Luke 2:21 The Circumcision of our Lord

January 1, 2012; The Circumcision of our Lord, Numbers 6:22-27; Galatians 3:23-29; Luke 2:21; Title: Jesus First Sheds Blood for Us; Rev. Tim Beck 

Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. What a Christmas text! (sing) On the 8^th day of Christmas our Lord was circumcised… likewise, on the 8^th day, Christ rose. So Christians worship not on the Sabbath, but on the 8^th. day. Baptismal fonts often have 8 sides to symbolize re-creation. And what does the baby’s circumcision have to do with that, with re-creation? 

          Let’s start with His name. When circumcised, Joseph didn’t call him Joseph Jr. He broke custom, naming the baby as God’s messenger said. Jesus, meaning Savior - bleeds with the sign given Abraham, the mark of the covenant, a mark of a new creation, of re-birth and the promised re-storation. While the parents wait for the baby’s blood to congeal and his cries subside, something new is happening. Did pious Joseph and Mary know this first shedding of blood was God’s act to save, this humiliation of the Son of God - made man? This baby fulfills divine promises, promises attached to the sign of circumcision.

          What promises came with this sign?   Lot’s of people don’t have a clue, or care. Last year the city of San Francisco almost had a ballot measure to make circumcision illegal.           What was the impelling reason for the ballot? Circumcision reduces sexual pleasure, as if the sensual is all that matters. (It’s OK to neuter pets, to poke holes all over your body for jewelry, to abort a living baby… but not to cut off a piece of skin?) So why did God cut a covenant in such a difficult place? Go back to Abraham.  And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you…  As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations… Every male among you shall be circumcised. (Gen. 17:7, 9b, 10b)

          God said, “I’ve chosen you Abraham and your offspring (which by the way is male and female, except that offspring is not plural but singular - more about that later). This promise also included all nations through Abraham’s lineage. This blessing promised a remedy to the fall of Adam and all that entails. It was about being restored to God as Father. It was about the coming Saviour, the cause of restoration. And Abraham believed, and instead of signing that covenant with pen on paper he signed it on his flesh in blood, along with all males in his household… so that each time a man and wife used that sinful thing they saw God’s promise. Abraham believed, accepting a visible mark confirming the covenant. Believing Abraham submitted to a sign of ownership. Faith does that.       

          400 years later the covenant expands. Moses receives the Torah – both the commands, and the sacrifices. Come Moses, circumcision signed that God’s people agreed to obey the entire law. That was a hard guardian (See Gal. 4:4). Obedience was a stickler. It was a stickler because so many of Israel did not obey because they did not believe. That’s why they died in the wilderness. Circumcision cut off the flesh to signify entering spiritual Israel; hence it meant a life of faith, including obedience and repentance (Col 3:9, 10; 2:11-14).  But God-pleasing obedience exists only where faith receives the promise, because by the promise God forgives disobedience, evidenced in the Tabernacle sacrifices of old. That’s why later prophets said just circumcising the body did not cut off deadness of heart. The coming Savior was the only remedy for that. There you have it, on one hand, without faith in the coming Saviour the Mosaic covenant of circumcision imprisoned, by requiring obedience to the law. On the other hand, circumcision pointed forward to the Christ, promising a Jesus and all who believed were saved, like Abraham.

          When the Jesus was named, his circumcision began to fulfill the law for us, and began to atone. He began fulfilling the sign of Abraham and earlier signed promises. Adam and Eve, given the sign of the curse, waited for the deliverer. So Jesus was cursed on a tree. Later Noah, given the curse of the flood, looked to the sign of the rainbow. So Jesus poured out a cleansing flood of water and blood. Then Abraham, a contemporary with Noah’s sons, is given a sign promising “I will be your God forever!”  And Jesus is circumcised as God-with-us, Emmanuel. Then Moses is given the law including the sacrifices, by which Aaron the high priest blessed the people. And Jesus, who obeyed the law, is sacrificed for lawbreakers. Soon Jesus re-creates by shedding His holy blood, cut for the sin of Israel. As Apostle Paul explains, now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. (Gal. 3:16)

          This is what circumcision of old says about Jesus, and therefore about you. Jesus Christ fulfilled circumcision, the Son of God in our flesh.  …when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (Gal. 4:4, 5) In God en-fleshed the Old Covenant became the New Testament, the Father sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh (Rom. 8:3) to conquer sin in our flesh. Jesus, Saviour, met every condition of the Mosaic covenant and every promise of Abraham’s covenant to name us His brothers. (Heb. 2:17) He began this work when circumcised, completing it when crucified. Now like priestly Aaron, He blesses the nations, justifying the guilty, exchanging His righteousness for our un-righteousness.

          This has nothing to do with being male or female, Jew or Greek, slave or free. It has everything to do with becoming God’s heirs and Christ’s body. Because Jesus was circumcised in our stead, no matter how unholy you feel, the Father, now “our Father” declares us sinners righteous. Jesus’ circumcision declares that God is in the flesh for us; as does His Christmas incarnation, Epiphany baptism, Good Friday crucifixion, and 8^th day resurrection. He even gave a new sign to confirm and confer this gift. Were you not baptized, and so like Abraham, justified by faith? Then as in olden days, we do not refuse the new sign of the promise, since in days of old, any who refused to be circumcised were cut off from the people of God. Nor do we neglect the sign for our children, as did Moses before the Exodus so that the Lord nearly killed him because his firstborn was not circumcised.  Nor do we who are signed reject the promise, as did the unbelieving in Israel who perished. Rather, we cherish what we received in the sign. Namely, when you were baptized, Jesus took your life and hid it in Himself. You were baptized into Christ to become children of God.

          He joined you to His death and bodily resurrection. Listen again to the name given at His circumcision: He shall be named Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. (Mt 1:21; Acts 4:12) In olden days circumcision made a people “His people,” faith receiving the promise. Now, in baptism we become His, faith receiving the Savior. In olden days, visible signs like circumcision and blood sacrifice established faith. In our day, Jesus gives the same promise of salvation with visible signs for faith. These signs not only point to God’s grace, they are means of grace.  Through these signs Christ brings us into himself, into his atoning death and eternal life. Listen to Holy Scripture: … he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour… (Titus 3:5, 6) What promise is attached to baptism?  Baptism (which corresponds to God delivering Noah in the ark) now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ… (I Pet. 3:21) What unites us with Jesus?  In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having 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. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses… (Col 2:11-13, ESV)  Jesus Christ united you with Him, and hence He promises that you were raised from the dead!  You already share in Christ’s resurrection! This is true despite how you feel in your tired old body. This is true despite how many times you need repent because you’ve sinned again, like the Hebrew man who sees the promise and believes.

          Consider briefly another Old Covenant shadow completed by Christ. There is no more need to shed blood to atone for sin. All Temple sacrifices were fulfilled in Christ’s bloody death. Now there is a corresponding sign replacing the old covenant means of grace. Our Saviour is that living sign, His real presence in body and blood. In Holy Communion He unites with you spiritually and bodily, coming to you as the victorious Savior. He assures you that your sins are forgiven! Where there is sin He cleanses. Where you are weak He strengthens. Where         faith is tested He supplies hope. When you are dying he gives life. What a Christmas gift, the infant named “Saviour,” Look how He bound Himself to us for our salvation! At the circumcision of Jesus did Joseph and Mary know their actions were God’s actions to save?  Did they understand what Jesus’ first shedding of blood meant? While circumcision seemed so ordinary to Hebrew families, through the promise attached to circumcision the holy infant gave life. He now gives something that seems very ordinary… except for the promise attached to water, bread and wine… with word. There, because of the promise, the most extraordinary thing takes place. We are declared righteous with the very holiness of Jesus, and united most intimately to Him in eternal life. We enter into re-creation through our Saviour. 

          Therefore this Christmas blessing applies to you: Now unto him who is able to keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever (Jude 24-25)  (Amen.)