GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LUKE 2:21-24
21 When he was eight days old he was circumcised, and they named him Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived.
The circumcision took place on the same day of the week as the birth. Jewish time-keeping ascribes the first day as the day of the event, so that a baby born on a Sunday would be circumcised on the following Sunday. This affects our understanding of Jesus being in the tomb for three days (Luke 24:7), since he was crucified and died on a Friday (with barely an hour or two to spare until sundown, the end of the Jewish day), and rose before dawn on Sunday, some 34 to 36 hours later, yet counted as three days.
After he was circumcised, he was named, and Mary and Joseph gave him the name the angel had given to them. Jesus, we recall, means “the Lord saves,” and it was the ideal name to give to the Savior, the Son of God. His name was not chosen by them, but given to them. Martin Chemnitz wrote, “Not merely according to human intention, which might err, but on God’s authority and command we are to adore Christ as “Jesus.” (Harmony of the Gospels, on this verse).
A mystery here is that the eternal God, infinite and ageless, could also be described as “eight days old,” and yet here he is both. This verse is a testimony and proof from the Holy Spirit that Jesus possesses two natures, divine and human. If human reason cannot grasp this, we still don’t need to descend into rationalistic arguments or explanations, since anything we will say will either go beyond the truth or undercut the truth. Luther said, “That God not only is in human (in the man Christ) but also dwells in him in such a manner that God and man become one Person, that is the sublime work and miracle of God, which makes a fool of all reason and which is to be held fast only by faith, since otherwise it will be lost. Lord God!” (Luther continues, exasperated) “Where are they who believe all this? What will become of it if reason with its vagaries will take up the matter?” (St. L. Ed., XX:809).
22 When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses was completed, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. 23 (It is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”).a 24 They also offered a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.”b
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a 2:23 Exodus 13:2,12
b 2:24 Leviticus 12:8
Jesus’ circumcision placed him under the Law of Moses, described here correctly as “the Law of the Lord.” His mother was to be confined after the birth until her body healed, after which she was able to bring an offering to the temple. “On the eighth day the boy is to be circumcised. Then the woman must wait thirty-three days to be purified from her bleeding. She must not touch anything sacred or go to the sanctuary until the days of her purification are over” (Leviticus 12:3-4). After this, she was to bring a yearling lamb for an offering, but she could substitute “a pair of doves or two young pigeons” (Lev. 12:8), one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. Having entered into the family of God through circumcision, the child also had its sins atoned for with blood. The blood pointed ahead with the faith of the one making the offering to the blood of Christ. In a similar way, Christian babies also enter into the family of God, brought in through baptism, and “all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Galatians 3:27). His sacrifice has taken the place of the sacrificed dove, “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” (Romans 6:3). So our baptism looks back to Christ just as circumcision looked forward to Christ. Jesus was circumcised to be placed under the old covenant and to fulfill it, abrogating it. He was also baptized, which had nothing to do with any sins of his, for he had none. His baptism had everything to do with our sins, for we are baptized into him. “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection” (Romans 6:4-5).
Later in the life of Jesus, when the Jews were rejecting him, they denied even the evidence of his circumcision as a child of the covenant. St. Cyril of Alexandria (313-386 A.D.) wrote:
“When the Son was present among us, though by nature God and Lord of all, he did not on that account despise our measure, but along with us was subject to the same Law, although as God he was himself the legislator. Like the Jews, he was circumcised when eight days old, to prove his descent from their stock, so that they could not deny him. For Christ was expected from the seed of David, and offered them the proof of his relationship. But even [though] he was circumcised they said, ‘As for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from’ (John 9:29). There would have been a show of reason in their denial, had he not been circumcised in the flesh, and kept the law” (Commentary on St. Luke, Sermon III).
It seems such a simple thing, to be baptized, to grow up learning about Jesus, and to trust in him for forgiveness and eternal life. But so very many people are led away from their faith by the devil and the world. Cherish your faith, and nurture it by going back to the tap. Let your pastor turn on the water of life full blast into your cup. Drink it down and hold your glass out for more. There’s no limit to the blessings of God, no rationing, and no end. Keep coming, and keep being filled up to the top.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota