Genesis 17:9-14
Then God said to Abraham, “Now as for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants throughout their generations. Here is my covenant that you are to observe, between me and you and your descendants: Every male among you is to be circumcised.
Circumcise the flesh of your foreskin. That will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. Generation after generation, every male among you is to be circumcised on the eighth day after his birth. This includes the slave born in your house or the one purchased from a foreigner, who is not of your offspring. Yes, the slave born in your house or the one purchased with money is to be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is as an everlasting covenant. If any male is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, he will be cut off from his people because he has broken my covenant.”
Colossians 2:8-12
See to it that no one enslaves you through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elemental forces of the world, and not based on Christ. For in Christ, all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, 10and you have been filled by him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. In him, you were also circumcised with a circumcision not done by human hands, by stripping 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 power of God, who raised him from the dead.
Luke 2:21
After eight days had passed, the infant was circumcised and named Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
The New Year ushers in something new, a beginning. As Americans, we usually resolve to be better people in the coming year. But as Christians, we celebrate the New Year in a deeper way. For this isn’t just the new year of 2012. It’s Anno Domini 2012–the Year of our Lord 2012. That’s because it’s about 2012 years since the birth of Jesus. And isn’t that a fitting way to begin? For it’s not our beginning, but the Lord’s.
With the birth of Christ, God begins to do something new in His creation. In Jesus, God is born as a human to give us a new birth. So, the true New Year’s Day is Christmas, not today. For Christ is the beginning of our life!
Christmas is the real New Year’s Day! And today, January first, is the 8th day of Christmas. It was on this day, the 8th day, when newborn Hebrew boys were circumcised. It’s as we heard in our Old Testament reading:
Then God said to Abraham, “Now as for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants… Every male among you is to be circumcised…. That will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. Generation after generation, every male among you is to be circumcised on the 8th day after his birth…. [However,] if any male is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, he will be cut off from his people because he has broken my covenant.”
And so on the 8th day of Jesus’ earthly life, Joseph and Mary took baby Jesus into God’s house to receive the covenant of circumcision that God had given to Abraham. On the 8th day, the One who knew no sin, placed Himself under the Law, the One from whom the Law came. Yes, the Word made flesh, born of the Blessed Virgin, begins to feel the cross, as His skin is cut and His blood is shed.
But why do this? Why circumcise? It’s because Jesus puts Himself under the Law in your place. Remember, Jesus didn’t come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it. So, Jesus not only puts Himself under the Law, but He also puts Himself under the pain of obedience. It’s as the book of Hebrews says, “Although he was a Son [that is, God’s Son], he learned obedience from what he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). This baby, the Lord God who knows all, is learning obedience in His humility. He cries out as the blade of circumcision cuts Him.
Everything that Jesus suffered, from this first infant cut to the spear in His side on the cross, He did for you! But this obedience wasn’t easier for Jesus just because He happened to be God, for Jesus is also a man. And so as a man, this obedience will be costly and painful! From beginning to end, it would be Jesus’ blood-bought obedience for you!
For the Jewish man in the Old Covenant, circumcision served as an ever-present reminder that he was different. Circumcision separated him from the other nations. It set him apart to be holy.
But what could such a foolish and painful act do? After all, it’s just the removal of a man’s foreskin. How can that do anything? How can circumcision be the sign of God’s covenant? It’s because God made it that way!
Today, people ask the same question about baptism. How can baptism do anything? It’s only someone getting wet with water. Does it mean anything, or is it just an empty ritual?
In the Old Covenant, continuing this ritual of circumcision demanded faith. For circumcision in the eyes of most seemed but a foolish endeavor. But that’s how it is. To be wise in the ways of God often demands us to be fools in the eyes of the world. That’s how it is. We need to hear God’s voice and follow His Word, which is the source of true wisdom in this foolish world.
The world celebrates the New Year with drunkenness, fornication, and reckless abandon. The world also makes resolutions that do not last. Resolutions are an excellent beginning, but how can we make them last? And what should we resolve to do and be?
Rituals also are an excellent beginning–if they are God’s rituals! For God has ordained some rituals for His people. In the Old Covenant, it was circumcision. In the New Covenant, it’s baptism. And if God has ordained such rituals, then they are never meaningless or mindless acts.
In the Old Covenant, circumcision removed a man’s foreskin. But it was also to affect the heart, not only the body. Faith was linked to the act of circumcision. Listen to Moses: “The LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your descendants, so you may love him with all your heart and all your soul, and live” (Deuteronomy 30:6).
Yes, circumcision removed sin, not just skin. It’s as Jeremiah says: “Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, circumcise the foreskin of your hearts… otherwise my wrath will go forth like fire… because of your evil deeds” (Jeremiah 4:4).
In Christ, circumcision has run its course as a sign of the Covenant. That’s because Christ has fulfilled the Old Covenant. In the cut and bleeding flesh of Jesus, circumcised and crucified, sin is condemned. It’s as the Apostle Paul tells us. “What the law could not do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending His own Son in the flesh like ours to be a sin offering” (Romans 8:3). Because of Christ’s cross-bearing, circumcision has now passed away as a sign of God’s covenant and promise.
If we were to continue circumcising as an act of obedience, we would then be denying what Christ has fulfilled in the Law. In the church of Galatia, some were saying that Christians first had to undergo circumcision. To this, Paul wrote: “I, Paul, am telling you that if you have yourselves circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. Again, I testify to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law” (Galatians 5:2-3).
In the New Covenant, Christ has fulfilled all of what God had commanded in the Old. That’s why we, as God’s New Covenant people, no longer circumcise, sacrifice animals, or have the Passover (or Seder) meal.
But we can also take away from Christ’s work by twisting what He gave into another Law. If we were to baptize or have the Lord’s Supper simply as a Law, or ordinance, then our acts would deny the Gospel of Christ.
Christ fulfilled the Law without flaw, destroying sin’s power over us. Our union with Christ is sin-destroying and sanctifying, which we live out in our day-to-day lives. The death of sin in us is the life of Baptism. The life lived in Baptism is the circumcision of the heart.
That’s what Colossians, chapter 2, tells us. That chapter lets us know that Baptism replaces circumcision as the way God brings people into His covenant.
In [Christ,] you were also circumcised with a circumcision not done by human hands, by stripping 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 power of God, who raised him from the dead.
As circumcision pointed forward to the New Covenant in Christ, so Baptism points backward to the New Covenant in Christ. They both point to Christ’s fulfillment of the Law for us. Jesus went under the knife, so you may receive all that He has to give you. He fulfills all righteousness, so when you are baptized into His Name, the Father credits all of His works to you.
Indeed, just as circumcision was not just for the body but also for the heart, so too Baptism is not just an empty ritual but a life to be lived. Before he was martyred, St. Stephen condemned the Sanhedrin for rejecting the Gospel. He said, “You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears” (Acts 7:51). “Uncircumcised heart and ears”; isn’t that telling? Why ears?
With our ears, we hear the Word of God. As Christians, let us resolve this year to live more and more fully in our Baptism. Let us resolve to walk, not by the sight of our eyes, but by the hearing of our ears, by the hearing of God’s Word.
The One who gave His flesh to be cut and His blood to be spilled, now gives you a fresh start, a new day, a new year, and new life. The blood of Jesus covers the failings of the past, for they are forgiven and forgotten by God.
A future now stretches before you. It is bright with the hope of eternity. It is a present filled with the presence of the Triune God. Welcome to Baptism! No, it’s not just a new year, but a new life. It’s not just once every 365 days, but every day. That’s living in your baptism. Amen.
