Feast of the Circumcision and Name of Jesus

S. Circumcision/Name of Jesus.25 Luke 2:21

They say this one’s a minor festival of the Church—“The Circumcision and Name of Jesus”. But, recalling comedian Dennis Miller’s brief but glorious Monday Night Football stint, many years ago (America just wasn’t ready, apparently) when his partner Dan Dierdorf said “Williams is out with minor groin surgery” and Miller shoots back “Uhm, there’s no such thing as minor groin surgery, Dan,” I’m going to say Jesus would agree this one’s major—a big one!

I got a birthday card once with a picture of a concerned looking baby boy, and his parents looking sheepish that said: “It is traditional at the birth of a male child to circumcise him.” Then you open the card and its says “Fortunately, subsequent birthdays are traditionally celebrated with cake.”

Which isn’t quite right. It was actually 8 days after his birth that they circumcised the male child in Israel and named him. I know you want to hear that the bible is clear that life begins at conception—and the bible doesn’t deny that, but it doesn’t exactly confirm it either. Leviticus says a man who injures a pregnant woman so that she miscarries, only gets a modest fine—like a month or two’s pay. It’s not treated like murder, which carries the death penalty. And a child that dies before 8 days doesn’t have a name, hasn’t achieved full personality. Again, I’m just telling you what the bible says. There is no explanation of this anywhere in the scriptures, no simple paint by numbers anthropology so that we can be dogmatic on America’s pet political issues.

And why the circumcision of the male child (there is no female equivalent) anyway? What’s up with that? Well, in Genesis 17, God makes a last will and testament with Abraham and says the circumcision of a male child 8 days after his birth (whether born in the father’s house or bought with money as a slave—I always like to ask the vicars, “I see God is fine with slavery and indentured servitude in the OT, as St. Paul is, in the New, but you’re opposed to the bible on this, right?” Just to see the response. Hey; there’s a lot of stuff in the bible that is very, very uncomfortable for modern, right-thinking Americans 😉

But, that’s all God says about circumcision. It’s like the old Nike ads: “Just Do It!” He doesn’t say why, and Abraham is far too wise to ask. Circumcision is a sign of being Abraham’s seed that God commands Abraham and his seed after him. That was good enough for Abraham, and if it’s not good enough for you, I’m sorry!, but there is no explanation given for circumcision, just as there isn’t for banning usury (that’s making money off money, the basis for the whole modern global economy), or for God permitting the patriarchs multiple wives and concubines, slavery, extermination of Israel’s enemies, animal sacrifices, monarchy, or fearing, loving, and trusting in God above all else!, including family and country!

Circumcision is just the tip of the iceberg 😉 that will tear holes in our hulls under the waterline. There are so many things in the scriptures that are weird or disturbing or offensive to modern Americans. But that’s also kind of the point of it!

God didn’t give us a religion to make us comfortable. He gave us something sharp and cutting and bloody, to be frank. Because our sin requires extreme measures to fix it. It required God himself to come down here in our flesh and his own circumcision is just a foreshadowing of the much greater pain and blood loss of the cross that’s in store for baby Jesus (and for us!).

St. Paul says “all who would live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” But, in this world, our Lord promises the deceivers will prosper and flourish—enjoying comfortable lives with no great pains in their death, as the Psalmist says. Circumcision gets Abraham’s seed off to a rough start because it’s a rough road we’re going to travel. Not for the squeamish or faint of heart.

BTW; Moses was more concerned about what his wife Zipporah thought of him than what God thought. He didn’t circumcise his two sons he had with Zipporah because she apparently thought circumcision bloody and barbaric. Only when she sees God with a chokehold on her husband does she take a flint knife and circumcised her sons, throwing the foreskins at Moses’ feet, complaining: “You’re a bridegroom of blood to me!” I don’t think they had anymore children, either. And Moses later married a Cushite woman. So, yeah. Xnity: the road less-traveled-by and hey, maybe now we see why?! Jesus says loving son, daughter, mother, or father more than him will make you unworthy of him. He’s a lot, Jesus is! Asks a lot. But… gives a lot, dontcha know?

So, yeah: the point of circumcision 😉 is that, right from the get-go—well, from the 8th day—the Way of Abraham is narrow and difficult, most unappealing to the worldly minded, and few find it. Most will go the broad, easy way that makes for a wonderful earthly life (as most would define “wonderful”) which will land you in hell. Every silver lining has a cloud! The long view. Xns have their eyes fixed way down the road on the cross the is the only gateway to Aslan’s, er, Christ’s Country…

Just Do It, whatever God says, just roll with it. “Doc, is this gonna, hurt?” “It’s not an entirely benign procedure, Ma’am!” His word and ways are confounding and difficult—inexplicable and unexplained! But he’s God and you’re… not! Let him have his way with you and… the places you will go, the things you will see, with Jesus!

Faith, as Mary has showed us, these last few weeks, is the non-rejection of God’s strange Word. “Let it be to me as you will.” That’s Xnity, in a nutshell. And what God wants to do with us, well it’s what he did to himself when he came in the flesh in Jesus! Circumcised the 8th day, baptized by John to take the world’s sin on his sinless shoulders, hounded, hated, harassed despite all the healing and forgiving and saving he did. Crucified and dumped in a stranger’s tomb.

But on the 8th Day, the first day of the New Creation, Jesus rose again and the light of the cross shines in the darkness, and the darkness never will get it

The 8th day after Christmas is the bloody beginning, foreshadowing the 8th Day of the New Creation. Pain that’s worth the gain!

The world says this is “New Year’s Day”. And they aren’t celebrating Jesus’ circumcision or his Naming (‘Yah-Saves’ is what ‘Jesus’ means in English). The world’s got different holidays, a different calendar…

But this is Christ’s day, the 8th Day, first day of the New Creation. And as it began with baby Jesus’ circumcision and name, so it begins again, with us, now: recalling our baptism, taking up the cross, once more, and following to where the Peace, surpassing all understanding, guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

About Pastor Martin

Pastor Kevin Martin has served six Lutheran congregations, beginning in 1986 as a field-worker in Trumbull, Connecticut, and vicarages in Arlington, Massachusetts and Belleville, Illinois. He has been pastor of congregations in Pembroke, Ontario and Akron, Ohio. Since 2000, he has served as pastor of Our Savior Lutheran Church, Raleigh. Pastor Martin is a lifelong (confessional!) Lutheran (even though) he holds degrees from Valparaiso, Yale, and Concordia Seminary St. Louis. He and his wife Bonnie have been (happily) married since 1988, and have two (awesome!) adult children, Bethany and Christopher. Bonnie is an elementary school teacher. The Martin family enjoy music festivals, travel, golf, and swimming. They are also avid readers and movie-goers.