The How’s and Whys of our Feast Day Celebrations
I was recently asked “how do Christians celebrate the feasts? What foods are eaten and what is done during the day?” 2 Timothy 4:2 admonishes us to “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season” and 1 Peter 3:15 tells us that “in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.” We do well to follow these admonitions, for our hope is the hope of all Israel, that our Messiah who is so beautifully depicted in these Feasts and celebrations will return soon to complete His work of restoring the fallen tent of David. Further, just as we recite each Passover, “it is both a duty and a privilege to recite the mighty works of our faithful God.”
As we begin, I want to note that it is not a contradiction for followers of Messiah to observe the Feasts of the Lord. In fact, in the pseudo-Clementine Homilies of the 4th century it is written “Moreover, if anyone has been thought worthy to recognize both preaching’s as one doctrine (i.e., Torah & New Testament) that man has been counted rich in God, understanding both the Old things as new in time and the New things as old.” Thus, we turn our attention to the Feasts and explore the whys and how’s of keeping the Sabbath, Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, the Feast of Weeks, Trumpets, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot, expressing the reason for our hope and the joy we take from each of these observances.
We cannot speak to the wider body as to how individuals who have come into this walk from the Christian Church choose to observe the Feasts, however we can speak to our walk (halacha in Hebrew) here at Lev Y’shua. First, we do not see ourselves as Christians, per se. We do believe in salvation by the atoning death and resurrection of our Messiah Jesus whose name in Hebrew is Yeshua, which translated means Salvation! However, we strictly follow the Feasts as promulgated by the Almighty. We do not worship on Sunday, nor observe Christmas or Easter. These are defining traits of Christianity and as such we think it disingenuous to call ourselves Christians. We are Messianic. Our adherence is to the right rulings laid out by our Father as written down and codified by Moses.
We see ourselves as part of Israel (Phil 2) and as such observe Israel’s Feasts mindful to not mix pagan worship with His called-out observances as per Deuteronomy 12: 29-31: "When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, “How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.” You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the LORD hates they have done for their gods”
We are a called-out people and as such separate ourselves from festivals which have their roots in pagan observances, which sadly Christmas and Easter do (along with Halloween). We do however, joyfully follow the Feasts as laid out by our Great God in Leviticus 23. These are the Lord’s Feasts, not the Jewish feasts! They’re for His people. We are grateful that our Jewish Brethren have preserved these observances (against all odds) for the past two millennia, which gives us great insight into our feast day observances.
Starting with the first Feast, the weekly Feast of Shabbat, you will find many of us welcoming in the sabbath with a special meal on Friday evening. We observe evening to evening for all our observances as per the creation account and Leviticus 23:32. As we close out Friday and the new day of Shabbat settles in, you will find many of us sitting down to a special meal, lighting candles and praying over our children in a special ceremony. This in Hebrew is referred to kiddush, meaning separation. We are separating this set apart, sacred day of Shabbat as a holy day as instructed by the Almighty. This is illustrative that we too are to be a set apart sacred people honoring our great God.
As to the menu for the Sabbath or any of our Feast Day celebrations for that matter, we enjoy a wide variety of food as defined by the Almighty. We eat kashrut, meaning Biblically clean in Hebrew. We therefore abstain from pork and pork products, and shellfish etc., however anything else is welcomed to be prepared for our meals on the Sabbath as well as on other Feast days. It is notable that Kashrut does not mean Kosher, which signifies holding to Rabbinic teaching on dietary code for instance, we do not see a mandate to separate dairy from meat in Holy Writ.
The annual Feast cycle begins in the Spring of the year with Passover. When we gather for this observance, we do so to recount the mighty works of our great Elohim (God) in delivering our fathers from Egypt. We hold a special meal called a Seder (which means order, i.e., order of service). We read from the Haggadah, which is Hebrew for telling, as we are retelling the exodus event, using special elements/foods to taste, smell, touch, see, and hear of the mighty workings of our great God in freeing our ancestors from Pharoh. The elements themselves consist of bitter herbs such as horseradish, parsley, an apple and nut mixture called charoset, representing the mortar our ancestors used to make bricks for Pharoh. At a certain point in our telling, we stop and have a full meal and then come back to conclude our service with a fifteen-minute wrap concluding with the words; “Next Year in Jerusalem!” One item on the table that is central to the meal is Matzoh which we use to represent our Savior. He was bruised, stripped, and pierced for our transgressions and we see a picture of Him as the unleavened bread of life in the matzah as well as our Passover Lamb.
In preparation for Passover, we rid our houses of all yeast and products containing yeast, as the Feast of Unleavened bread commences on the day immediately following Passover. This Feast starts and concludes with High Holy Days during which we do not work and convene a gathering. We eat matzah all week long in lieu of bread and bread products. During this week we also celebrate the feast of First Fruits on the day after the weekly Sabbath. Yeshua is our First Fruits, and it is on this day He rose and presented Himself to the Father in Heaven. Interestingly, but not coincidently, this celebration matches up with Resurrection Sunday. This is the day we also begin counting 50 days, as instructed, to our next Feast which is the Feast of weeks or Pentecost (Greek for “fiftieth”). Again, we will hold a Mikrah HaKodesh or Holy Convocation, doing no work and celebrating the Lord’s goodness to His people. The Feast of Weeks concludes the Spring Feasts.
Our Fall feasts open with a blast! The blast of the shofar that is! (A shofar is a trumpet made from the horn of a Biblically clean animal with the marrow removed). We gather on this day.
Ten days later is the High Holy Day of atonement or Yom Kippur. This is the only Feast where we are called to “humble” ourselves which is fulfilled through a day long fast. On this day we typically gather later and conclude the day at sundown by breaking our fast together.
Five days later we gather for the final Feast of the Fall: Sukkot or Tabernacles. We camp out for 8 days enjoying meals, fellowship, teachings, and excursions together. This Feast begins and concludes with High Holy Days as well.
While one is not required to do so, adults are able to enjoy wine and other strong drink during our feasts based on Deuteronomy 14:23-26, which instructs Israel regarding observing His Feasts, where we are instructed to come before the LORD our God, in the place that he will choose, to make His name dwell, and we shall eat the tithe of our grain, of our wine, and of our oil, and the firstborn of our herd and flock, that we may learn to fear the LORD our God always.
And if the way is too long for us, so that we are not able to carry the tithe, when the LORD our God blesses us, because the place is too far from us… then we shall turn our tithe’s into money and bind up the money in our hand… and spend the money for whatever we desire—oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever our appetite craves. And we shall eat before the LORD our God and rejoice, us and our households.
Our God is a relational God, and He wants us to enjoy Him. These Feasts and Festivals are all pictures of good things and as we observe them year after year, we receive greater revelation of His love for us. It is indeed a righteous thing to celebrate His Feasts and cycles throughout our generations!