the timing of the day that sheds light on our worldview, and it is this about which I wish to briefly write. 

What is today?

We mark it with a name… “March,” and then we number the days in March… so this is the 27^th day of March. 

Was Yeshua raised from the dead on the 27^th of March?  Because in 2015, the Church celebrated Resurrection Sunday on April 5^th.  And next year, in 2017, the Church will celebrate Resurrection Sunday on April 16^th. 

But it gets better:  This year, the Hebrew calendar has 13 months.  So the Hebrew festival of Passover, which is very closely tied to the Christian observance of Resurrection Sunday, happens almost a month from now.  Exactly when?  We can’t be sure, because the new month doesn’t start until two witnesses report to the Sanhedron that they saw the New Moon over Jerusalem.  And 14 days after THAT… That will be Passover.  

What’s the point?

The point is this: Human calendars are arbitrary.  There’s more to it than all of that, and I’m sure some of my readers will have strenuous points to make on this issue, but a date… like March 27^th… is just a date.  If we chose to remember an event on that day, that doesn’t mean that event happened exactly 365.25 x 1984 days ago.  That means this is the date we chose to remember it. 

God’s calendar, based on the Aviv barley and the sighting of the New moon, is always in flux to some degree… this year, the barley was not Aviv.  Perhaps Jerusalem will be cloudy on the first two days of the new moon, and the month will begin two months late. 

Since calendars are so malleable, does it really make sense to get upset with your brother or your sister regarding which date they chose to remember an event?  

Should we let “soft facts” create hard hearts?

To my Christian brothers and sisters who celebrate Resurrection Sunday this morning, I want to say this:  May the Joy of the Triumphant Risen Christ fill your hearts and homes this and every day!

To my Karaite and Messianic brothers and sisters who will celebrate Pesakh next month, I want to say this:
May you savor each moment of the anticipation of that Holy day!

To my Orthodox Jewish brothers and sisters, I want to say this:
Pesakh Samech!

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is, when brothers dwell together in unity!

The Holiday Which Must Not Be Named

My dear, dear fellow Christians,

As of this writing, we are almost one month past Valentine's day.  The next holiday is not yet upon us, but I'm already seeing the telltale signs... stores piled with candy and pastel baskets, seasonal "Egg" shaped candy in the convenience stores, and angry posts from Atheists, Pagans, and Messianics all decrying the coming day.

I know, I know!  I hate grouping those three demographics together too!

Sadly, on this issue, they are of one accord.

The Atheists are all like "You're worshiping a rabbit that lays eggs!  How dumb can you be?"

The Pagans are all like "Hey, that's our holiday!  You got the date wrong, and the name, and, like, umm, most of the things, but you did remember the rabbit and the eggs!"

And the Messianics are all like "You're worshiping a rabbit that lays eggs!  How dumb can you be?"

I love Messianics.  I really do.  Heck, on my good days, when I'm Obedient to the Master, I even love the Pagans and the Atheists.

But the Messianics have something to teach us (that the Catholics already know!  Can you believe this?  The Messianics and the Catholics agreeing??) that the Protestant church, as a whole, needs to understand.

This Holiday-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named that is coming up is actually ordained by God. The first 28 verses of Exodus 12 teach us about it.  In Matthew 26:18, the Master says

“Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, My time is at hand. I will keep (The-Holiday-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named) at your house with my disciples.’ ”

So it's not one of those things we can even argue about whether or not we, as Christians, are supposed to still do... The Master did it, we should as well.

So how do we do that?  We adopt the Jewish name for it, first of all.  Get rid of the E-word and call it what it really is...

PASSOVER

Maybe, if you want to get closer to the Hebrew, you can call it

Pesakh

If you want to get REALLY close to the Hebrew, you can call it

פֶּ֫סַח

But whatever you call it, do yourself a favor: get rid of the E-word, the bunny, and the eggs.  Unless they're made of peanut butter and coated with chocolate.   

Jesus, Moses, and Paul: Christians and the Torah

It is the opinion of some scholars that Christianity would not be what it is without Paul.  I have even read that, in the opinion of some of them, Paul changed what Jesus taught.  Dr. Bart Ehrman, for example, teaches that Paul's teaching on circumcision in Galatians 5:2 was in response to Jewish men going to the Gym (where Greek men exercised in the nude) and feeling socially ostracized because they looked different.  So, according to Dr. Ehrman, Paul undoes the Torah to make the Jewish men feel more accepted in Greek society.

But what does the Scripture say?

Acts 24:14-15 (ESV)

14 But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets, 15 having a hope in God, which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.

Acts 25:7-8 (ESV)

7 When he had arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing many and serious charges against him that they could not prove. 8 Paul argued in his defense, “Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I committed any offense.”

And finally,

Acts 26:30-32 (ESV)

30 Then the king rose, and the governor and Bernice and those who were sitting with them. 31 And when they had withdrawn, they said to one another, “This man is doing nothing to deserve death or imprisonment.” 32 And Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.” 

Now obviously there's significantly more here than is relevant to this topic, but I do want to point out that Paul is accused by the Jewish leaders of violating Jewish law and tried in a court which is so friendly to the Jewish leadership that.... "desiring to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison..." for two years. (Acts 24:27)  This court, which stole two years of the man's life because it wanted to be friendly to the Jewish leadership, was unable to find Paul guilty of violating Jewish teaching.

Think about that a moment.

The court was hostile to Paul and looking to appease the Jewish leadership, and when presented with the evidence, could only say “This man is doing nothing to deserve death or imprisonment.”

What does that teach us?

PAUL TAUGHT TORAH.

Yeah, I know.  That stings a bit, doesn't it?

"But, A.J.," you say, "Didn't Paul teach not to obey the sabbath?  Didn't Paul teach not to circumcise?  Didn't Paul teach...."

What happens when you go back and look at those passages from the other perspective... the one I've just given you?  You'll find, I think, that we do not live in a binary universe.  That these things are complex and nuanced issues which simply cannot be understood in a single soundbyte.

"But A.J.," you say, "Didn't Jesus do away with the Torah?  Wasn't the law nailed to the Cross?"

Matthew 5:17-19 (ESV) says

 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.  For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.  Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Now, Christians... when does Heaven and Earth pass away?

Revelation 21:1 (ESV)

 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

So how are we to respond to the Law?  We see that Jesus taught the Law.  We see that Paul taught the Law.

Let's put this another way:

Which of the Laws would you like to break?  I recently heard a very well known prosperity gospel preacher tell an audience of hundreds of thousands that they were not bound by the Law, no, not even by "the big ten."

The Big Ten?  Since I'm pretty sure he wasn't talking about football, I'm going to assume he meant the Ten Commandments.

Things like 

"You shall have no other gods before Me,"

or

"You shall not steal,"

or

"You shall not commit adultery."

Which of these would you like to violate?

You instinctively know that none of THESE laws are passed away.  None of THESE laws were "nailed to the Cross."  You are not "free," oh Christian, to sleep with your brother's wife. 

The argument is often made "We're only beholden to those laws which are repeated in the New Testament. This is why we don't have to keep the Sabbath."

Exodus 31:16 (ESV)

Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever.

"But I'm not Israel," you may say.  

Are you not grafted in?

No, you don't replace Israel, but you are Abraham's children, right?

This is not a call to legalism.  And by no means am I saying our salvation comes through our ability to follow the Law... but nobody was ever saved by following the Law... not even Moses.

It's not a salvational issue.  It's a matter of realizing who you are, and who God is.  If your employer tells you to take out the garbage, even if that's not the job you were hired for, you take out the garbage.  Why?  Because he's paying you.

How much more should you do for the one who created and redeemed you?