Reply to Is anyone else here Jewish and celebrate Christmas?

Forum Index » Religion

Reply to "Is anyone else here Jewish and celebrate Christmas?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My close Jewish friends have Christmas trees and celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas … that is not surprising given we are both Abrahamic religions with so much in common. I wonder whether members of other major world religions do as well ? [/quote]
The fact that Christianity lays claim to the Hebrew Bible as its Old Testament doesn't actually mean that the religions have so much in common. It's honestly very surprising that any Jewish person would celebrate a holiday marking the birth of a messiah that Judaism doesn't believe in.[/quote]

Many Jews regard Christmas trees as secular not religious symbols.

Perhaps Christians perceive themselves to have more in common with Jews than Jews do with Christians.

The entire New Testament is rooted in Old Testament stories, prophesies and moral codes enshrined in the Ten Commandments. Jesus himself said he was the fulfillment of “The Law” (Hebrew laws and prescriptions).

[b]The symbolism used in the Eucharist is based on symbolism that celebrates the Passover.[/b] God’s saving grace and mercy is symbolized in both.

History of both religions originated in same region. Many sacred sites are held to be sacred by both traditions.

There are many more but I don’t have time right now - will provide links later .[/quote]

For many Christians, the Eucharist is not "symbolic" and the fact that the Last Supper was a Passover supper is irrelevant.[/quote]

I was raised Catholic and attend Episcopal church. Various family members and friends are Catholic . I don’t know anyone who thinks they are literally eating the body of Christ during the Eucharist.

The Symbols and Metaphors of the Eucharist | krausekorner

There are deep symbolic and metaphoric meanings in the Eucharist. First, it is based in the Jewish celebration of the Passover, an annual meal that serves as the occasion for this meal with Jesus and his disciples (Luke 22:15). The Passover itself is rooted in the deliverance of the people of Israel from Egyptian bondage, a reenactment of the hasty meal they shared on the eve of their departure. The yearly celebration of the Passover was a way to remember this deliverance, the act of God that created the nation of Israel and was never to be forgotten (see Exodus 13:3). Jesus appropriated this theme to make the celebration of the Lord’s Supper a time of “remembrance” of him and his sacrificial death on the cross.

In doing this, Jesus chose two symbolic elements from the several incorporated into the Passover meal: a cup of wine and a loaf of bread. While these remain central to the Christian celebration of the Eucharist, we have sometimes forgotten their metaphorical power. Why did he choose wine and bread? And how may we participate in the Lord’s Supper in a way that brings out its power and beauty?

First, the cup. Paul gives Jesus’ words here, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood” (1 Corinthian 11:25). The wine of the cup is a metaphorical vehicle for us to remember the blood of Jesus which dripped from his body’s wounds as he died on the cross. We do not drink this cup for flavor or refreshment, but to see the red color of the liquid and be reminded of Jesus’ atoning blood sacrifice.
In the debates over the proper way to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, this is often missed. We wonder, should the cup’s contents be alcoholic or non-alcoholic? Is it OK to use water or white wine? Sometimes circumstances dictate what is available, but these questions miss the metaphorical point. The liquid must be red to remind us of blood or else the metaphor is lost. Recently, a student asked me why churches used grape juice when it was purple and not the color of blood. Good question! My answer is that in America we have been conditioned to think purple is the “grape” color. Radar O’Reilly’s beloved “Grape Nehi soda” was purple, wasn’t it? Yes, but this does not reflect the color of wine used by Jesus. It was deep red, the color of blood. The most important aspect of proper celebration of the Lord’s supper is using liquid that is the color of blood. It is a metaphor that can be experienced. It is the visual metaphor that should cause us to remember.

Second, the loaf. How does this represent the body of Christ? There are several metaphorical streams here but let me focus on one. A loaf of bread in Jesus’ day was not sliced. It was broken. Bread was baked with a crust that served to keep the inside soft and fresh. Breaking bread, the first task in eating bread, if done together was a powerful symbol of fellowship. Jesus takes this social act and applies it to his fellowshipping disciples. He asks them to use the breaking of bread as a way to remember his body which was violently abused in his painful death.
This metaphor has been disfigured more than the red liquid aspect of the cup. We forget that the bread of Jesus’ day would not have been white from bleached flour and would not be shaped into loaves like we may be used to. It would certainly not have been individual wafers. The metaphor here is that the breaking in order to eat the bread metaphorically invokes Jesus’ body given for our salvation.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics