“Which holidays are Christian?” That was the question the leader of the Bible study asked. “Of all the holidays we celebrate, which ones started as Christian celebrations?” He then passed out a list of our normal American holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, MLK Day, Valentines, Mother’s Day, etc. As we “graded” our own papers it was interesting, if not a little shocking, to see which holidays actually started as Christian, and which ones didn’t. Surprisingly, Valentine’s Day is a Christian Holiday. It started as a saint’s day, the feast day of St. Valentine.
St. Valentine was a Christian who was in love. He lived in the third century in a time when it was illegal for Christians to gather for worship. Christians were arrested when the Roman authorities caught them in worship, or for simply believing in Jesus, professing that “Jesus is Lord.” Valentine, who loved Christ and His Church, would visit those Christians who had been tossed into jail. The Romans started to figure this all out—Valentine must be a Christian too. So he is arrested and is sent to trial. If Valentine would have had a really good attorney he would have been told to keep his mouth shut, to not say anything. But Valentine was a man in love, in love with Jesus, and he couldn’t stop talking about the Jesus he loved. So instead of staying quiet and pleading the fifth before the judge, Valentine opened his mouth and told the judge about Jesus. The judge was moved by Valentine and his love for Christ. He refused to punish Valentine, and the judge commits himself to Christ and was baptized.
The Roman emperor was not happy. Claudius decided if the judge was not going to take care of Valentine he would. Claudius had Valentine brought before him so that he could put an end to it all. When Valentine appeared before Emperor Claudius he started doing what he always did: talking about Jesus. He was so in love he couldn’t do anything else. This is what happens when you are in love. Claudius was not happy that Valentine wouldn’t stop talking about Jesus and that he was trying to convert him to Christianity. The Emperor told Valentine: you have a choice. Either stop talking about Jesus or I’m going cut your head off. For Valentine, that was not really a choice, because he was a man in love. In love with Christ. And loving Christ and talking about Jesus meant more to him than anything else. And he gave his life, because when you’re in love you just can’t stop talking about the thing you love.
Our culture celebrates a holiday today of romantic, emotional, sentimental, erotic love. And this is not a bad thing…we need more committed love in our culture. But as Christians let us remember that today is a Christian day, a “holy-day,” when we remember one of our ancestors in the faith who was so in love with Jesus that he would give his life for Him.