The Feast of the Circumcision and Name of Jesus

January 1, 2014

Luke 2:21

In Nomine Jesu

Increasingly our liturgical calendar sinks into obscurity. Along with this go the teachings of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church into the black hole of religious pluralism and sensitivity. Since the middle 6th c. until about the 1960’s this day in the western church was known as “The Feast of the Circumcision.” Only in the last 50 years has its name been changed by both Roman and Protestant churches to emphasize either the deity of Jesus or the manhood of God. In our own little religious corner of the world, brownie points to Missouri for keeping this day the “Feast of the Circumcision and Name of Jesus.” Both the ELCA and the WELS have removed the language of circumcision and title it “Name of Jesus.” This may not seem like a big deal. This might, as they say, be majoring in the minors. But subtle changes can often have seismic ramifications. This is especially true as both church and culture push toward more genderless categories and generic descriptions of “God,” and even the idea that Jesus is an androgynous figure. In the face of this, we must not give up the deep and abiding truth that the infant Jesus is indeed the Lord’s salvation, that He was circumcised on the eighth day, that He was a Jewish boy, not a girl, and that He was born within the Mosaic covenant. The circumcision and name of Jesus must go together. As Johann Gerhard once wrote, “The circumcision shows that Christ is true Man; the name of ‘Jesus’ shows that He is true God.”   

Today people are enraptured by the dawning of a new year, a new slate, and new promises. Today people are putting their best food forward to improve, to do better and to not fail as much. Today people are thinking about all the bad habits they are going replace with all the good ones. There is optimism in the air. This is not bad. It’s good to seek and want to do better. As a result the sanctification needle may go up a little. But in the end the old habits reappear, the promises are broken, and the old sinful nature lives to fight another day, another year. This is why the church, you the people of Christ, sit here today. Your focus is not on how you have lived or what has happened in the past or what you hope will happen in the future, it’s on a simple name: Jesus. It’s a salvation name. It’s a blood name, a name written in blood, and a name that spills forth blood. Here is a blood that cries not for vengeance or for a second chance, but for complete pardon and peace, a blood that forgives all your sins and rescues and redeems all flesh.  

Circumcision was both law and gospel. In the Law of Moses we hear, “And God said to Abraham, ‘As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised” [Gen 17:9-12]. Circumcision was commanded and required. No getting away from this. If a male tried to escape from this law there were serious consequences. He would be cut off from the people of God. He would have broken God’s covenant. The Gospel which bleeds forth from circumcision is found in St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians where he describes that in Christ “you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body, by the circumcision of Christ, have been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead” [Col 2:11-12]. St. Paul identifies your connection to the circumcision of Jesus, and to the fulfillment of the covenant of circumcision that the Lord made to Abraham and his seed forever. 

The covenant of circumcision and its promises have been fulfilled in Jesus. In submitting to the Law of circumcision, Jesus has taken upon Himself the burden of the entire Law of God, as well as the curse and consequences of sin and death. He has received the inheritance of Abraham, the blessing promised to him and his seed forever. The Son of Mary, Jesus, is the seed of the woman, promised in the garden. By His Name and His blood He has crushed the head of the serpent. His Name, His Body, His Blood, bears away all the sin and all the death of all mankind. Not only is Jesus Immanuel, God with us-in flesh and in blood—He is also the Law fulfiller and Law bearer. He takes our place under the Law and says: beloved, that which you won’t do nor can do, I will do for you. I will live your life under the Law, I will do everything the Law says and I will refrain from doing what the Law forbids. I will do this even unto death, for you. My death under the Law is your freedom from the Law and His wrath.”

The early fathers of the church saw in the circumcision of Jesus, a down payment of His blood. "His infant body now Begins the cross to feel; Those precious drops of blood that flow For death the victim seal" [LSB 898:3]. This is the beginning of His giving of His flesh for us. This is the beginning of His suffering for us. This is the beginning of His blood pardoning us. They would see that which we may often neglect to see: all of what Jesus did, He did for you. He did nothing for Himself, but for you He came, for you He suffered, for you He died, for you He was raised by the Father, and for you He ascended to prepare an eternal place for you. “Today he began to open for us the door and to make accessible the entry to life. At the moment the boy was circumcised, the weapons for our salvation appeared for the first time in the blood of the infant” [c. 1460, Giovanni Antonio Campano]. For your past, present, and future, He gave you His life, the only life in which hope, peace, and new life dwells. For into the new creation of the heavens and the earth a little child, the Christ child shall lead you [Isaiah 11:6].  

Today is the eighth day, an everlasting day, beckoning to our bodies and souls the everlasting nature of our life in the Name and Circumcision of Christ. He is the only One that gets you through the New Year and He is the only One who makes the New Year new, even everlasting. We stand on the threshold of a new year and we give thanks for our Savior’s fulfillment of all that we could never fulfill or do for ourselves. His resolution to save you is certain for His Name and blood are the visible and tangible means that He says to you, “I am real, My Name is your Name and my spilt blood is the seal of the New Testament, given and shed for you.” The Law’s accusing voice and curse of death is silenced in Jesus’ Name and Circumcision, in Jesus’ death and burial, in Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. This is a “great and marvelous mystery! The Child is circumcised and is called Jesus. What connection is there between these two things…But in this you may recognize him who comes to be the mediator between God and man…The circumcision is proof of the true humanity he has assumed, while the name given to him…reveals…his majesty. He is circumcised as a true son of Abraham, he is called Jesus as true Son of God” [12th c. St. Bernard, Sermon on the Circumcision].

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, [+] and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.