Look to the Cross not to the Cradle
It was 4:00 in the morning when a voice woke me up out of a sound sleep with these words: “It’s the cross, not the cradle.” I believe that the voice was the Lord’s. The world makes a much bigger deal about the cradle than the cross. Have you noticed the difference in “hype” building up to Christmas day versus Passover? That’s right, Passover… Yeshua was crucified on the 14th day of the first month on the Biblical calendar, the same day that the children of Israel sacrificed spotless lambs and applied the blood to the doorposts of their homes [see Exodus 12]. Yeshua is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. God instructed us to celebrate the day of His Son’s crucifixion. It’s called Passover. He even gave us the exact date! Did you know that the first Christmas was not celebrated in Bethlehem until the fourth century? Did you know that in the Bible there is no record of Jesus and his disciples celebrating Christmas? Nor during his lifetime was there ever a birthday celebration for him. It’s not recorded in the gospels. Nonetheless, I do think one of the most beautiful parts of the Bible is the story of his birth. It is miraculous, it is powerful, it is moving, and it should be told. The birth of Moses is a foreshadow of Yeshua’s birth. Pharaoh gave an order to kill all the male Hebrew babies [Exodus 1:16], very much like King Herod ordered the slaughter of male children in Bethlehem age two and under [Matthew 2:16]. Jesus was taken into hiding in Egypt. Moses was already in Egypt and was hidden in a basket in the NileRiver. Both are marvelous and true birth stories, but God didn’t tell us to celebrate Moses’ birth. He only instructed us to observe and honor Passover, the time when the Lambs were sacrificed [Exodus 12] . Passover is the fourteenth day of the first month on the Biblical calendar. This was the day God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, and some 1400 years later, Messiah Yeshua was crucified on the exact same day of the month. If you look in Leviticus 23, God gives us absolutely specific dates when we are to celebrate the Sabbath, Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Booths, and so on and so forth. He made it abundantly clear when to celebrate these days. But no where does He instruct us to celebrate the birth of His Son. Isn’t it interesting that God went into such detail and great length to give us the dates of Exodus from Egypt on Passover, and the day His Son would be crucified? Furthermore, this revelation came some fourteen-hundred years before it happened! Yet, nowhere in the Bible does it give us the date that Yeshua was born. Most people know he wasn’t born on December 25th, but where does that tradition come from? It comes from the pagan tradition of Mithraism adapted by the Roman church. It has been documented that the Nimrod of the Bible, who supervised the building of the Tower of Babel, worshiped the sun and was regarded as the “sun-god.” After his death his widow, Semiramis, who was called the “Queen of heaven,” claimed to have been impregnated by her deceased husband through the sun’s rays. That child was born on December 25th and was considered to be the reincarnated form of Nimrod. The Pagan sun-worshippers chose to celebrate this “birthday” rejoicing in the reincarnation of their deity. The date, December 25th was also introduced by Roman pagans as the conclusion of Saturnalia, a week-long celebration of lawlessness, in which one person was selected from each community to be forced to indulge in food and other physical pleasures during the week representing the “enemy of the Roman people”. At the conclusion of this festival, December 25th, this man or woman was murdered by the Roman authorities believing to have “destroyed the forces of darkness”. As the 4th century Christian leaders were uncertain how to convert the pagans to Christianity they chose to assign this date as the birth of Jesus, giving the pagans the opportunity to “celebrate” as Christians without sacrificing their “accustomed day” of celebrating. Furthermore, if you research the scriptures, you will clearly see that nowhere in the Bible does it record the birth of Jesus as December 25th. It was clearly a “made-up” date. In fact, in Luke chapter two the angel Gabriel visited Mary in the sixth month. On the Biblical calendar, the sixth month of Elul falls around August, sometimes September. Counting nine months from August brings the possible time of the birth of Jesus, according to the Bible, to April or May (sometime between Passover and Pentecost).
If God wanted us to celebrate His son’s birthday, why was the date hidden from us? I’ll tell you why, the answer is the cross not the cradle. God wants us to look to the cross for our healing, God wants us to look to the cross for our redemption, God wants us to look to the cross for our salvation, and God wants us to look to the cross for our hope. God wants us to look to the cross and what His son did by taking the thirty-nine lashes, being beaten to a pulp, scourged, mocked, spit upon, spending a night in a cold dungeon on a stone floor, taking the crown of thorns, being crucified, and buried for you and for me. God wants you to focus on the suffering of His son, not the birth. It is as simple as that. The birth of Jesus won’t save you, the cradle won’t save you. The cradle is cute and the cradle is more wonderful than Moses in the NileRiver, but looking to Moses in the cradle won’t save you either. The only thing that will save you is looking to the cross, and looking to Yeshua, the Hope of Glory. With all of that said, even though there was never a “Christmas” in Bethlehem until the fourth century and even though God did not tell us to celebrate any specific date for His son’s birthday, I would much rather see Christmas lights than Minarets. I would rather see them celebrating His birth and giving gifts. The bottom line is the cradle won’t save you and the cradle won’t heal you. The cradle won’t deliver you, only the cross of Yeshua can save anybody. Only the cross brings healing, only the cross brings salvation, forgiveness of sins, and eternal life. Have you gone to the cross? The Bible says, “just as Moses raised the serpent on a pole in the desert so too must the Son of man be lifted up.” [John 3:14]. Have you looked to the Son of man? Have you come to Passover? Because that is where your salvation is. God Bless you and enjoy the celebration of His birth, but don’t forget to come to the cross.
Shalom,
Rabbi Joseph