The Circumcision of Christ, 2011

Text: St. Luke 2:15-21

The Rev. Jerry Kistler

St. Stephen’s Reformed Episcopal Church

Montrose, Colorado

“Jesus Does His Name”

“A

nd when eight days were completed for the circumcision of the child, His name was called Jesus.”

What a wonderful connection of events we see in our Gospel lesson this morning. There’s something very deep and profound here that we’d very easily pass over if we weren’t prepared now to walk alongside of our Lord, by means of the Church’s calendar, and to meditate upon how His entire life, from His lowly birth in the stable at Bethlehem, to His ascension to the right hand of the majesty on High, saves us. On the eighth day of His Incarnation, the Son of God submits to the ancient sacrament of circumcision, and He is given His Name, the holy Name of Jesus.

But we might begin today by asking the simple question: What’s in a name? What does the naming of Jesus have to do with our salvation? We all have names. Our parents probably struggled for months to give us just the right one. They may have consulted one of those baby name books and searched through the meanings of all the various names they liked before they chose one. And now we’re stuck with it for the rest of our lives. Some of us like our names and some of us don’t. But the real question is, how many of us really live up to our names?

Let’s take the name “Michael” or “Michele,” for example (or perhaps better put, let’s make an example of both the Mikes). The origin of the name is from the Hebrew Michael, which means “One who is like God”—a pretty exalted title if there ever was one. So how about it, you guys. In the grand scheme of things, do you really live up to your name?

How about “DeeAnn”? Your name is a variation of Diana which is probably derived from an old Indo-European root meaning “heavenly” or “divine.” Now no matter what your husband might say in public, DeeAnn, do you really live up to your name?

Justin, your name means “a just one.” Do you think you can, in and of yourself, live up to your name before God, when the Scripture says that those who are just before God are those who keep the whole Law? (Rom. 2:13).

Nick, your name comes from the Greek word meaning “victory” or “conqueror.” Do you always have the victory in a spiritual sense?

Ann, you name is from the Hebrew meaning “gracious” or “merciful.” Is that always true of you?

Ken, your name comes from the Irish meaning “Handsome.” I think I’m just going to leave that one alone.

Some of us have names that remind us that we can’t live up to our names or put our confidence in ourselves. Shawn and Jean, your names both come from the Hebrew name meaning “God is gracious.” You names tell you that you have to put your trust in God’s grace alone, and not in yourselves.

Danielle, you name reminds you that by nature you’re under the curse: “God is my judge.” “Jerry”—my name teaches me that because I’m so low in my own sin and lack of strength, if I’m ever going to be lifted up, it will be all of God’s doing: “Yahweh has exalted.”

You see, none of us in the end lives up to our names. But what’s in a name? Well, there’s a lot in a name. Our names tell us who we ought to be, what we ought to do. But all of us fall short the glory that we bear in our own names. But the glory of this day, this day in which we celebrate the circumcision and the naming of Jesus, is that Jesus does live up to His name. Jesus does His Name, and He does it for us who fall short of our names. For the holy Name of “Jesus” means “God saves.”

You see, in Hebrew culture people did their names. That’s why so often in the Old Testament, and even in the New, God names His people. As we heard this morning, God changed the man’s name from Abram, “exalted father,” to Abraham, “father of a multitude,” because God would cause him to be the father of many nations, and that in him all the families of the earth would receive the divine blessing: salvation, justification, the forgiveness of sins. Jesus gave Simon the new name Peter, “the rock,” because he, as the one who stood for all the apostles, would be the foundation of the church through his witness to Christ.

So it was that when Christ himself, the eternal Son of God, was to be born into the world, God His Father announced beforehand, through the angel Gabriel, that His name was to be Jesus, “for he will save His people from their sins.” Jesus came to do His name for us.

Now we say “Jesus,” but His real name was Y’shua, “Joshua”. It was a common Jewish name. It bore no lofty or royal significance like Herod or Caesar. But it was still a very important name in Jewish history.

Of course the most famous Joshua was the Joshua who led God’s people through the Jordan River to take possession of the Promised Land. God instructed His people to put their faith in Joshua to lead them to victory over their wicked enemies, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and all the other “-ites”, and to give them their inheritance in the land. But even though it was the man Joshua that they were to follow, God said that it was He Himself that would give them the victory. God himself would save them from their greater, more powerful and numerous enemies and give them their land. So as long as they trusted in Him, Joshua would give them rest in the land. Rest from their enemies. Rest from war. Rest to enjoy the good fruits of their inheritance.

But did Joshua ever give them that rest? Did Joshua ever give them rest from their true enemies? What were their truest enemies? Were they the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and all the other “-ites”? No. Their truest enemies were their own sins which cause them to continually turn away from God and to make them liable to the cursed: “Cursed is everyone that does not continue to do all things written in the book of the Law.” That was the curse that was sealed in their own flesh on the first day they came into the land. Do you remember that part of the story?

When Joshua first lead the people across the Jordan, none of the men had been circumcised. Every one of the first generation of people who came out of Egypt died in the wilderness, and, for some reason, in the meantime none of the men born in the wilderness were circumcised. So the very first thing Joshua did when he brought the people across into the Promised Land was to circumcise every male, and in that way to seal them in the covenant. That was to seal them under the burden and weight of the law and its curse. Cursed would they be if they did not from that day forward keep every commandment of the Law perfectly. And the curse was dramatically- and painfully - signified in the cutting off of the foreskin. To experience the curse was to be cut-off. Cut off from God’s people. Cut off from the promises. Cut off from the land of the living. Cut off, ultimately, from God. And God forewarned the people saying, “If you do not keep faith with me, if you do not entirely cut-off those wicked nations from the land, I will do to you as I thought to do to them.” The curse of the Law was sealed in their very flesh.

You see, the first Y’shua couldn’t ultimately do his name for his people, because he couldn’t save them from their greatest enemy—their own sin which made them liable to the curse. As a mere man it was, in a sense, too much of a name for him to bear. But he bore it to foreshadow the time when God Himself would take that name Y’shua and perfectly do that name for His people. “For in the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those under the law.” And they called His name Jesus—“God saves.”

Jesus Christ is the Greater Joshua who gives us rest from the curse by becoming the curse for us, says St. Paul.

It is precisely at the moment of His circumcision that He is given the holy name of Jesus, because His circumcision is the pledge for how He will save His people from their sins: by being cut off at the cross. Cut off from the living. Cut off from the fellowship he had with His Father from eternity past. That’s why we can say that Jesus’ circumcision saves us. It was His pledge to go to the cross. So as someone has put it, even when he was only eight days old, His Father was already giving him work to do.

At the cross, Jesus fulfilled the rite of circumcision for all time. The curse it symbolized was fully realized in him. That’s why circumcision is no longer a requirement for Christians – because we have had our circumcision in Christ. We’ve had our circumcision in our baptisms. “In Him,” says Paul, “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…” (Col. 2:11,12)

By His circumcision—His circumcision at the cross—and by our union with Him in His circumcision—in His death by baptism—that which made us liable to the curse was put off—not a mere piece of skin, but the whole body of the sins of our flesh.

You see, Jesus does His Name for us. He saves us from our sins by His circumcision, by His pledge to go to the cross where the curse of circumcision was fully realized. And therefore, even though His Name Y’shua was a common name, now God has highly exalted Him and given Him the Name that is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. And in Him, beloved, in the holy Name of Jesus, the Bible says we have all been given new names. In a sense, our old names have been transfigured and lifted up in Jesus Christ. Justin, you are just before God in Jesus. Jean and Shawn, God has been gracious to you. DeeAnn, you are now heavenly, for you are already seated with Christ in the heavenly places. For, Danielle, God is your judge, and he has judged you righteous in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Gizelle, God has given you His promise and pledge. Nick, you will have the eternal victory, through Him who has conquered sin and death. Ronald, you will rule with counsel and might, for God has made you a co-ruler with Christ.

Jesus does His Name for us, and in His Name our names are made new. Glory be to Jesus! +