Sunset today marks the end of one of the most joyous annual celebrations for the Jewish people, the 8-day festival of Hanukkah.

Hanukkah is a celebration of light and dedication! It commemorates God’s miracle of keeping the lamp lit in the Holy Place for 8 days, with only a day’s worth of oil, and the Maccabees’ revolt that led to the rededication of the Temple after having been desecrated by Israel’s enemies. Light…and dedication.

Thus, Hanukkah is known as the Festival of Light, or the Feast of Dedication. But beyond that, when viewed through a Christian lens, Hanukkah is about Jesus…the Light of the world!

According to John 10:22, while in Jerusalem for the Feast of Dedication, Jesus commemorated the great miracle of light, yet He WAS the miracle of Light! Rewind in your Bible to John 8-9 to find Jesus proclaiming Himself to be the Light of the world in 8:12 and 9:5.

Beyond that, in the midst of His proclamation, He made known that He, the Light of the world:

• Bears witness to God the Father
• Identifies Himself as the Son of Man
• Speaks according to what His Father taught Him
• Declares that the truth will set man free
• Confounded the Jews by declaring His eternal attribute (“…before Abraham was, I AM.”)
• Then, healed the blind

As Hanukkah comes to a close, may we be reminded that Jesus is the miracle-working embodiment of Light and Dedication, just as He demonstrated during that ancient Feast of Dedication. Jesus, the Light of the world, gives us assurance that He is God, as well as the Son of Man; that life-giving truth will indeed set up free; and that His eternal attributes will be shared with us as we stand in awe with Him throughout eternity!

He is our Blessed Hope, and He is worth seeking. May this reminder of Hanukkah spur us to gaze upon the Light of the world, and to abandon ourselves to Him throughout the year ahead!