The Circumcision and Naming of Jesus is, unfortunately, an often-overlooked celebration in the life of the church. Most Christians are more focused on the celebration of the First Sunday after Christmas so they can keep sing their favorite Christmas hymns and carols. While the continual celebration of Christmas is indeed worthwhile, the oft forgotten Circumcision and Naming of Jesus, holds greater importance for Christians than we might first consider. You see, within the few words of today’s Gospel reading we hear of the profound and world-shattering event which would lead to the rise and downfall of many:
21Andat 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.
As we celebrate the new year today, we celebrate more than the beginning of the 2,023rd year since the birth of our Lord, we celebrate the 2,023rd year of a new covenant between God and man.
Throughout the Old Testament, Almighty God speaks of covenants which he makes between God and man. In virtually every instance these covenants are made through the shedding of blood. It should be of little surprise to us then to know that even covenants between people were “cut” if you will, as an animal would be killed, it’s blood, shed, and both parties of the covenant would pass between the pieces as a sign of the covenant. One profound example of this is seen in Genesis 15 as God cuts a covenant with Abram promising that He would give to Abram a son to be his heir, and Abram believed it was counted to him as righteousness. We see that God “cuts” this covenant with Abram saying, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”10And he brought him all these,cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. Buthe did not cut the birds in half….17When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.18On that day theLordmade a covenant with Abram, saying,“To your offspring I givethis land, fromthe river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,19the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,20the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,21the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgash*tes and the Jebusites.”
Later God cuts a covenant with Abraham through the sign of circumcision. This time it would not be an animal whose blood was shed, but it would be a baby boy, eight days old, whose foreskin would be removed, his blood shed, as a constant and ever-present sign that he was included in the covenant of God, that he was included in the Messianic promise of one who would come to redeem God’s people.
Yet, this covenant was not to last. For Almighty God had a new and greater covenant in mind for his people, a covenant which He promised through the prophet Jeremiah, ““Behold, the days are coming, declares theLord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares theLord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares theLord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know theLord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares theLord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
You see this is the new covenant that God would establish through the promised Messiah, the coming one whose birth, life, and death would establish this everlasting covenant between God and man.
Now, today, we celebrate this new covenant come in the child whose birth we continue to celebrate even this morning. Having been born a descendent of the Hebraic promise, the fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant, and the Davidic line , Jesus circumcision and naming is not simply the obedience of his parents to the covenantal command of God. Instead, Jesus, God Saves, is by his faithful circumcision included in the old covenant and thereby able to establish the new covenant of God in himself, as the author of Hebrews writes, “In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” Thus as Jesus’ blood is shed in circumcision, fulfilling the old covenant, Jesus is prepared now to “cut” a new covenant between God and man in His flesh, the shedding of His blood upon the cross, fulfilling His name, God Saves.
Of this the author of Hebrews writes, “Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.” Thus, dear saints, this covenant has been established for you, established by Jesus, that you might be included in it. Even this has been done for you, as St. Paul writes,
“9Forin him the whole fullness of deity dwellsbodily,10andyou have been filled in him, who isthe head of all rule and authority.11In him alsoyou were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, byputting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,12having been buried with him in baptism, in whichyou were also raised with him through faith inthe powerful working of God,who raised him from the dead.13And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, Godmade alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,14bycancelingthe record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
Therefore, not through bodily circumcision but, through Holy Baptism, you are brought into the covenant of everlasting life.
Now, each and every time we hear those blessed words, “I forgive you all your sins,” we not only receive that forgiveness, but we are given a constant and ever-present sign that we are included in the covenant of God. What’s more is that here today, and every time we gather around the Lord’s table, we receive this same promise and assurance in our Lord’s own holy supper as we receive his very body and blood, that same body and blood born and circumcised, crucified and raised, for YOU!
So, dear saints, as we continue rightly to celebrate the birth of our Savior at Christmas, may we also celebrate the Circumcision and Naming of Jesus. For in the circumcision and naming of Jesus, we see that our Savior has faithfully kept the law and covenant of God even from birth, so that in His death and resurrection he might establish the greater covenant of eternal life for YOU. Amen!
