Circumcision and Naming of Jesus

Good Shepherd

2004 Pass Rd, Biloxi, MS 39531

Draft Num 6:22–27; Gal 3:23–29; Lk 2:21; Ps 8; antiph: v. 9   –     1/4/26

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. Just last week we saw our Savior lying as a baby in the manger, God-with-us wrapped in swaddling bands and praised by heavenly choirs. These angels proclaimed to the shepherds His birth, they His first preachers on Earth and that to the least of all mankind, the despised shepherds. Today we see Christ obedient to the laws of Moses, or as St. Cyril of Alexandia says, “rather we have seen Him Who as God is the Legislator, subject to His own decrees” (Homily 3). St. Paul explains why this had to be so: when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (Gal 4:2–5) Thus even in this small shedding of blood, these bitter tears of agony from the little baby see the beginnings of Christ’s work of redeeming us from the curse of the Law who are unable to keep it by subjecting Himself to it. Jesus redeems us from the burden of the Law by fulfilling it for us and in our place.

Where the father of our race was unfaithful and brought all mankind under the curse of the Law, into the chains of sin and death, making us defiled and unclean by his act of sinful rebellion, Christ shows Himself obedient and and submissive in every respect to God the Father in Adam’s place and in your place so that He might remove the guilt of Adam which all men bear and might propitiate the Father for us. Therefore St. Paul again writes, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. (Rom 5:18–19)

Jesus renders His neck to the yoke of the law because only through fulfilling the Law will come all righteousness. Christ by nature as God stood over the Law, yet He humbled Himself for our sake and took on the form of a slave when He became man since all men are by nature slaves to the Law, though He makes Himself thus willingly. So also when the eighth day following His birth comes Jesus must face the first shedding of His precious blood and in the agony of the cutting blade and the spilling of that drop of blood our Savior is named. Cyril says, “Upon the arrival, therefore, of the eighth day, on which it was customary for the circumcision in the flesh to be performed according to the enactment of the law, He receives His Name, even Jesus, which by interpretation signifies, the Salvation of the people. For so had God the Father willed that His Son should be named, when born in the flesh of a woman. For then especially was He made the salvation of the people, and not of one only, but of many, or rather of every nation, and of the whole world. He received His name, therefore, on the same occasion on which He was circumcised.” (Homily 3) So Christ is marked a mortal man, yet clean in God’s eyes. He is also named Jesus, or in the Hebrew, Joshua, which means “Savior.” The Savior who undergoes and endures all the same burdens of men, even the edge of the flint knife.

Yet there is a question, doesn’t St. Pul say, For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God. (1 Cor 7:19) Why then did Christ have to endure the blade of circumcision on the eighth day after His birth? The answer remains as He spoke also to John the Baptist, Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. (Mt 3:15) In the Old Testament era God gave Abraham the sign of circumcision to mark who was of His people and to separate them from the unclean nations. Without the sign of circumcision in his flesh a man and his wife and daughters could not receive God’s gifts, he could not be made righteous through the sacrifices. Cyril adds further light to the mystery of circumcision: “On the eighth day Christ rose from the dead and gave us the spiritual circumcision. He then commanded the holy apostles, ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.’(Mt 28:19) And we affirm that the spiritual circumcision takes place chiefly in holy baptism, when Christ makes us partakers of the Holy Spirit too. Of this Joshua, that Jesus of old, who became the leader of the Israelites after Moses, was also a type. He led the children of Israel across the Jordan, then made them stop and immediately circumcised them with knives of stone (Josh 5:2; cf. 1 Cor 10:4). So when we have crossed the Jordan, Christ circumcises us with the power of the Holy Spirit, not by purifying the flesh but rather by cutting off the defilement that is in our souls. On the eighth day, therefore, Christ was circumcised and, as I said, received his name.” (Homily 3) Just so on the eighth day Christ rose from the dead and raises all those who are joined with Him in Baptism, giving them His name to bear.

Therefore see that circumcision was a type, which means a fore-image, a looking ahead, to baptism. While man was under the Law only the harshness of keeping the Law made one clean in the sight of God. Thus all male babies had to endure the suffering of the Law in the cutting away of their foreskins. But now that Christ has come the Law has been fulfilled and its harshness has passed away. No longer must boys endure the blade for the sake of righteousness, but rather the gentle sprinkling of water. That is what St. Paul means when he says it counts for nothing. We are saved in Christ and through Him because In him also you were circumcised with a 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. (Col 2:11–12) Christ endured circumcision so that we need not, and He inaugurated Baptism so that we might receive it and in receiving it have also forgiveness, life, and salvation.

As His circumcision was for our sake, so was His death. “For he died, so that we who have died together with him in his dying to sin, would no longer live for sin. Thus if we have died together with him, we shall also live together with him (2 Tim 2:11). He is said to have died to sin, not because he had sinned, for he was without sin, neither was guile found on his lips (1 Pt 2:22), but because of our sin. Therefore, just as we died together with him when he died, so will we also rise together with him.” (Homily 3) So in His circumcision He is marked as being of the descendants of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, and indeed the promised seed of David though Israel of old denied Him and said, as for this man, we do not know where he comes from. (John 9:29) He is also marked as faithful to God’s whole Law so that in His faithfulness He fulfills all righteousness when Israel could not. Then as in death He undoes the power of death so after His circumcision, which is perfectly fulfilled by the baby Jesus, the rites is done away with and is replaced by that which it had signified, by Baptism.

We no longer need it to mark a separation between the children of Abraham and the unbelievers, for now true Israel is not by flesh but by faith, as St. Paul teaches: not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. (Rom 9:6–8) Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. (Gal 3:7) Likewise, we no longer need it as the mark of God’s people because Christ has replaced it with the better sign of baptism which is not a mark in the flesh but God placing His name upon you in a way beyond our power to accomplish or understand. Lastly we no longer need it as a discipline of our flesh, marked by the removal of part of our sinful flesh as a resistance against the sinful passions of the flesh. For we are no longer under the Law and driven by it like a child is driven to complete his studies beneath the switch of his tutor for that proverbial tutor or guardian has been done away with in Christ’s advent. As our Epistle reading states, Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 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 offspring, heirs according to promise.

Thus we who are baptized are no longer those circumcised in the flesh but those circumcised in the spirit. Previously men kept the Law under compulsion, but now we true children of Abraham have received new hearts in baptism which desire to keep the Law in joy. The Law was our enemy and enslaver, but through Christ the Law has become our friend and our helper. Men under Christ no longer need to bear the mark of death in their bodies due to sin because Christ has not only borne that mark Himself but has swallowed up death and conquered sin for us. His whole life has been a faithful keeping of the Law, from the humble birth and first drop of blood to His death among thieves and burial with the rich, all for your sake. Amen.

Now the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen