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Sacramental theology demands the vitality of ritual. Whether believers
acknowledge it or not, ritual is key to the Christian experience. As such, the
Christian calendar presents one of the most significant tools in the faith: the
church calendar. Often seemingly viewed as meaningless, antiquated, and
irrelevant, liturgical actions aid in producing the reality of formation.
In discussions of the Christian calendar’s benefits, the vivacity of its
Jewish roots should not be missed.
Despite centuries of the celebration of the Lord’s Supper and Baptism in
Christianity, the problem faced is that the origins of these rites are
generally unknown, or at best, it is believed to be a new function in Christian
worship that began with Jesus. For this reason, this study focuses on
discovering the origins of the Lord’s Supper and Baptism in their original
Jewish context as acts of worship.[1]
Sacramental theology assuredly includes a
commitment to ancient practice and correct understanding. Nonetheless, the
church calendar is but a tool, which allows God’s people to live in the
realities set forth by the Lord himself.
The Christian calendar is a tool for Christians to worship rightly, but it
is also a tool founded upon deep tradition and tested-and-tried scrutiny. “Religious
rituals are corporate symbolic actions in which people engage when they
worship. The theological principle underlying ritual worship is that our
principal access to the spiritual is through the outward and visible.”[2]
Christian corporate worship grew out of Jewish liturgical practice.
Understanding the unique spirituality of Jewish worship can suggest both how
the first Christians approached their own worship and how Christians today can
more fully integrate their own spiritual pilgrimage with corporate worship.[3]
Understanding Christian worship along with sacred
actions demands a comprehension of Jewish roots. A relevant and crucial tool in
doing so, therefore, is the Christian calendar with all of its rituals,
observances, and actions (e.g., prayers, readings, holy days, etc.).
Here the Jewish roots of the church year and liturgical practices in
Christian worship will be examined, the parallels between Christian worship and
Jewish tradition will be understood, and the importance of repletion will be
contended and reiterated. The parallels between Jewish feasts and Christian
holy days should be understood by believers, for the church has been included
in a body of people, which once required certain genetic distinctions and now
does not consider such distinctions. God’s people are now redeemed irrespective
of genetic realities. Thus, Christians should experience such a reality with
humility and grace while living in the realities set forth in the Christian
calendar.
Parallels Between Jewish Feasts and Christian Holy
Days
The chief parallels between Jewish feasts and Christian holy days revolve
around Messianic prophecies regarding the coming of Christ.[4]
A feast is a sign of the divine in history. Israel celebrated three kinds
of feasts: pilgrimage feasts, solemn or repentance feasts, and lesser feasts
not mandated by the Torah. All of these commemorated God’s action in the life
and history of the community.[5]
The
three major Jewish feasts are associated with three annual harvests;
historically each involved the return of a portion of the harvest to the Lord.
These offerings symbolized the reasons for the feast itself: God is the source
of the fruits of the earth; God's gifts of produce are for the sustenance and
comfort of the people; and because God gives freely, the worshipers must do the
same, sharing their benefits with the needy.[6]
During the cycle of life (spring commemorations), the Christian calendar
affords God’s people the opportunity to live within the reality of Christ’s
atoning work upon the cross and through his death, burial, and resurrection.
Jewish feasts memorialize God’s great works of old in the lives of his people
through Israel (e.g., the blood-bought people redeemed with the mark of a lamb
in Egypt and God’s provision for his people through the harvests of their
labor).
During the cycle of light (fall commemorations), subsequently, the Christian calendar allows the church to celebrate believers’ salvation from eternal judgment and the hope that they possess in Jesus Christ, which parallels God’s guidance and faithfulness to his people in Israel. As a cloud by day and a fire by night, the Lord led his people with an unrivaled protection and provision through miracles that only God himself may provide, and his people are called now to remember such deliverances and celebrate his continued faithfulness to his promises.
Spring
Feasts (Fulfilled in Christ’s First Coming)
Four principal Jewish feasts subsist, which parallel Christian holy days:
Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, and Shavuot. Their parallels are
celebrated by God’s global church to this day. The following Jewish feasts and
their Christian parallels offer a glimpse into the spiritual reality that
currently exists among the global church and has for centuries of Christian
worship.
Fall Feasts (Foretelling Christ's Second Coming)
Christian holy days and remembrances are derived primarily from three
primary Jewish feasts: the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the
Feast of Tabernacles, which are all three Jewish feasts that occur in the
autumn time of year. Such feasts are intended to remember God’s faithfulness to
his chosen people and require themes of judgment and sacrifice, for mercy and
grace may not exist without the possibility and even surety of wrath. Figure
4.2 presents the Christian thematic parallels to the aforesaid Jewish
feasts.
Figure 4.2 autumn Jewish feasts and
Christian parallels
Key
Christian Parallels
The Jewish feasts recognized during the spring are perhaps most strongly
connected to Christian holy days, particularly those surrounding the atoning
work of Christ on the cross, his resurrection, his ascension, and his eventual
return. The seasons and observations of Lent, Easter, and Pentecost seemingly
comprise the linchpin of the Christian liturgical year. Nevertheless, such
adherences are not only repletely biblical but, moreover, hold deep and
historic Jewish roots.
Lent (leading to Maundy Thursday just before Good Friday, the first day of
the Easter Triduum) survives as a historic forty-day (not including Sundays)
season leading to resurrection weekend in which Christians fast and prepare for
Easter, echoing themes of self-examination (often with sacrifices) found in
Jewish feasts like Rosh Hashanah. Easter is directly linked to the Jewish Feast
of First Fruits, as it celebrates Jesus’ eternal victory over death (i.e., for
the believer, although humanity is assured death, in Christ, the people of God
are converted to eternal life through a fleshly death. Pentecost marks the
church’s birth directly following the celebration of Shavuot, which celebrates
the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai and marks
the end of the seven-week Counting of the Omer after
Passover.
The parallels between Jewish feasts and Christian holy days recognize a
multilayered relationship between God’s chosen people in Israel and those
grafted into his family through Christ. The historic feasts of Judaism, thus,
are not empty; nor, are they meaningless (for believers), for the people of God
have built upon the worship of ancient Israel. “Israel’s whole history is a
life of coexistence with God, a partnership in a historical drama. The emphasis
is on Yahweh as the initiator, but Israel responds.”[7] God
is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb 13:8); therefore, God’s plan has
not changed, and he has not redeemed a people other than those whom he has
intentionally and originally sought from before time (Rev 13:8). Christianity
is not a secondary plan for God or his people but rather the foundational plan.
Christians, therefore, should hold fast to the historic and biblical roots of
worship practice, for the church’s sacred actions are predicated on a deeply
planted and entrusted faith in an eternal God.
Connection Between Israel and Those Grafted
The Christian calendar profoundly allows the church to experience a
mysterious connection with Israel, as those who are grafted into the body of
God are not only chosen but hold all rights and privileges designed for ancient
Israel.[8]
Christians may share with Israel with a sense of waiting and expectation, for
as Israel awaited the first coming of the Messiah (although such an event was
missed), Christians await the second coming. Scripture is replete with
metaphors of Christians’ connection with Israel. No longer, however, are God’s
people separated by genetic differences (Gal 3:28) but hold a distinctive
position as people of God. While Christians are truly redeemed and are part of
the fulfillment of Messianic prophecy, a correlation to ancient Israel
subsists.
The biblical olive tree metaphor offers a unique perspective on how
Gentiles have not only become a part of the redeemed people of God but also how
such a position has been God’s fundamental purpose from before time. Moreover,
Christians’ connection with Israel exists in a shared identity, a spiritual
inheritance, and a Messianic unity. Key takeaways for Christians, therefore,
should foster humility for undeserved grace, hope for Israel, and praise for
God’s faithfulness.
The Christian calendar bestows upon God’s people the opportunity to
sacramentally live in the reality of God’s favor toward his chosen people, of
which the church is now a part. Such a position may only be shared between
Israel and the global church, for no other parties receive such an unmerited
right.
The Olive Tree Metaphor
The Apostle Paul gives an acute metaphor for how God has redeemed Gentiles
as chosen people, and it is a metaphor that satisfies the clarity any
explanation could possibly contain.
But
if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild
olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing
root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are,
remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. Then
you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” That is
true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast
through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not
spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you (Rom 11:17-21).
Paul’s illustration points to a fundamental principal—namely the source of
life among God’s people, which is Christ himself. Christ elsewhere teaches that
he is indeed the vine and his people the branches (John 15:5). It is then a
mystery that only Christians may receive and experience.
In Paul’s metaphor, four characters emerge, all of which have certain
distinctions.
1)
The tree
2)
Natural
branches
3)
Broken
branches
4)
Wild branches
First, the tree represents God's covenant people,
with Israel as the original cultivated olive tree, rooted in Abraham's promises.[9] What
this means for Christians is that although God’s promise to Abraham is framed
around the patriarch’s descendants, in Christ, all the redeemed are children of
Abraham and, therefore, children of God. Second, natural branches represent
ethnic Israel, initially connected by birth.[10]
Third, the image of broken branches infers that some (not all) natural branches
(Israelites) were broken off due to unbelief in the Messiah. Last, wild
branches symbolize Gentiles, who were not part of Israel by birth, were “grafted
in” through faith in Jesus.
The olive tree imagery Paul presents is a unique way to illuminate the
spiritual reality of Christians who have been fixed to the vine that is Jesus
Christ in the New Covenant. Where the Old Covenant was temporary, the New
Covenant is permanent; where the Old Covenant required particular DNA to be a
part of the promise, the New Covenant transcends external factors; and where
the Old Covenant required periodic animal sacrifices, the New Covenant holds to
the hope in a one-time sacrificial Lamb whose name is Jesus Christ.
The Christian calendar allows believers to live in the reality of God’s
promises by experiencing a connection with Israel. In a sacramental way,
therefore, Christians hold a deeply-rooted link to what God promised Abraham
through his descendants but without external boundaries.
The Connection
The mystical connection between the church and Israel is comprised of a
threefold mystery.
1)
Spiritual
inheritance
2)
Unity in
Messiah
3)
Shared
identity
God’s people consist of not only biblical figures
of the past but those in the church age who are chosen equally as God’s people.
Thus, Christians hold a spiritual inheritance just as ancient Israel (i.e.,
there is no distinction for believers from God’s chosen people who are
descended from Abraham). Gentiles have-been grafted and included in the
spiritual blessings from God. As such, people of the way have become partakers
of the root and fatness (nourishment, blessings, and covenants) of the olive
tree to which Paul alludes in Romans 11.
Additionally, Christians are connected to Israel through Messianic unity.
Jesus is the true Messiah and the one for whom Israel has awaited. Jesus is the
means by which this spiritual grafting occurs, uniting both believing Jews and
Gentiles into one spiritual body.[11] The
Messianic unity is a mystical experience which both Christians and believing
Jews share. Although Gentiles do not share the genetic heritage and traditions
of Jewish people, the person of Jesus is clear—he is the one who takes away the
sin of the world and makes void the temporal sacrificial systems of old.
A third connection between Christians and Jews is a shared identity. Believers
share in the same divine promises and kingdom, though they maintain their
identity as either Jew or Gentile, with no distinction in Christ regarding
status. Such a truth is, in part, what makes the New Covenant better than the
Old. Salvation is no longer offered to only Israel but to anyone who would
believe on the name of Jesus Christ and serve him as Lord.
Sacraments and sacred actions of worship recognize the rich history and
foundations that Judaism offers Christianity. Christian worship stands upon the
foundation of Jewish faithfulness to God. “The great kings of Israel extolled
God’s transcendent timeless eternality, his unmatched greatness, and his boundless
power.”[12] The
difference, however, is that Christians claim a personal relationship with the
one true Messiah. While Israel awaited the Messiah, those who are people of
Christ have seen his position as the Savior of the world. The sacred actions of
worship point to and center around the person of Christ as the Messiah and
sacrificial Lamb of God. A mystical connection, therefore, exists between the
church and Jewish people who identify the Messiah in Jesus Christ, for no
longer are God’s people separated by external factors but are rather united in
Jesus Christ.
Key Takeaways for Christians
Christians should consider the connection with Israel as the unwarranted
blessing it is. Being a part of the family of God should not spawn pride but
rather humility. Further, Christians should receive such good news as hope for
Israel instead of dire and eternal damnation. Christians also experience God’s
faithfulness equivalently as ancient Israel (and those Jews redeemed by the
blood of the Lamb).[13]
The Christian church’s connection to Israel should foster humility rather
than pride, as pride contradicts the heart of one called and changed by God
(Jas 4:6, 1 Pet 5:5). Gentile believers should not be arrogant or feel superior
to the natural branches (Israel), as their inclusion is by grace, not merit.
Without the mercy of God in Jesus Christ, no one would stand before the throne
with confidence; God’s people may do so, however, because of the mediation and
sacrificial offering of Jesus.
Based upon the same sacrificial offering, hope for Israel is still present
and possible (i.e., the natural branches can be grafted back if they return to
faith in Jesus, just as wild branches were grafted). The prophet Isaiah refers
to a remnant (Isa 10:20-22, 11:11-16). This remnant generally references a
small, faithful group preserved by God amidst a larger population facing
judgment or disaster—a key biblical concept symbolizing hope, renewal, and God’s
enduring faithfulness, appearing in themes from Noah to Elijah and the early church.
Christians are, moreover, part of a unique experience: namely God’s
faithfulness. The process highlights God's enduring faithfulness to his
covenants with Israel and his mercy extended to all who believe.
While Abraham was given a promise, of which millions of his descendants
experienced a realization, the church of Jesus Christ also experiences such
blessing and are equally partakers in the covenant blessings bestowed upon the
chosen people of God, for Christians are literally members of the New Covenant.
The key takeaways for believers then are rooted in humility and assurance of
hope. Christians should not consider themselves better than Israel but should
rather thank God for the blessing of being a part of her blessings and pray for
the salvation of those who are spiritually blinded to the salvation of Messiah.
The actions of liturgy recognize the mystical connection the church shares with
the Jewish people, and the Christian calendar allows God’s people to share and
live within the realities of God’s blessings bestowed upon those who are chosen
by God, redeemed by Christ, and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
The Christian Calendar Is Designed to Live in the
Reality of Redemption
The Christian calendar is designed not for inconsequential ritual but for
worship—namely to live in the reality of redemption as God’s chosen people.
While observance of the liturgical year may seem stiff and dogmatic, its intent
is pointed to remembrance and imitation of Jesus Christ. Historic liturgy has
been time-tested, proved, scrutinized, measured, and still held dear to the
church for centuries. Where mere human words have failed, the liturgy has
convicted, and where spontaneity has offered mistaken teachings, liturgy has
given theological precision. Affording God’s people the opportunity to live
within the context and reality of redemption, the Christian calendar
contributes through three realizations.
1.
The reality
of covenant
2.
The reality
of grace
3.
The reality
of Christ’s life
Christianity is a faith predicated on covenant. In the Exodus narrative,
God’s people had spent centuries in the bondage of slavery under the rule of
cruel Pharaohs. Perhaps, to the Hebrew people, the covenant had become invalid
or hallow. One might consider how such a sentiment could be. The Abrahamic Covenant
was surely known among the people of God but perhaps more prominently
considered and discussed centuries before the time of Moses. After hundreds of
years in bondage, however, how could anyone hold any hope in a covenant about
which they only knew stories?
Then the narrative shifts with three verses. “During those many days the
king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their
slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up
to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant
with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of
Israel—and God knew” (Exod 2:23-25). A seemingly abrupt turn, God responds
to the people of Israel:
1.
God heard;
2.
God
remembered;
3.
God saw;
4.
God knew.
God’s response was not to mere prayers and cries.
The response was to God’s own covenant he initiated and made with his chosen
people (v. 24). All actions beyond God’s remembering[14] are
subsequent to his covenant. The foundation of God’s acts in Christian worship,
therefore, should be understood as covenant.
The reality of covenant is as much a part of the lives of Christians as it
was for God’s chosen people in the Exodus narrative. The Christian calendar
holds a deeply-rooted connection to God’s people in the Old Covenant, for the
church has been included in the promise of God’s blessings and benefits.
Adherence to the church calendar, thus, provides ample opportunity to
acknowledge her own reality that believers are redeemed in an unmerited manner.
Remembrance of each holy day affords the church the opportunity to not only
remember the Lord’s faithfulness during the salvation of his people in the
Exodus narrative but to experience the reality that she is equally redeemed in
the same covenant which provides the foundation of God’s faithfulness to his
people of old.
The church calendar also allows God’s people to live within the reality of
grace. God has certainly offered a peerless grace to his chosen people. While
initially offered to the Jews, Christians now may undergo a process of
sanctification through unwarranted and undeserved grace given by their Lord.
Without an understanding of God’s grace and the need for it, the Christian life
is impossible, for reception of grace is essential to a changed life.
Moreover, the grace of God should foster changed lives in that God’s people
not only receive grace but offer it as Christ has offered it to them. The
process of grace then involves a two-way path where Christians receive the
grace of God and then present it back to the world in response. By employing
the church calendar in Christian worship, a tested-and-tried way subsists in
which Christians may fully experience the reality of grace. The Christian
calendar, therefore, is not a tool of mere repetition and meaningless ritual.
Rather, when holy feast days, daily prayers, and scriptural readings are employed,
believers live within the reality of grace through reception and offering.
Finally, the Christian calendar is designed for living in the reality of
Christ’s life. Christianity centers around the person and work of Christ (even
as a triune faith). Therefore, the church calendar looks to Jesus Christ. Even
Old Testament observances look forward to Christ while instances observed in
the church age look back to Christ. The theme that unifies both the Old
Covenant and the New, however, is Christ.
The narrative of Philip’s encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch reports that
he (Philip) began to preach the good news of Jesus (Acts 8:35). The Christian
calendar is not irrelevant to the church, for it revolves around the person of
Christ. Liturgy does not abandon Jesus, for it preaches Jesus; the church
calendar does not offer meaningless ritual, for it offers Jesus; and
observances of God’s acts in the days of old should not distract from who Jesus
is, for the biblical narrative centers around the person of Christ. The
Christian calendar, therefore, is a centuries-old tool designed to live within
the reality of Christ’s life.
Formation: The Benefit of Repetition
James K.A. Smith contends that formation does not occur without repetition.[15] While
the Christian calendar is surely repetitive, its foundational purpose is not
mere repetition but formation. While a seemingly common notion is that ritual
is insincere, the fact is that ritual is but a foundational tool upon which
God’s people may build their own spiritual lives.
The Christian calendar provides a chance for the church to experience her
connection with Israel. While God’s people seemingly once held the commonality
of genetic distinction, no longer is redemption predicated on external
peculiarities (e.g., DNA), for Christ’s work in the New Covenant has afforded
anyone who would believe the unearned guarantee of salvation.
Moreover, the church is deeply connected with Israel. Those grafted into
the family of God hold no different position than those redeemed Jews who looked
to the cross, but redeemed Gentiles now look to the cross as chosen people.
God’s covenant of old included only a select few. The Christian calendar,
nevertheless, acknowledge inclusion of Christians who are now equally a part of
God’s chosen people with no distinction.
Additionally, it is the Christian calendar which grants the redeemed people
of God to live in certain realities: namely the reality of covenant, the
reality of grace, and the reality of Christ’s life. Living in these realities
is crucial to the Christian life, for one who is changed by the Lord not only
remembers such realities but also experiences them in daily life.
[1] John
Edward Ross III, “The Jewish Origins of the Ordinances of Christianity: Worship
Within Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.” DWS diss., Liberty University,
Lynchburg, VA, 2020, 8.
[2] Robert E. Webber, ed. “Theology of Ritual in
Jewish and Early Christian Worship” in The Sacred Actions of Christian
Worship, The Complete Library of Christian Worship online, accessed January
14, 2026,
https://www.worshiplibrary.com/library/the-sacred-actions-of-christian-worship/history-and-theology-of-sacred-actions-sacraments-and-ordinances/the-significance-of-sacred-actions/theology-of-ritual-in-jewish-and-early-christian-worship/.
[3] Webber, ed. “Worship and Spirituality in the
Jewish and Christian Traditions” in The Ministries of Christian Worship,
The Complete Library of Christian Worship online, accessed January 14, 2026, https://www.worshiplibrary.com/library/the-ministries-of-christian-worship/worship-and-ministries-within-the-worship-community/worship-and-spiritual-formation-2/worship-and-spirituality-in-the-jewish-and-christian-traditions/.
[4] While the Jewish people missed the certain
coming of the true Messiah, Jesus Christ, Christians hold stalwart connections
to Jewish expectation and waiting as God’s church awaits the return of Jesus.
[5] Webber, ed. “An Introduction to Jewish Feasts” in The Biblical
Foundations of Christian Worship, The Complete Library of Christian Worship
online, accessed January 14, 2026,
https://www.worshiplibrary.com/library/the-biblical-foundations-of-christian-worship/festivals-in-biblical-worship/the-meaning-of-feasts-in-the-biblical-tradition/an-introduction-to-jewish-feasts/.
[6] Webber, ed. “The Character of Jewish Feasts”
in The Biblical Foundations of Christian Worship, The Complete Library
of Christian Worship online, accessed January 14, 2026,
https://www.worshiplibrary.com/library/the-biblical-foundations-of-christian-worship/festivals-in-biblical-worship/the-meaning-of-feasts-in-the-biblical-tradition/the-character-of-jewish-feasts/.
[7] Webber, ed. “The History of Israelite and
Jewish Worship” in The Biblical Foundations of Christian Worship, The
Complete Library of Christian Worship online, accessed January 14, 2026,
https://www.worshiplibrary.com/library/the-biblical-foundations-of-christian-worship/history-and-institutions-of-biblical-worship/history-of-israelite-and-jewish-worship/.
[8] It should be noted that Israel has never
ceased being the chosen people of God, for Israel comprised God’s original
plan; rather, perhaps, unbeknownst to Israel, chosen Gentiles have also been
transplanted into the mystical body of chosen people. In a sacramental way,
thus, Christians hold a unique connection to ancient Israel as those chosen and
redeemed by God.
[9] Note that the tree (or vine) is the source
of life for the plant (i.e., everything else is a mere extension of the tree).
[10] This symbolism is one of the great mysteries
of the Christian faith, for no longer is being chosen of God dependent on
bloodline but, in the New (and better) Covenant, on the sovereign call of
Christ.
[11] While the point of contention is the person
of the Messiah, Israel has awaited the same person in whom Christians believe.
Moreover, Messianic Jews hold to a fervent commitment of their own spiritual
heritage and have believed in the person of Jesus Christ as the one for whom it
has waited.
[12] Charles Tomas Lewis Jr.,“Far and Near: Christian Worship of the
Transcendent and Immanent God of Wonders,” PhD diss., The Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary, Louisville, KY, 2015, 346.
[13] It must be understood that such a spiritual
connection only exists for those who look to Christ for salvation, for truly,
only those redeemed by Jesus hold a place among the chosen people of God.
[14]
It is not as though God forgot his covenant but rather that he acted within his
appointed and sovereign time—even after centuries of bondage and torment upon
his own people.
[15]
James K.A. Smith, Imagining the Kingdom: How Worship Works, Grand
Rapids, MI: Baker Publishing, 2013.
