Answering the Call

A pastor friend of mine recently sent me an article about the great celebration that occurs in Jerusalem on Simchat Torah and a thought came to me while reading the article.

The author referred to it as a Jewish Festival, which is what most Christian commentators do. He also points out that the Simchat Torah celebration and most of the other "Jewish" celebrations come from well over a thousand years after Jesus. So why have these become "Jewish" instead of biblical celebrations? Because only the Jews have chosen to celebrate them!

These are celebrations of the biblical feast days that our LORD gave us by which to remember him. Yet, the church has chosen to replace them with celebrations whose origins do not even come from His holy word. The Jews claim that they are the chosen people because they are the only ones that answered the call at Sinai. While Christians would argue that point, nearly two thousand years after our Messiah's death and resurrection, we still do not answer this call.

I say this not to church bash, but to point out something. When I read articles about the joyous celebrations that the Jews have during the biblical feast days, it is clear that the church has missed out. Growing up in the church, I always looked forward to the Christmas and Easter celebrations because they were the special days of the year in our church. But looking back, I do not remember a single Christmas or Easter that came close to the celebrations I see for Passover, Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, Shavuot, Tabernacles or Simchat Torah. What a great loss we have suffered in the church!

A recent disagreement in the Messianic Jewish movement has really brought this to light for me. The disagreement is whether a gentile is required to keep the commands (including the feast days) or simply has a divine invitation to keep them. In other words: Is it a "get to" or a "have to"? When I look at the joyous results of the "have to", it makes me ask:

What's the difference?

Shalom,
Jeff