The Circumcision of Christ
ON THE FEAST OF THE CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST
In Luke's Gospel, we hear of the events which follow the departure of angels from the presence of Shepherds, who discern to depart for Bethlehem, to the House of Bread, to "see which is come to pass, which the Lord known made known unto [them]." That which has come to pass was, of course, pronounced to them by the Angel of the Lord who said unto them, "Fear not: for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord" (2:10-11).
And with haste, they traveled to Jerusalem and found the babe lying in a manger. And having dwelt in the presence of the Child of Promise, they went praising God and making known abroad what had been made known to them by a heavenly messenger. Then, St. Luke writes, "And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb."
Today is the 8th Day of Christmas, and it is the day of the Circumcision of Christ, for, in keeping with the Law, Jesus was circumcised at eight days old as a token (or a sign) of the covenant God made with Abraham. In all likely hood, it was Joseph, our Lord's earthly Father, who circumcised his son following the command given to Abraham found in Genesis chapter 17 to circumcise not only his own flesh (at the age of 99) but every male child at the eight day after they were born.
In his sermon epistle to the Hebrews, St. Paul says Jesus "took on him, the Seed of Abraham. Therefore (continues the Apostle) he had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people" (Heb 2:16-17). Jesus was born an Israelite, a son of Abraham, who in the "fullness of time, was sent forth by God, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law" (Gal 4:4-5).
Like his brethren, Jesus was born under the Law and obligated to keep it. On Jordan's banks, John baptized Christ so that our Lord might fulfill all righteousness (Mt 3:15). Jesus, who by his circumcision entered the Abrahamic covenant, said this: "Do not think that I have come to abolish Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them" (Mt 5:17). Again, Christ was made under the Law to redeem them that were under it.
The need for redemption became necessary when Adam and Eve disabused God's generosity and rejected his wisdom. Two trees, two signs or sacraments, were created and given by God, which communicated eternal and spiritual realities to the man and the woman. In the case of one, God warned, "Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die" (Gen 2:17). And sure enough, at the very moment they transgressed God's loving warning, Adam and Eve passed from life into death, an inward and spiritual reality brought by partaking of the outward and visible sign. Divine judgment and curses ensued, but God also redeemed Adam and Eve by sacrificing animals and promising a Seed that would come from a woman (Gen 3:15).
It was to Abram, a Chaldean pagan moon worshipper, that God chose to as his covenant vessel, that through him, that which was promised might come to pass. In Genesis chapter seventeen, we read, "When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him,
"I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless [righteous]... And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your offspring after you... This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. Any uncircumcised male not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant."
Notice that God takes the initiative to continue what was divinely promised to Eve. Note the changing of Abram's name due to having come into covenant with God through Circumcision. His new name, by the way, expresses the reality of what God will accomplish through Abraham: that he will be the Father of a great multitude. from his Seed, or his offspring, an everlasting king will be born who shall reverse Eden's curse [crush the serpents head] and bring blessing to all the nations of the earth.
But more importantly, for our purposes this morning, I want you to see that God ordained circumcision as a sign and seal of his covenant promise to Abraham and his children. Circumcision was how Eden's rogue offspring were to be brought back into the presence of the LORD. To receive circumcision was to be in covenant with God and the sign of his promise (as stated above) to be "God to Abraham and his descendants." Circumcision was based on grace, not merely as a statute of the Law. It was a means of grace by which his people enjoyed the special presence of God.
In his wonderful book on the subject, our dear Bishop Sutton calls it "Circumcision in the presence of the Triune God" (1). This presence brought about by circumcision is what makes the Abrahamic covenant the covenant of all Old Testament Covenants because it formed a special union with the Almighty God. But the formation of a union with God through the Abrahamic covenant involved a sacramental sign and seal, circumcision. The very rite itself was a sign that literally concerned the organ of procreation. It was also bloody, involving pain and the removal of flesh. And there's a reason why the sign is so graphic and real.
In addition, the covenant promise would come about by another, mediated by a representative. Abraham was the first covenant representative, and all who joined the covenant by circumcision entered into a kind of sacred union with Abraham, the Father of the covenant (Jn 8:39). This also meant that to be in union with Abraham was to be in union with his Seed; not seeds, plural, but Seed, singular. St. Paul tells us in Galatians,
"Now to Abraham and his Seed, were the promises made. He does not say 'And to seeds' as of many, but of one, 'and to your Seed,' who is Christ" (Gal 3:16).
Let's return to Genesis chapter fifteen, before God had ratified the covenant by the sign of circumcision, before changing Abraham's name. To summarize thus far, circumcision was the gracious sign and seal of having entered into covenantal union with God, initiated by the promise of God and mediated by a covenant representative, the Seed of Abraham, who St. Paul tells us is Christ. And remember, faith is the basis of covenantal participation."And he brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness" (Gen 15:6). Abraham was justified by faith before God gave the Ten Commandments and he was declared righteous before his circumcision. As an adult, he entered the covenant with God based on the righteousness of God through his own faith.
Circumcision was an outward sign and seal of real and tangible righteousness wrought by faith. This St. Paul makes clear in Romans 8, writing, "For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How, then, was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness he had by faith while still uncircumcised.
God's covenant with Abraham wasn't meant to be merely an external relationship with God but internal, from a heart of faith. Covenantal joy was experienced by faith working out by love, good works produced from a righteous life; in other words, the covenantal character of God was to be reflected in Abrahams's life. Thus we see that the special presence of God enjoined to the Abrahamic covenant was enjoyed solely on the righteousness of faith in the righteous living out of the faith, in connection with the sign and seal of the promise, circumcision.
What son of Abraham proved faithful to the demands of the covenant? Which son of Israel walked in total righteousness, faithfully doing works of righteousness? It is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Born just eight days ago, son of Adam and son of God. By his circumcision, he already shows, at such a tender age, that he has come to perfectly keep the Law. By his circumcision, he receives a grievous wound in his body; his flesh pierced, his blood spilled by the hand of his Father. And, as it was with Abraham, the babe is given a covenantal name pronounced from heaven: Jesus, "For he shall save his people from their sins." Yeshua, meaning "God is salvation" or "God saves"; Jesus, the Seed of Abraham born into the world, was circumcised on the 8th day to save us from our sins by shedding his blood, first at his circumcision, and finally culminating on the Cross at Calvary.
Jesus Christ fulfills the promise made at Eden, a promise restated and reaffirmed with Abraham and Sarah. He is the long-awaited Seed and everlasting King in whom we enjoy the benefits of a better and new covenant far exceeding the grace of circumcision and the Old. The incarnation distinguishes the New from the Old because the Lord had not yet become man, and though a real, covenantal union existed between God and man, it was limited. But every single limitation was done away with when God became man in Christ, who in his body crushed the head of the serpent, destroyed death, and fulfilled that old promise made first to Eve and then unto Abraham. No longer do we enjoy the Divine presence of being with God. Rather, in the New Covenant, we move, live, and have our being in God: in not with- there is a significant difference!
The new covenant is signified by baptism, just as circumcision signed and sealed the Old. Baptism, as the Apostle tells us, is the circumcision made without hands, by putting 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 powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead." Our baptism is a participation in Jesus' circumcision, the great and faithful representative of the Abrahamic covenant.
Through baptism, we are united to Christ's circumcision, which means we are mystically incorporated into his body, united to him through his body, the Church. All of this was accomplished by the faithful covenantal son of Abraham, born of a woman, the Seed of promise, who, eight days after birth, was dutifully brought into the people of Israel by circumcision and given a name. This name is above every name: Jesus. Therefore, we should never hesitate to say the name of Jesus, this most precious and holy name, and say it with joy and gladness, with reverence and affection; indeed, sing praises and savor the sweetness of that high and lofty name: Jesus. The very name to which Psalm 103 exalts in singing,
PRAISE the LORD, O my soul; * and all that is within me, praise his holy name… and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thy sin, * and healeth all thine infirmities; Who saveth thy life from destruction, * and crowneth thee with mercy and loving-kindness; Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, He hath not dealt with us after our sins; * nor rewarded us according to our wickednesses.
Look how wide also the east is from the west; * so far hath he set our sins from us. The days of man are but as grass; * for he flourisheth as a flower of the field… But the merciful goodness of the LORD endureth forever and ever upon them that fear him; * and his righteousness upon children's children; Even upon such as keep his covenant, * and think upon his commandments to do them.
My dear friends, what great benefits we have received by the NAME! Jesus Christ, the faithful covenant keeper, bestows his merciful goodness forever and ever. Like a father who pitieth his children, he has set our sins far from us and hath not dealt with us after our sins nor rewarded us according to our wickedness. For he is full of compassion and mercy. Such are the wonderful benefits to those signed and sealed by baptism, who fear him, keep his covenant, walk in his ways and do his commandments, and confess with their tongue that Jesus Christ is Lord. Therefore, beloved, with St. Paul, I urge you to work out the grace of the New Covenant sealed unto you by water and the Divine Name, with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Amen+
(1) Sutton, R. ‘Signed, Sealed, and Delivered’ page 62.
