Sermon Audio

The Evangelist St. Luke serves as our guide for Advent and Christmas. From him, we hear of the birth of the Savior in the town of David. And, being the vigilant physician that he was, he was never short on details. Even in the silence, St. Luke gives us details.

You may recall the Christmas narrative from St. Luke’s second chapter. The first 20 verses are all about the birth of the King of kings in a lowly stable outside of Bethlehem. Angels appear and announce the birth to shepherds who were in the same country that night. The shepherds go to find the baby, just as it had been told them, wrapped in swaddling cloths. Then, they leave and tell everyone they know what had happened. And did you notice the one thing missing in all of that? The Child is nameless.

Oh, we know what His name is...or will be, as the case may be. We had heard it earlier through the same pen of St. Luke, as we gazed with him at the annunciation, when Gabriel told Mary that she would bear the Son of God. “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS.” (Luke 1:31) Jesus will be His name, but that night, as He lay in the manger, that name was not yet given to Him.

The honor of receiving His name happened on the eighth day. According to the Law of God, that was the day all male children born to Hebrew households were to be circumcised. Tacked onto circumcision was the custom of naming of the son.

These days, parents usually have names picked out for their children before they are born. As soon as the gender is revealed, the name is called out, recorded, and strapped to the wrist of the fresh-out-of-the-womb infant. But not in Jesus’ day. Until His eighth day, He was simply known as son, Mary’s first-born Son, or, perhaps between Mary and Joseph and among the shepherds, the Son of God.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that He wasn’t Savior, as His name means, until His eighth day. As has been repeated in this hallowed place all last month, He was Savior from the moment of His conception, recognized as the Lord, Adonai, YHWH, by John and Elizabeth when He was a mere few cells just implanted in Mary’s womb.

What it does mean is that Mary’s first-born Son is subject to the very Law He gave to Abraham and Moses. Most likely still in Bethlehem, the infant Son of God and Mary make their way to the synagogue with Joseph for a brit milah. A little bit of wine and a few careful cuts, and God receives the covenant of circumcision that He prescribed to Abraham.

By this rite, all Hebrew boys were entered into the covenant along with Abraham—they are made part of the people of Israel. This was the sign God gave that a covenant existed between God and Abraham and the children of Abraham. Circumcision wasn’t unique to the region or time period. Just about every culture around them circumcised, but none of them circumcised 8-day old infants. Others circumcised as a rite of passage into manhood; a boy would indicate that he was a man by submitting to the rite—he would have made a choice to be circumcised. Not so with Hebrew boys; at 8 days old, they received the rite as a sign that they were chosen by God—and more than just a sign, they had very much been chosen by God and were entered into the covenant made by Him with Abraham.

But here, on this day, we’re talking about God. He is the one who cut the covenant with Abraham; by that token, He need not have received circumcision—He’s already in, He’s the One who made the people what they are, who chose them. Yes, He’s in the flesh now, only 8 days old, and born to a Jewish mother, but He’s still God.

By that right, it would seem logical to toss this day and any references to circumcision. For one thing, it’s very much an uncomfortable subject for us to talk about and listen to, as it involves genitalia, an otherwise taboo subject, with good reason. For another thing, Paul often speaks against circumcising male converts (cf. Romans 3:30, 4:9-10; 1 Corinthians 7:18-19; Colossians 3:11; et al), even though he did circumcise Timothy (cf. Acts 16:1-3), so there is no longer a reason to perform the rite. Circumcision to our ears sounds crude, bloody, and primitive, and in many respects it is, but that does not mean that we can deny that God used it as the sign of the covenant cut between Him and Abraham, and into which every male Hebrew child entered on his eighth day, including Jesus. It’s His Law, and by becoming flesh and subjecting Himself to His own laws of nature, God also subjected Himself to His divine Law.

And for that reason, it would be wrong of us to ignore it, because Jesus received circumcision for you. Had He not come and been circumcised, we would still be under the old covenant of circumcision. But because He is now come and subjected Himself to the Law and entered into the covenant of circumcision for you, we are no longer subject to the covenant of circumcision.

Listen to St. Paul, for through Him we hear,

For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. 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... (Colossians 2:9-11)

Why are we no longer subject to the covenant of circumcision? Because, dear Baptized, you are already circumcised! Christ’s circumcision was for you; therefore, His circumcision is your circumcision, and this not a circumcision of your flesh. Jesus, the Word-made-flesh, was entered into the covenant cut between God and Abraham for you; therefore, you are entered into that covenant, and you are a son of Abraham—just as the old Sunday School standard declares—and if a son, then an heir or redemption! Yes, you are a son, be you male or female, English, Germanic, Hispanic, or whatever, young or old. This is all as we heard in today’s Epistle:

But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. 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 are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:23-29)

In His circumcision, Jesus first shed His blood for you, and in so doing, declares to you that He is putting Himself under all of His Law for you. While only 8 days old, the Word-made-flesh is keeping His Law for you...perfectly. He would continue to keep His perfect Law perfectly for you throughout His 33 years on earth. What does this mean? Simply this: Jesus is not only your Law-bringer, but, more importantly, your Law-fulfiller. Sure, God gave the Law, but in Christ, God kept that Law, perfectly, for you; therefore, you, in Christ, keep the entire Law.

And that’s the reason that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, (cf. John 1:14) because He would not stand by and let His cherished creation condemn itself by its inability to keep the Law. “[A]ll have sinned,” says St. Paul, “and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) Whether intentional or not, not one of us can keep every little bit of God’s perfect Law; we all fall short of God’s glory and sin. The wages of sin is death. (cf. Romans 6:23) Whether we intended to sin, or sinned by accident, whether we have known the sins we’ve committed or they have been committed unnoticed, the wages of those sins—every last one of them—is death.

But therein also lies the reason why God in Christ did not abolish the Law, but fulfilled it. Because, living as we are now—sinner-saints—we struggle with knowing the Law and seeing that we do not keep it, all the while rejoicing that God in Christ kept it perfectly for us. “The Law was our tutor,” St. Paul said, “to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” “[B]y the Law,” he also said, “is knowledge of sin.” (Romans 3:20b) So, the Law remains for the chief purpose of showing us where and how we fall short of God’s glory, that we may confess it by God-given contrition, speak the same of our condition as He does, and He removes the sin and guilt from us as far as the east is from the west.

So it is that God took on flesh in the person of His Son in order not only to keep His Law perfectly for you, but to become sin for you—to take your imperfect keeping of the Law, your non-keeping of the Law, upon Himself—and shed His blood. He first shed His blood for you in His circumcision as a sign to you that He is the perfect Law keeper for you. He ultimately shed His blood for you on a cross outside Jerusalem to be the propitiation for your sins—to be the one through whom you have redemption—the forgiveness of sins. Yes, “[T]here is no difference...”

[A]ll have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:22b-26)

He is just—the giver of the Law—and the justifier—the one who kept the Law perfectly for you that you might be declared just for His sake; the Judge and the Executed—for you!

Here’s the kicker to all of this Law talk: everything that the Law demands is yours by way of Christ. God gives to you freely what His Law demands. You are holy and sinless not because of anything that you have done, but because your holiness and sinlessness were done for you by Christ. You are perfect not because you are able to keep the Law, but because your perfection was given to you by Christ. You hear the Scriptures using words like imputed, reckoned to, or credited to—and it uses those words of Christ’s righteousness given to you. God takes what rightfully belongs to Jesus and imputes it to you, reckons it to you, credits it to you, makes it yours...in Jesus, for Jesus’ sake.

Where does that leave us? Simply put, in Christ by Baptism. Baptism is the new sign of the covenant. There is no shedding of blood in Baptism, for the blood of God was shed already, once for all; now, by Baptism into Christ, all that He has done for us and won for us is given to us. We are made a new creation, baptized, as it were, into the eighth day of creation, where all things are made new, given new life, forgiven for all sins, and made a son of God and co-heir with His only-begotten Son. There at the font, we are called by name, just as Jesus was given His on His eighth day, and given the name of God, signed and sealed with the cross upon forehead and heart to mark you as one redeemed by Christ the crucified. As you were drowned in the water with the Word, you were chosen by God, much the same as Hebrew males were chosen by God in circumcision at only 8 days old (and so, we Baptize at any age, infant or octogenarian, because in Baptism, God chooses and elects the Baptized, the Baptized does not choose to be elected).

It is no coincidence that when St. Paul spoke of the flesh-less circumcision to the Colossians, as we heard earlier, that He finishes it with Baptism:

For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. 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. (Colossians 2:9-14)

So, on this day, we do not overlook or ignore a crude and blood ritual, because on this day, our God-with-us received His name and was circumcised for you. Into this, as much as into His life, death, and resurrection, you are baptized. In Christ, you are entered into the covenant cut between God and Abraham, which you and Abraham received by faith. And since you are entered into this covenant, since you are a son of Abraham and an heir with Christ of redemption, you are forgiven for all of your sins.