Shocking News From My Rabbi
November 10th, 2010My wife just met an interesting person… a Messianic Jew.
Now, I do not pretend to understand all of what that entails. There are aspects of Judaism more esoteric and arcane than the Catholic church…
However, he brought up something that has crossed my mind before as an idle curiosity…
Why don’t Christians observe the Hebrew high holidays?
At first, I wondered why we don’t make sacrifices anymore. The answer to that was obvious… Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice, making all others unnecessary.
But what of the other traditions? So I asked my writing mentor, himself a Rabbi.
His reply was something to the effect of because many Christians don’t believe in the Torah.
He’s right about many Christians not obeying the Law of Moses. Too many Christians do away with the Law entirely, because of what Paul taught. Yes, Paul said that the Law was only our schoolteacher, to bring us to the point of Grace. And that being under Grace means we are no longer under the Law.
Again, true. But that does NOT mean, go ahead and commit whatever sin you want… Christ will forgive you. As C.S. Lewis said, if you believe that being a Christian means taking no notice of what he taught, you’re not much of a Christian.
Also, remember Jesus said he came to fulfill the Law. To complete the Law. Not to replace it. If you truly love Christ, you will obey God’s law.
In the Acts of the Apostles, and in Paul’s letters, you will find bitter disputes about the Law of circumcision. Supposedly, this aspect of the Law was put aside.
Why? What aspects of the law are we supposed to keep, and which do we discard?
So let’s return to the subject of not celebrating the Hebrew high holidays. Why should Christians not celebrate Rosh Hashanah, Shabbat Shuvah, and Yom Kippur? They are eminently compatible the Christian practices of self-reflection and atonement.
I can understand not celebrating Passover, the recognition of freedom from slavery from the Egyptians. It generally starts on the same date our savior was nailed to the cross, extending past the resurrection. Even so, this should not be put aside due to a scheduling conflict. There must be room on the calendar somewhere to accommodate both.
So what’s the issue with not celebrating various aspects of our spiritual heritage? I’ll have more on this later as I research this one out.
The reason why Christians do not have to partake in observing Sabbath Days or Holy Days is exactly what you said. The Law of Moses was our schoolmaster until Christ. Christ fulfilled the Law on the day of Pentecost. Now we are to obey the Holy Spirit OF Elohim. Paul warned those that wanted to be justified by obeying only a portion of the Law of Moses that they had fallen from grace and that Christ was made of no effect to them, since CURSED is anyone who does not obey ALL the Law. As far as sinning goes, if we continue to sin, the Lake of Fire is where we will end up. We must obey the Holy Spirit OF Yahuah to the end, just like Paul and Yahusha taught.
Thanks for listening, 777denny