Of all the unlikely festivals and holy days in the
Church’s calendar, today, the Circumcision of Our Lord, has to be
the most unlikely, for several reasons. First, the Gospel reading
is the shortest in the three year lectionary. In case you forgot,
here it is again in its entirety: On
the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise Him, He was named
Jesus, the name the angel had given Him before He had been
conceived.
And that’s it. Short and sweet -- just the facts,
ma’am. The eighth day after Jesus was born He was circumcised
just like any other Jewish male baby. And He was named Jesus, the
name the angel Gabriel had given to Him before He’d ever been
conceived in His mother’s womb. It’s all right there, contained
in just one sentence, and hardly seems worth devoting an entire
Christian festival to.
The second thing that makes this festival unlikely
is that it’s a little embarrassing to celebrate. Some people
might be scandalized to see the word “circumcision” emblazoned in
bold type across the front of our bulletin. And let’s face it, if
preachers go into any detail about the mechanics of circumcision
in their sermons, this festival could be given a “parental
guidance” label.
But one thing I’ve learned over the years is that
there is divine wisdom at work in the way the Christian calendar
developed. It’s not random in its development; it’s not
accidental or meaningless. That’s true of today’s festival also.
There is a world of meaning for you and me, the redeemed of
Christ, in this festival of the Circumcision of Jesus and its
appointed Gospel. Because they remind us of several things.
First, this festival reminds us of the reality of Jesus’
conception, birth, and body. It wasn’t a phantom whose birth is
celebrated in the Nativity season. It wasn’t an appearance or
some kind of hologramic projection. It was a baby, a real human
baby, a real male baby to be exact. Our Lord
had to be truly human and truly male before He could be
circumcised. He had to have a human nature like ours in all ways
yet without sin. After all, you can’t circumcise a phantom. If
He wasn’t truly Man, then the Church is just spinning its wheels,
going nowhere fast, in its celebration of Christmas.
The second thing our Lord’s Circumcision reminds us
of is this -- As God Incarnate, Jesus was born a Jew under the Law
with the obligation of fulfilling the Law in all its intricate
entirety. The Law of God must be fulfilled, and since we sinners
are helpless to do it in thought, word and deed as God demands,
the Son of God willingly took upon Himself the burden of the Law
for us. He agreed to keep the Law in our place, as our
Substitute, so that His obedience and righteousness could be
chalked up to our account. From the time He was circumcised to
the day He died and was buried, Jesus fulfilled all the demands of
God’s Law for us.
In keeping the Law perfectly, Jesus steps up to the
plate in our place and sends the ball over the fence every time.
And He does it for you and me, who because of the crippling
impediment of sin connect with air every time we take a swing at
the ball. All our righteous deeds are as filthy rags,
Scripture says of us, but Jesus is the Lord our
Righteousness, who fulfilled all righteousness
for you and me. His circumcision was His first step in fulfilling
the righteousness you and I lack as sinners.
The Circumcision of our Lord also reminds us that
Jesus was appointed to die as God’s final sacrifice for the sins
of all mankind. Circumcision is a bloody business, and so were
our Lord’s sufferings and crucifixion under Pontius Pilate.
Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin,
Scripture says. In [Christ] we have redemption through His
blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches
of [God’s] grace, St. Paul writes in Ephesians 1:7.
Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more
shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God, we read in
Romans 5:9.
The Blood of the New Testament shed on the Cross,
and given to us in the Sacrament of the Altar, first flowed when
Jesus was circumcised. His circumcision reminds us that nails,
spear, shall pierce Him through/the Cross be borne for me, for
you. The circumcision of our Lord is a solemn declaration
from heaven, at the beginning of Jesus’ earthly life, that this
Baby was uniquely born to die. He was born to die in the place of
sinners. He was born to die on the Cross for the forgiveness of
each and every person ever born. He was born to endure great
suffering and the wrath of God to atone for all the human
wickedness ever perpetrated. Jesus is the full and final sacrifice
– there is no other. Just leave any sacrifice for sin you’d like
to make in the drawer. It’s not needed. Jesus has already done
it. You’re already forgiven. Jesus’ circumcision is a reminder
of that.
Finally, the Circumcision of our Lord is a reminder
of the new life in Christ that was given to us in Baptism. A
Jewish male entered the community of God’s covenant people through
his circumcision on the eighth day. Circumcision marked him as
one of God’s own, as God’s possession. In a most intimate way he
bore in his flesh the brand of God’s ownership.
Through Holy Baptism you also bear the brand of
God’s ownership. By means of your Baptism in the Name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, God’s Triune Name
has been placed on you and He has said of you that you’re His
beloved child in whom He is well-pleased. God’s pleased with you
not because of something you’ve done, or your parents did for
you. He’s pleased with you because of what Jesus has done – live
a perfectly holy life in your place, die on the Cross to pay for
all your sins, and rise again as God’s notarized guarantee that He
has justified you. He has declared you to be righteous and
without sin for the sake of Jesus, the Lord your Righteousness.
God’s pleased with you because in Baptism you were
joined to Jesus – to His holy life, His atoning death, His burial,
and His resurrection. Colossians says that
in Christ
you were
circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off
the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ; and you were
buried with him in Baptism, in which you were also raised with him
through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the
dead. And you, who were dead in trespasses and the
uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Christ,
having forgiven us all our trespasses. . .
Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day. The Eighth
Day is the Day of Resurrection, the Day of newness of life, the
day that all creation sings for joy because of the crucified and
risen Christ who makes all things new. God began the work of His
original creation on a Sunday, the first day of the week, and He
accomplished the work of His new creation on the Sunday Christ was
raised again, the eighth day. Baptismal fonts used to have eight
sides to them as a visible testimony that through Baptism we enter
God’s new creation. Scripture puts it this way:
Do you not know that all of us who have been
baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were
buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ
was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might
walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a
death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a
resurrection like his.
On this New
Year’s Day, this festival of the Circumcision of our Lord, we
remember that newness of life is ours now by God’s grace through
our Baptism into Jesus’ death and resurrection. We are God’s
people now through our Baptism. We are a new creation now through
Baptism. And one day, when our Lord returns again to make all
things eternally new, what God promised and pledged and gave in
our Baptism will be perfectly and completely realized as we are
called out of our graves and enter fully into that new and
glorious universe which is the only fitting home for those who’ve
been redeemed by Jesus.
As I said at
the beginning of this sermon, the festival of the Circumcision of
our Lord is one of the most unlikely observances on the Christian
calendar. But really, is it any more unlikely than God becoming
Man in the Baby born to Mary? Is it any more unlikely than God’s
reconciliation of sinners to Himself through the Son of God’s
shameful death on the Cross? Is it any more unlikely than a dead
Man coming to life again? Is it any more unlikely than God meeting
us now, to give us His forgiveness, life and salvation, through
humble means of words and water and bread and wine? Is it any
more unlikely than the fact that the bread and wine we eat and
drink in the Sacrament is the very Body of Christ given for us and
the very Blood of Christ shed for the remission of our sins? Is
it any more unlikely than the fact that our bodies which grow old,
sicken, and die, will be raised again on the last day at the
Lord’s command?
No, it’s not
more unlikely. After all, God specializes in making the unlikely
a reality. He specializes in taking those who were doomed to
everlasting death and condemnation and making them heirs of His
salvation and forgiveness, heirs of that life eternal that He
alone can give. And He does it all through Jesus alone. Our
Lord’s circumcision on the eighth day is a reminder of these
things. As God Incarnate He did all these things for you.
In Nomine Patris. . .
