The Glory of His Celebration of Hanukkah
The Kingship of Christ · AD 29
On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.
Revelation 19:16
At the close of AD 29 the Lord Jesus made His way toward Jerusalem to celebrate Hanukkah, the Feast of Dedication, displaying His sovereign power and authority over life and death. Along the road He freed a woman bound for eighteen years, taught on the narrow door and the growth of His kingdom, and wept over Jerusalem. In the temple He declared, “I and the Father are one,” escaped stoning once more, and afterward raised Lazarus from the dead — proving that Christ is King over life, death, and judgment.
Read: Luke 13:10–35; John 10:22–42; John 11:1–54
Through the Towns and Villages
On a Sabbath in early December, as He made His way toward Jerusalem, the Lord preached in a synagogue in one of the villages of Perea. While He taught, a woman entered who had been severely hunched over for eighteen years, bound by a disabling spirit that would not let her straighten herself. Filled with compassion, Christ called her to Him, laid His hands on her, and freed her — and before she could respond, she was healed.
As she straightened her back in relief, she began worshiping and thanking God. But the ruler of the synagogue was outraged that Christ had healed on the Sabbath. The Lord answered his hypocrisy: each of them would untie an ox or a donkey to water it on the Sabbath, so ought not this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound for eighteen years, be loosed on the Sabbath day? His adversaries were put to shame, and the people rejoiced.
With Christ ruling over Satan, the kingdom of God had truly come. Though only a few of Satan's captives were then being delivered, Christ compared His kingdom to a mustard seed that grows into a tree, and to leaven that spreads through all the flour. It came with little fanfare, yet it would one day fill the whole world.
When someone asked whether those who are saved would be few, the Lord urged them to strive to enter through the narrow door, for many would seek to enter and not be able. The door would soon be shut, as God once shut the door of the ark. Many children of Abraham would be cast out while Gentiles came “from east and west, and from north and south” to sit at the table — for the kingdom is marked not by ethnicity but by faith in Christ.
And when he had said this, he called her to him and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.”
Luke 13:12
“Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.”
Luke 13:24
He Laments over Jerusalem
At that very hour some Pharisees warned Christ that Herod Antipas wanted to kill Him. Herod no longer merely wondered whether Jesus was John the Baptist raised; he now saw the Lord of glory as a threat to his throne. But the King of Kings had not come to fight against flesh and blood, nor to overthrow Rome — He was battling the prince of the power of the air, and no earthly ruler could touch Him until His course was finished.
“Go and tell that fox,” the Lord said, that He would cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day finish His course — for it could not be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem. Yet as His thoughts turned to that city, His heart was troubled. He had sent prophet after prophet to gather her children, and still she would not come.
Because of their persistent unbelief, He at last left them to themselves: “Behold, your house is forsaken.” Those who should have been first to rush through the door of the kingdom had locked themselves out. There was now more hope for Rome than for that generation of Jerusalem, and they would not see Him again until they said, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!”
Matthew 23:37
The Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem
Christ arrived in Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Dedication, also called Hanukkah or the Feast of Lights — an eight-day celebration of Judea's liberation from the Seleucid Empire by Judas Maccabeus in 165 BC. When the temple was rededicated, though there was only one day's worth of oil, the lamps burned for eight days. Each night the Jews lit one more branch of the menorah until all were aflame.
As Christ walked in the Colonnade of Solomon, the Jews encircled Him and demanded, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” He told them He had already answered, yet they would not believe — because, He said, they were not among His sheep.
Hearing Him claim oneness with the Father, the Jews took up stones for the fourth time to kill the King, charging Him with blasphemy — that He, being a man, made Himself God. Christ reasoned with them from Psalm 82 and pointed to the works His Father had given Him to do, but they were not appeased and tried to arrest Him. Because it was not yet His hour, He escaped their hands and withdrew to Bethany beyond the Jordan, where He had been baptized.
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.”
John 10:27–30
He Raises Lazarus and the Plot to Kill Him
While Christ remained in Perea, His friend Lazarus of Bethany fell mortally ill, and his sisters Mary and Martha sent word: “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” Yet the Lord lingered two more days. When God delays, it is not because He does not hear or care, but because He has something more glorious to accomplish — sometimes He lets us taste death that we may know His resurrection power.
When Christ finally came, Lazarus had been dead four days. Martha met Him grieving, and the Lord answered her sorrow with a promise about Himself.
Deeply moved by the mourning of Mary and those around her, Jesus wept. At the tomb He commanded the stone removed, thanked His Father, and cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” As the valley of dry bones once heard the word of God, the dead man heard the voice of Christ and came forth, still bound in linen. “Unbind him,” the Lord said, “and let him go.”
Many who saw it believed, but others reported it to the Pharisees. Fearing the whole nation would follow Him, the chief priests took counsel, and Caiaphas the high priest declared it better that one man die for the people than that the nation perish. Not knowing he prophesied, he foretold that Christ would die for the nation and for all God's scattered children. From that day they were determined to kill Him, and Christ withdrew with His disciples to the town of Ephraim.
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
John 11:25–26
For Reflection
Down, down, down our dearly beloved King continued to go. He was the promised King come to deliver His people from sin and death — yet He pronounced judgment not on Rome but on Jerusalem, for His people needed rescuing from their corrupt shepherds more than from Caesar. Rejected by the leaders of Israel, He would soon hang lifeless on a cross, and through that very rejection the ruler of this world would be cast out. He granted life to Lazarus, who was dead, and condemned Jerusalem to death while its people yet lived. Whether or not this world acknowledges His reign, Christ is King.