January 1, 2023 – Circumcision and Name of Jesus Text: Luke 2:21
Dear Friends in Christ,
I am sure all you noticed the brevity of the Gospel lesson this morning. “At the end of eight days.” This is not an arbitrary time. This is an appointed time with an appointed meaning. Why is the eighth day so important?
“WHY THE EIGHTH DAY?”
Why not some other number? Why eight days? Here is one thought: the eighth day is the best day for circumcision because on it baby boys produce the highest percentage of vitamin K and prothrombin, which are necessary for coagulating blood. Interesting fact, because we wouldn’t want all those baby boys bleeding to death.
Beyond the physical benefits of the eighth day, there is probably a more theological reason. When God gives the command to circumcise, He is making good on his promise to deliver his people. This wasn’t just freedom from Egyptians and Canaanites; it is the triumphing over this sinful world. A new heaven and a new earth.
When God first creates, He does so in six days and then rests on the seventh. This is the first creation. But we have a new creation on the horizon. This world will be destroyed and made new again. God again is the architect, and this new work begins when Jesus rises from the dead. He is the reason for the resurrection unto eternal life.
Try to follow this. Jesus died on Friday. Saturday was the Jewish Sabbath. Easter Sunday then came. The Sabbath is the end of the week or the 7th day. Jesus rises on Sunday which is actually the first day of the week. Seven days plus one day = eight days. The beginning of a new creation.
This is why sometimes you hear of an eighth-day theology. The Early Church shaped their baptismal fonts with eight sides – for in Baptism, like we witnessed today – something new is being brought forth. It is also a reminder that eight souls were saved on the ark when the floodwaters came – Noah, his wife, three sons, three daughters-in-law.
It all starts to make some sense now. It is a foreshadowing of being made new, being added to the kingdom of God, rising together in the resurrection and inheriting a new creation prepared for us in Christ Jesus.
“At the end of eight days . . . he was circumcised.” If you have sons you have experienced their pain. Most of us had it done in the hospital after their birth. It was hard to watch the nurse take them away and you just cringed when they were gone. It started a lifetime of hugging, kissing and love after they experienced pain.
Joseph and Mary probably watched, which would be even more difficult. They provided the comfort. But the pain Jesus went through would be multiplied. The shed blood of His circumcision would lead to the shed blood of Holy Week. The blood of Christ is first spilled here in the circumcision. It points to the purpose of His life. He has come to shed His blood for all.
What pain have you felt? What pain are you feeling? What emotional hurt weighs on your mind? The pain and agony that Jesus felt, like all those baby boys felt, will only be the beginning of what He must undergo for the redemption of mankind. The life of Christ will be one of suffering. It will be one where He submits himself to the will of His heavenly Father and thereby lays down His own flesh and blood for the life of all fallen mankind. This was God’s plan since the fall. Look at the name – Jesus – God saves.
Jesus has come to hug and kiss and love us. He provides the comfort in the midst of our pain. He sympathizes with us because He experienced it. Like our boys when going under the knife, do we cringe still at the Lenten/Easter story? Do we still see the pain? Do we acknowledge the agony? Does the shed blood make us turn away because we know it is our sin that causes Him so much discomfort?
That is how great His love is. He is worthy of His name because He saves. He saves you and I from discomforts that could be debilitating. Would you ever want to go through the death of a loved one without hope? By coming in the flesh, by shedding His blood, and by rising again on the third, that is the first, that is, remember, the eighth day.
This Day of Circumcision gives us hope. It encapsulates the curse of the fall, the promises of the Gospel in the Old Testament, and their fulfillment in the New Testament. It even points us forward to the return of our Lord in glory, who at that time will consummate all things and make them new in the new heaven and the new earth.
In the name of Jesus.
Amen.