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| Hanukkah Lamps |
The second point that Jesus was making to His interrogators
at Hanukkah was to offer Himself as a contrast to the one who, two hundred
years earlier, claimed a high title for himself. Antichus IV used the title
‘Epiphany’ to indicate he was a god (it means ‘god manifest’). Jesus, in His
reply to His interrogators said His presence was the true epiphany. Here it is
again:
“Do you say of Him whom the Father …
sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of
God’?” (John
10:36)
While Jesus did not take the title ‘Epiphany’, which
had too much baggage to be of any help, He did use the title ‘Son
of God’, which was significantly and correctly equated by His
opponents to the truth of epiphany, that is, ‘make Yourself God’.
The regulations in force at that time are recorded for us in the Mishnah (the
book of legal regulations that were in place at the time of Christ). It orders
that the blasphemer is to be executed on the basis of Numbers 15:30:
“But
the person who does anything presumptuously, whether he is native-born or a
stranger, that one brings reproach on the Lord,
and he shall be cut off from among his people”.
This
was understood to be blasphemy committed ‘with a high hand’, that is, so that he raised his hand, as it were,
against YHWH, or acted in open rebellion against Him. Such a one was to be cut
off (cf. Gen.17:14); for he had despised the word of the Lord, broken His commandment, and was to atone for it with
his life.
Jesus, by His use of the title, “Son
of God” (a term of deity), was considered by His opponents to be
acting above His station in rebellion against YHWH. But Jesus
was not acting above His station,
He was truly “God … manifested in the flesh”
(1 Tim. 3:16). John states positively it in the opening of his gospel: “In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God … And the Word became flesh and
dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of
the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1,14).
The assertions
that Jesus was one with the Father (in John10.30: “I
and My Father are one”
and 10:38: “the Father is in Me, and I in Him”)
are
strengthened by His later declarations:
that
everything that belonged to the Father belonged to Him: “All
things that the Father has are Mine” (John 16:15);
and
to have our prayers answered we are to ask the Father in His Name: “…
whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you” (John 15:16); that He was
the only one who knew the Father, and therefore the only one who could reveal
Him to others; “All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no
one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son,
and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him”
(Matt. 11:27).
Jesus, by His
use of the ‘I AM’ designations (John 8:58; and John 6:35, 48; 8:12; 9:5; 10:7,
9, 11, 14; 11:25; 14:6; 15:1) and the title ‘Son of God’ (John
10:36), acknowledged the fact that He was God incarnate and acted as
such. He accepted worship and
forgave sins. Among those who worshipped Him was a leper (Matt.
8:2); a ruler of the Jews (Matt. 9:18); a blind man (John 9:38); His own
disciples (Matt. 14:33); a Canaanite woman (Matt. 15:25); the mother of James
and John; (Matt 20:20, KJV); and the Gadarene demoniac (Mark 5:6). He received
worship without embarrassment or any hint of impropriety.
Many
of those that cross-examined Him were Pharisees who, as previously mentioned,
considered themselves the descendants of the Chasidim (the pious). The Chasidim was the group, at the
time of Antiochus, who were the prime movers in the rebellion against Syrian
rule. They fostered the revival of
Israel’s commitment
to the Law and their Jewish culture. The
Pharisees then, in loyalty to their roots, were
ardent defenders of the Torah and the traditions of Israel, and saw in Jesus
someone who did not support them in their cause. That Jesus revered and obeyed
the Law of Moses, the Law that had been revealed from heaven, was not
enough; they required all of Israel (including the Messiah) to accept the decisions of the Sopherim and the
Tanaim as binding Law also. The high authority accorded these additions was
never recognised by Jesus. In fact He opposed them. He was keen to sweep away
anything that blurred the clarity of the Word of God.
Moreover, He was aware that the
conflict between Himself and the Pharisees would lead them to enact Hanukkah in
reverse: led by another ‘Judas’ they will take the light of the world out of
the Temple and crucify Him on Golgotha bringing darkness over the earth for
three hours. The physical darkness would not only impact on the One who was
made a sin-offering but would also signify that Israel as a nation would remain
in spiritual darkness until they called for the return of Jesus, ‘the Light of
the World’.
At the time of the Maccabees they rejected Antiochus Epiphanes and
the darkness he represented and brought light to Israel.
At the time of the Messiah they rejected Jesus, Son of God, and the light He represented and brought darkness to Israel.Next Time: The Significance of Hanukkah in Prophecy
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