Sermon for the Feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord
Galatians 3:23-29 + Luke 2:21
Merry 8th Day of Christmas, the day on which the little baby boy born to Mary was first injured, according to the Law of Moses, and the day on which He officially received His name: Jesus, which means, “Savior.” The injury He received was minor, of course—a ring of skin removed from a sensitive part of his little body. And the reference to His circumcision? One little verse in the Bible, the shortest Gospel text of the whole year. But the significance of Christ’s circumcision cannot be exaggerated. Because without it, He wouldn’t deserve the name He was given. Without it, no matter how much He would later suffer, no matter that He would die on a cross. Without His circumcision, He could not have been mankind’s Savior. So let’s consider this event that seems so trivial, but isn’t.
Our Bibles are neatly divided into the Old Testament and the New Testament. What was the Old Testament? It was God’s covenant or binding agreement, made with Abraham and his Seed, to be their God and to give them an everlasting inheritance. The sign of the covenant, the Sacrament of the Old Testament that a brought a person into the contract and made him an heir of the promises contained therein, was the act of circumcision. Obviously it only applied to the boys; as for the girls, the women, they were included in the Testament by their national connection to the male offspring of Abraham. And right away we may ask, why didn’t God devise a different sign or Sacrament so that the girls could be directly included, too? The answer is simple: the sign of circumcision was intended, first and foremost, to point every descendant of Abraham to a very special male descendant of his: to Jesus, the Christ.
Since the Christ was the promised Seed of Abraham, His circumcision was the one that truly mattered. Every other circumcision of every other little boy in Israel tied the little boy to the coming Christ. Every other descendant of Abraham, male and female, was only included in the Old Testament through their connection to the coming Christ.
But, as the Apostle Paul points out, that connection cannot be only physical and outward. It has to also be spiritual and inward. It has to include faith. A circumcised Israelite might as well have been uncircumcised if he didn’t believe in the promised Messiah alone to be able to stand before God as righteous. The physical offspring of Abraham who didn’t flee in faith to God’s promised Messiah weren’t actually the offspring of Abraham at all. The true Seed of Abraham is Christ Jesus and those who have faith in Christ Jesus.
The faith-connection to Christ Jesus no longer involves an outward circumcision. That sign was fulfilled when Jesus was circumcised and when He instituted the New Testament in His blood. But the faith-connection to Christ Jesus does include its own powerful sign and Sacrament: the sign of Holy Baptism. As Paul wrote in today’s Epistle, you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Baptism makes each one of us, whether Jew or Gentile, male or female, a “son” of God. That is, it is God’s binding agreement with you to view you, to count you, and to treat you as His own Son, Jesus Christ. That means He views you with favor, because Jesus, as the Son of Man, earned His favor. He counts you righteous, because Jesus was righteous. He counts you as having paid for all your sins, because Jesus did pay for all your sins with His innocent suffering and death. He counts you as an heir of eternal life, because Jesus is the Heir of eternal life and of all things. He treats you as His own dear child, because Jesus is His own dear Child. Baptism, combined with faith, has brought you into Christ Jesus and clothed you with Him, as with a garment.
And so we celebrate this day, this feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord. Because the circumcision of the baby who was aptly named “Savior” enabled Him to inherit the promises made to Abraham, and then, in turn, to award that same inheritance to all who are circumcised in the better Sacrament of Holy Baptism. As Paul writes to the Colossians, In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
Remember Jesus’ circumcision today, and also remember your own! And give thanks to the Lord for enduring this first bit of pain, so that you might be included in the salvation accomplished by the One named Jesus. Amen.
