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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text comes from all three texts that are used this morning. You may be seated. Probably one of the Sundays that you won’t forget because it’s most of the shortest readings ever. The Gospel reading one verse. The Old Testament fairly short with the Aaronic benediction and just the epistle has a little bit more depth. Paul was always a little bit more wordy, wasn’t he?
All cultures and all religions have symbols or marks to identify themselves. Sociologists and anthropologists study the fact that many cultures had piercings and tattoos, cuttings and scars, certain things to mark themselves, set apart different than the other that are around them. So you can only imagine Abraham’s thoughts… When God came to Abraham and told him, circumcise yourself, circumcise all males born unto you eight days old and older. Would you not think that Abraham would have thought, being a sinner just like you and I, Lord, why not like something with my fingers? Why not something with my lips? Why not something with my ears or my nose? Why circumcision, Lord?
Ha ha ha. Yes, you do have to kind of giggle about that because that’s something we don’t always think about. We typically talk about it and it’s accepted because we’ve heard it in our ears for so many years. But the first time, yeah. This was interesting because it was unlike any other marking that ever was used by any other culture. And so when God allowed that to be what identified his people, it was the mark of their justification by grace through faith. Abraham’s faith. And after he believed, did God give him that covenant of circumcision? That it would be that which set the people apart.
So every time your little boy went out to play with some of the other little boys in the neighborhood that weren’t a part of the faith of your boy… There would be conversations when they would go out to relieve themselves or take a swim in the creek or pond. You’re different, and rightly so. God marked us as different, set apart from the rest of the world. This sign gave God’s ownership over his people. I am your God. You are my people.
My kids grew up with Toy Story, and many of you may have heard it or even seen it. And it was always the climax of the character that if Andy wrote his name on you, you belong to him. God wrote his name on the people of Israel through circumcision. God owned them, lock, stock, and barrel. But it’s interesting. Later on, after Abraham, comes the reading that we have of the Old Testament reading. They have been practicing circumcision, and they will continue to practice circumcision until Christ comes when circumcision becomes ariaphora. Meaning, if you want to, that’s fine, and if you don’t, that’s fine. It is baptism that replaces it.
But in the Old Testament reading, that benediction that you have heard pronounced over you since you were a little boy or little girl, listen to the text again. That benediction is putting God’s name upon you. The text said, this is how you put my name on my people. And so Aaron did. And the church has been using that. Putting God’s name on all of his people at the end of the service. We use it as we call it a benediction, and it’s basically invoking a blessing or asking God for a blessing. And what’s the blessing? The bestowal of God’s name upon you. You are his. You belong to him.
Now fast forward to the Epistle reading. And in the Epistle reading, St. Paul talks about the sign of baptism, the sign of ownership, being in baptism, which now marks His people with His name. Paul says, for in Christ, in baptism, we have put on Christ, clothed with Christ, unifying us with all Christians in heaven and on earth. If you are Christ’s, Paul says, for your salvation at His circumcision.
Now consider how the people of God have, through the centuries, bookended the divine service. At the beginning of every divine service is the New Testament blessing of God’s name. The one you receive at your baptism. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. At the end of every divine service is the Old Testament blessing of God’s name upon you. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. God is putting His name on you. He is telling you from the beginning to the end and everything in between, He owns you. His name is on you.
Now to the naming of Jesus at His circumcision. Again, this is where he shed his first blood for you. Circumcision was not needed for this son of God and son of man. He’s perfect. But he willingly submitted to all of God’s laws in your place, that he would fulfill all of God’s laws in your place. And the shedding of that blood was the beginning. He who has been marked in his flesh… Still bears that mark in heaven. In the same way that he bears the scars of the cross, so he bears the scars of his circumcision in heaven. That is to your glory. You are adopted. And your adoption began in his obedience.
This gives us this picture of what his name means. That’s why they waited till this day to name him Jesus. But that was what was known about his name from the moment of his conception. Both Mary and Joseph were told that. And the shedding of his blood is the beginning of saving his people from their sins, which is what the angel told Joseph, fulfilling the law and all its demands.
Now, it is interesting, this eighth day part of the circumcision, God has always used seven days as a way to define time. You’re in my existence in this world. We define it by days and days into weeks. And after that, months and so forth. But isn’t it interesting when you think about the measurement of time? Months are never the same, are they? 28, 30, 31, leap year 29. This year we have to add one more second. But the one thing that is consistent are days and weeks. Okay? Six days of creation, one day of rest. Where does this eighth day come in?
The eighth day becomes the very symbol of the new measurement of time, the new creation, eternity that God has won for you in Christ Jesus. When they were circumcised on the eighth day, it marked them that though their flesh was bound by this earth and its time, they shall be living eternally forever because of God’s adoption of them. Same as your baptism. It puts you in a different time frame. You live in this world, but you’re not of this world. That’s the gift of the eighth day.
Now, there are other references to this. Peter writes about the eight souls that were on the ark. At every baptism, we read that in the baptismal service. These eight souls were saved by water, which now symbolizes your baptism. In fact, he says baptism corresponds to that flood and the eight souls saving. This baptism saves you, not as the removal of dirt from the body. It has an appeal to God for a good conscience. And you and I can’t have a good conscience unless sins are forgiven. And then it adds, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Now Peter didn’t just add that because he thought, you know, this will really kind of finish this sentence out nicely from an English perspective. He was making a very important point because of what day did Christ rise. You say Sunday, absolutely. John interprets it for us because Sunday of his resurrection has always been called the eighth day of the week. God is not bound by time. His Sabbath rest is outside of the seven days that bind us, giving them an eternal perspective, really giving you an eternal perspective as God’s adopted child.
We bear His name. Christian. Christians. Christians. Our hearts are what have been circumcised. Paul talks about this. In Him, that is Jesus, you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the flesh, not just a piece of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, by His obedience, by His fulfillment. 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, and we can add on the eighth day, the very gift, Paul goes on, and you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him.
Having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of death that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross at which place blood poured out for you. His holy, precious blood. In the naming of Jesus on this day, it really is a revelation of you having been named by your God as the bearer of Christ. The triune God revealed that to you in this Jesus who was raised on the eighth day, having been circumcised on the eighth day.
And you hear it proclaimed to you, and it was given to you at your baptism. And now the very blood that has been poured out for you at the knife of the priest when Christ was circumcised, and from his hands and side at the cross, you now drink and eat your own salvation, your own ownership of God. Keep hearing and remembering.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Lord bless you and keep you also marks you. You are God’s. You are not of this world. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.
