Mmmm, peppermint!
Peppermint mocha, mint chocolate cookies, peppermint bark, hot cocoa with peppermint…like pumpkin spice in the fall, the flavor that most reminds me of Christmas is peppermint! Add a little peppermint to just about anything and it’s transformed into a wintry treat! Even the colors of the classic sugar stick have become iconic of the season that celebrates Immanuel.
This month we are looking at the symbols of Christmas and how they can point us to Biblical truth. Some symbols are everyday objects that we attach meaning to. Others have grown out of non-Christian celebrations and been borrowed and reclaimed because “the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it” (Psalm 24:1). Some, like the candy cane, may have been created with the specific purpose of teaching children the real reason for the season.
Origins of the Candy Cane
Did you know there is an entire website dedicated to the history of candy? I shouldn’t be surprised. I love history and knowing where things came from. Especially things that are so commonplace you feel like they’ve always just been.
According to tradition, candy canes have been around since the early 1600’s when a German choir master gave his young choir sugar candy sticks (usually straight) fashioned with a crook to both keep them quiet during the long Christmas Eve service and remind them of the shepherds who came to visit the baby Jesus in the manger.
Over time the tradition and candy evolved into the red and white striped peppermint hooks we know and love today (you can read about it here)
Meaning
Whether they were invented with a specifically Christian purpose or not, there are many ways the candy cane serves as a symbol of Jesus.
My favorite summary of the meaning comes from The Candymaker’s Gift by Halen Haidle
The hard candy reminds us that Jesus is the Rock.
“This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:11-12
The white color represents the sinless life Jesus lived, making him the perfect (and only!) acceptable sacrifice for our sin.
”You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.”1 John 3:5
The red stripes are a symbol of the blood he shed on the cross and the wounds he endured on the cross.
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” 1 Peter 2:24
Even the peppermint flavor can remind us of the spices given by the Wise Men (or used at his burial).
“And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.” Matthew 2:11
“Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews.” John 19:39-40
Finally, the shape of the candy cane, a shepherd’s crook, does tell us the story of the shepherds, the first to hear the good news (Luke 2:8-20). But even more importantly, the candy cane reminds us what kind of savior God sent to save the world. He did not come as the king or the warrior, with power and majesty like everyone expected. He came as the shepherd, to lay down his life for us, his sheep (John 10:11)
“But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.”
Isaiah 53:5-7
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