Intro
Circumcision is not a pleasant experience. It is cutting off a piece of flesh from a male’s penis. That doesn’t sound like something smart to do. It sounds painful. It sounds foolish. But then, God says much that may sound foolish to our ears.
God told Abraham to leave his country and go to a place He would show him (Genesis 12:1). That sounds foolish. God told the Israelites to paint the blood of a lamb in the shape of a cross on their door frames (Exodus 12:7). That sounds foolish. God told Aaron to sprinkle water on those defiled by death to be made clean (Numbers 19). God tells us to do much that sounds foolish to our ears.
God gave Abraham a sign that He would keep His promise to make Abraham’s descendants His distinctive people (Genesis 17:10). That sign was circumcision, the removing from the body of some of its flesh.
Main Body
Imagine old Abraham first hearing what God told him to have removed. Abraham was 99 years old when God told him to be circumcised. Had Abraham not believed God, he would have laughed. It would be incredulous that circumcision could possibly do anything!
But God does even more. God says that circumcision for a boy born of parents who are part of God’s covenant are to be circumcised on the 8th day after birth. The 8th day is so early in one’s life. The boy won’t remember being circumcised. But even more, that was also the day that a boy was given his name.
That’s a fitting act: on the 8th day, God claims you and names you. Why wasn’t it the 7th day or the 17th year? When a boy is older, he can make up his own mind. The boy could choose for himself. That’s how God would do it if He were an American.
But that’s not how God works. You don’t make Him your Lord. Instead, He declares Himself as your Lord and marks you as His own. You don’t choose and claim Him. He chooses and claims you. And it is still the same today. Jesus says, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44).
Circumcision was an Old Testament “sacrament,” a way God’s saving gifts came to someone and were applied to him. Circumcision was a mark of God’s favor. It was a visible Word. It was the work of God’s doing, given to a person.
Circumcision showed that someone belonged to God. It showed that someone was the Lord’s servant, that he and his household were under God’s gracious rule and covenant. It proclaimed, “The Lord is our God, and we are His people.” After being circumcised, you could eat the Passover. You could pray in the Temple. You belonged. In circumcision, God named you and claimed you as His own.
And so, there is Jesus. He’s 8-days old, ready to be circumcised according to the Law. Eight days after His birth, He takes His place under the Law and becomes obediently obligated to it. Eight days after His birth, He sheds His first blood under the Law to redeem those who were under the Law and in bondage to sin. On this same 8th day, He receives His name delivered through the angel: Y’shua, Jesus, for He is YHWH, the Lord, come in the flesh to save us.
But, again, why the 8th day? It must mean something. Is the 8th day simply a day God picked at random? No, it is not. Circumcision teaches us many truths about God’s salvation.
That circumcision took place on the 8th day meant that its blessings reached beyond the seven days of the old creation. God created the world and everything in it in six days. On the 7th day, He rested. The 8th day is the first day of the new creation.
Circumcision brought one into God’s new creation. Circumcision was a new birth. It was a heavenly birth into a new creation.
Circumcision also teaches us of original sin. It teaches us that sin is handed down, that it is inherited. Sin is like a genetic disease, passed down from one generation to the next: from the father to the children, then to their children, and so on.
God never fails to make His point. So He puts this sign of the covenant precisely at this procreation point. God reminds us in a graphic-and-telling way that every child born of a natural father and a mother is sinful and needs His forgiveness through the shedding of blood.
Most important, circumcision teaches that a covenant with God involves the stripping off our sinful flesh and its yearnings. Circumcision means a decisive break with sin. It’s a killing of sin in the flesh. Circumcision teaches that a covenant with God involves suffering, pain, and shed blood.
And so on this Eve of the 8th day of our Lord’s human life, we do not sing these words from “Away in a Manger”: “But little Lord Jesus no crying He makes.” We do not sing such words on this day, when it is the day our Lord cried out as He shed His first blood for us and our salvation.
In the Old Covenant, Circumcision declared you to be a “son of the covenant.” And Jesus is the supreme “Son of the covenant.” It was His obedience in life and death that fulfilled the Old Covenant for us. But Jesus does more than fulfill the Old Covenant–He brings into us His New Covenant! The prophet Jeremiah spoke of this. It would be as God said, “I will forgive their iniquities and remember their sins no more” (Jeremiah 31:34).
So, we see what circumcision was. But what of us in the New Covenant? Ah, you see, Jesus was circumcised, so we in the New Covenant don’t have to be. He took up our flesh to be our circumcision for us. Jesus is the flesh that was stripped off, to be the sin that is separated from us forever. In Jesus, the God of Abraham has kept the Covenant for you. And He has given this to you in the waters of holy Baptism. For baptism is the circumcision of the New Covenant.
In the Old Covenant, all circumcisions pointed forward to Christ’s circumcision, where He would fulfill the Law for all people. Today, Christ gives to us His perfect fulfilling of God’s Law in Baptism.
Colossians 2:11-12 reads:
In Christ, you were also circumcised with a circumcision not done with hands, by stripping off the sins of the flesh in Christ’s circumcision, 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.
In the Old Covenant, circumcision pointed forward to the Messiah’s fulfillment of God’s Law, which was received in faith. In the New Covenant, baptism reaches all the way back to the Messiah’s fulfillment of God’s Law, also received in faith.
By grace, in holy Baptism, you have received Jesus’ Name, and all that goes with it. You can now call God as your Father. You have Jesus’ perfect keeping of the Law. You can now spend eternity in God’s holy presence. Those who bear the name of Christ are clean, holy, and pure, just as He is. It is now as if there never was any rebellion, never an offense, and never a sin.
This day, we remember well that Jesus was circumcised for us on the 8th day. We also remember the day we were circumcised in the New Covenant, the day of our baptism.
This day, we renew our Christmas joy on the Eve of our Lord’s Name and circumcision. For the Law stands fulfilled in Jesus. He has kept all of it for us. His circumcision, His perfect obedience, and His suffering and death are ours. And we are His.
Conclusion
Today, we ponder this deep mystery. An 8-day-old child bears the name “Jesus” in all its fullness. YHWH in the flesh has come to save. This little Child, Jesus, bears the Law for you. He sheds His blood and His tears for you. This circumcised, little child is your Maker, Redeemer, Lord, and Messiah. And what happens to Him, also happens to you in Him, in His Name.
Today, Christmas has a name on which to hang your faith: Jesus. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
