Like most of you, I will be celebrating Christmas this week. That might not sound unusual except for the fact that I am Jewish. No, I am not part of the ”Jews for Jesus” movement, my thoughts on the subject are far from the concept of a Messiah. In my formative youth as I tried to solidify my religious understanding, I came across that thing called “the New Testament”. In my readings I was introduced to this wonderful person named Jesus. He was loving, empathetic and helpful to everyone he met. I remember thinking, this is how I want to be when I grow up.
I have tried to keep Jesus in the forefront of my mind as I lived an adult life. The silly expression, WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) actually had resonance in my Life. Because the concept of Messiah was irrelevant to me, I had no problem with using Jesus as a mentor of living a good life, the right way.
As you can imagine, this did not sit well with my Jewish family and friends. How can you celebrate Christmas? I tried to explain that I was celebrating the birthday of a very important person. Clearly, we would celebrate Martin Luther King Day, my own birthday and my wife’s birthday, why not celebrate Jesus’ birthday which far, far more important than my own birthday.
As I have said before, whether Jesus is the Messiah is a discussion I can have with G-d after I die. Until then, it is my belief that G-d sent Jesus into this world as an example of how we should live our lives and that is important enough to celebrate his birth.
Naturally, I would wish all of you a Merry Christmas, with some music. Here is Cloverton, my favorite Christian Rock group singing the Christmas version of Hallelujah.