Small Catechism Review: Holy Baptism, 1

Sermon for the Festival of the Circumcision of Our Lord

Galatians 3:23-29  +  Luke 2:21

Happy New Year to you all, and a blessed 8^th day of Christmas! On the eighth day after His birth, according to the covenant God had made with Abraham some 2,000 years before, Abraham’s Seed, the Son of Mary, was circumcised. It’s hard for us to understand just how significant that event was among the Jewish people. To us who live 4,000 years after God gave the sign of circumcision to Abraham and his offspring, and more importantly, to us who live 2,000 years after Christ fulfilled the Old Testament and replaced it with the New, circumcision is meaningless, a matter of personal choice for personal reasons that some parents make for their little boys. It has no cultural or religious significance for us whatsoever as New Testament believers.

But that doesn’t mean it’s any less important for us to understand, and so we set aside every year the eighth day after Christmas, also known as New Year’s Day, to reflect on the Bible’s teaching of circumcision. And, once again, it coincides perfectly with our study of the Small Catechism, because after the Chief Part on the Lord’s Prayer comes the Chief Part on Holy Baptism, which is essentially the New Testament upgrade of the Old Testament Sacrament of circumcision.

God came to Abraham and made a covenant with him. I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your seed after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your seed after you. Also I give to you and your seed after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” And God said to Abraham: “As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your seed after you throughout their generations. This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your seed after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations.

What a lopsided covenant! For His part, God promised to be the God of Abraham and his seed. That means, He promised not to be their enemy, but to be their Father, to care for them, protect them, provide for them, guard and guide them. That’s what God agreed to do for them. And what was their part? What were they to do for God? Well, nothing. God needs nothing. But they were to do something as a sign that they wanted to be included in the covenant. Abraham and his seed (his male offspring) were to be circumcised in their flesh.

Why circumcision? Well, Scripture uses it to symbolize the cutting off of the sinful flesh, the sinful nature. It pointed to the fact that every child is born in sin, born outside of the covenant with God, and has to be brought into that covenant in order to be saved. Scripture also uses circumcision to symbolize repentance, the “circumcision of the heart.” And it was only for little boys, pointing Abraham and the generations that followed to a male Child who would be born, who would shed His blood as the atonement price for the sins of the world.

Now, “seed” refers to Abraham’s descendants, but St. Paul tells us in Galatians that it refers also and more specifically to one special Seed, to one special descendant, that is, to Christ. The Christ would be the true Seed and Heir of the Old Testament that God made with Abraham.

And so, on the eighth day after His birth the Son of Mary was circumcised and given the name Jesus, Savior, because He was the promised Seed of Abraham who would shed His blood to save His people from their sins. His circumcision was the first shedding of that precious blood. As we know, it wouldn’t be the last.

How does all this relate to Holy Baptism? Over the next few weeks we’ll look at different aspects of Baptism. Today, we’re focused on what it is and its relationship to circumcision.

What is Baptism? Baptism is not just plain water, but it is the water included in God’s command and connected to God’s word. Which word of God is that? Our Lord Christ says in the last chapter of Matthew: “Go into all the world and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

A baptism is a washing, a cleansing. There are a few kinds of “baptisms” mentioned in the New Testament. A “baptism” of water that was purely for Jewish ceremonial cleansings, like the cleansing of a dish or of a couch. There’s a baptism of fire. A baptism of the Holy Spirit. But what we call Holy Baptism is unique. It includes both water and God’s command to use that water in a special washing that is to be done in His name.

There is no specific method of baptizing mentioned in the Scriptures. Water can be applied in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit by pouring or sprinkling, or by dipping or immersing a person in it. The important thing, in addition to the application of water, is the word and command of God. He has commanded His ministers to baptize, and so we do.

The command includes “all nations.” No one is excluded. And, of course, that includes little children. But, how do we know little children are to be baptized? Because, among other reasons, little children were to be circumcised, as the Lord Jesus Himself was when He was a week old. God brought little baby boys—and their whole families!—into His covenant of grace through that Sacrament. Are we to believe that God excludes little children from the New Covenant? Why? Because they aren’t old enough to know what Baptism is, or to tell us whether or not they want to be baptized? Those 1-week-old Israelite boys didn’t understand circumcision, either, nor were they expected to express their agreement to the ceremony. No, the ceremony was performed on them and for them at their parents’ obedient request, and yet God’s promise was most certainly applied to the children who were circumcised. And then their parents instructed them as they grew.

But neither circumcision nor Holy Baptism actually saves apart from faith. So, can those little children actually believe? Can they have saving faith? Well, John the Baptist clearly did, even before he was circumcised, as he leapt for joy at the greeting from pregnant Mary. Jesus speaks of the little children who were brought to Him as “those who believe in Me.” And listen to what the Psalmist says as he prays: But You are He who took Me out of the womb; You made Me trust while on My mother’s breasts. I was cast upon You from birth. From My mother’s womb You have been My God.

Baptism goes hand in hand with faith. As Paul said in the First Lesson today, For 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 belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise. Baptism brings a person into Christ, who is Abraham’s Seed, making all the baptized also Abraham’s seed.

And just as all Abraham’s seed was circumcised under the First Covenant, so all Abraham’s seed is circumcised under the New Covenant with that better kind of circumcision called Holy Baptism. As Paul wrote to the Colossians, In Christ 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 your trespasses.

Just as our Lord Jesus was circumcised, so you have been “circumcised” with a different kind of circumcision, with Holy Baptism. And the promise made to you there is just like the promise made to Abraham: The Lord God will be your God, your Father, to care for you, to protect you, to provide for you, to guard and guide you. As we commemorate today the circumcision of Baby Jesus, remember your Baptism, and give thanks to God for using that holy cleansing to bring you into the body of Christ, making you a child of Abraham, a son or daughter of God, and an heir of eternal life. Amen.