To Fulfill All Righteousness
The Feast of the Circumcision and Name of Jesus falls every year on January 1st, eight days after Jesus’ nativity according to the Mosaic law that every male should be circumcised on the eighth day. This event in Jesus’ life is found solely in Luke’s Gospel and gives us the shortest Gospel reading of the year. The one verse states, “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” (Luke 2:21).
At this time when Jesus’ blood is first shed, he receives the name Jesus, which means “salvation.” His passion and saving work have begun, including his full and perfect submission to the Old Testament law.
But now that Jesus’ saving work is complete, the old sign must give way to the new reality, or the type to the antitype which is baptism. Circumcision was a foreshadowing of baptism, an outward mark made once that changed an individual forever. Similarly, baptism is a singular occurrence that changes the person’s identity and bestows on them the belonging that comes with a new birth. The foreskin represented sin and the removal of all fleshly desires. It is the same in baptism, where we joined with Christ thus receive his circumcision made without hands (Colossians 2:11-2).
A Brief History
Ever since the date of Christmas was established, the Church has had her reference point for the Circumcision and Name of Jesus, which was to fall eight days later. However, it doesn’t make it onto the Roman calendar for another four centuries or in the East until the eighth century. Whether this is due to a downplay of circumcision in light of the Christian sacrament of baptism or the conflict with the Roman new year, its absence on the liturgical cycle doesn’t mean that it wasn’t observed, and homilies on the feast can be found in the sermons of the Church fathers dating back to the fifth century.
The Lutheran Church has retained the feast as the joint remembrance of the circumcision and naming as an important event in Jesus’ life and therefore the life of the Church, whose members now receive Jesus’ new and greater circumcision through baptism.
Collect
O Lord God, who for our sakes hast made Thy blessed Son, our Savior, subject to the Law and caused Him to endure the circumcision of the flesh: grant us the true circumcision of the Spirit; that our hearts may be pure from all sinful desires and lusts; through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord; who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost: ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Lessons
Resources
Issues, Etc. interview with the Rev. Dr. Arthur Just on the Circumcision and Name of Jesus
Propers found in Daily Divine Service Book: A Lutheran Daily Missal, edited by the Rev. Heath Curtis
References:
1. Weedon, William. Celebrating the Saints. Concordia Publishing House. 2016.
Images:
1. The Circumcision of Christ, from The Life of the Virgin, Albrecht Dürer, Germany, 1505.
2. The Circumcision, Jacopo Tintoretto, Italy, 1587.
3. Circumcision of Christ, Peter Paul Rubens, Netherlands, 1605.
