St Luke 2:21/Numbers 6:22-27/Galatians 3:23-29
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
As we review the closing year, how have we used it? “Is there one commandment we have not transgressed? Is there one day in which we have not sinned? Is there one gift for which we have been perfectly thankful and used as God intended? Is there one rescue from trouble for which we have offered the proper praise to God?” (Walther) Is there one sermon we have heard (or preached) that we have fully applied and taken to heart?
As this year comes to a close, we can only cast our eyes down in shame and cry out with the tax collector, Lord be merciful to me, a sinner! And for those good things we have done, we can only say, We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.
We enter the new year with repentance and deep thankfulness that despite our unworthiness, God continues to show us His mercy and still wishes to make use of us in His kingdom. Let this be our resolution, that we will pray fervently to our Lord in the new year for the healing of our souls. “The most necessary thing for a truly happy and blessed new year is that we do not carry forward the sins of the old year” (Walter).
Our secular new year coincides with the commemoration of the circumcision and naming of Jesus, done for Jewish boys on the eighth day from birth. That we remember the naming of Jesus at the new year is fitting. For our new year, indeed each new day, should begin in the name of Jesus. It is written, Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him (Col 3:17).
The name Jesus unfolds the meaning of the name prophesied for the Messiah in Isaiah, “Immanuel,” “God with us.” Jesus means, “The Lord is salvation.” He is not named for his father or relative. His name came from heaven. And it describes, even at His conception, the purpose of His coming. You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins (Mt 1:21). In other words, Jesus is God with us, among us, in order to give us His salvation.
And that saving work begins already as an eight-day old infant. On the day Jesus was named He was also circumcised. It is such a strange, crude thing to have as a religious ritual. Germany recently tried to outlaw it. The cutting of a man’s sexual organ? Why did God command that?
Well, what is the purpose of man’s sexual organ? Procreation. The begetting of children. But since the Fall the children of Adam have been conceived in sin. Man’s generation is sinful and deadly. Circumcision was, for the people of God, for Abraham and his offspring, a perpetual witness to the fallenness of man’s begetting. Circumcision was a perpetual witness to original sin. Circumcision was Law.
But it was also Gospel. It prophesied of the One who would be born of a woman, the Seed of the woman, who would undo the curse of Adam. One who would share in man’s flesh and blood, but not share in his concupiscence, his inborn sinful nature. It is written, Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned (Rom 5:12). In other words, we are not sinners because we sin. We sin because we are sinners.
Only One could change that. Only One could wipe out our debt of sin: the GodMan, Jesus, who made atonement for us with His Blood. On the eighth day He allowed Himself to be circumcised – to be put under the Law, to redeem us who were under the Law (as you heard yesterday). He was, as the Christmas carol puts it, “Born to give us second birth.”
His eternal generation is from the Father. He takes on human generation, yet without a human father, in the womb of the Virgin Mary. St Paul says it this way, As by the one man’s disobedience (Adam) the many were made sinners, so by the One Man’s obedience (Jesus) the man will be made righteous (Rom 5:19). Jesus is born that we might be reborn, without the guilt of sin.
And the Circumcision of Jesus is a graphic reminder that in order to affect your redemption, your salvation, God truly became one of us, truly took on our nature, our flesh and blood. In the cutting of His foreskin we see that it was no spirit or angel who came to Bethlehem, but a fleshy Word. The Word truly was made flesh and tabernacled among us.
Not only was the Word literally, tangibly made flesh, taking on our human nature, yet without sin, He also who knew no sin was made to be sin for us. Thus He suffers the indignity of circumcision, not for Himself, but for us. God with us. God for us. Like His baptism, He does it to fulfill all righteousness, to identify Himself with us poor, miserable sinners, and shed His Blood for our forgiveness. He offers the morning sacrifice in the first shedding of His Blood on the eighth day. And He completes the evening sacrifice with the pouring out of His life-blood on Good Friday. There He became your circumcision – cut off from the Father, the sign of high price of your sin, but also the blessed sign of your redemption and life.
So our prayer on this glad night is that all that Jesus did for us, beginning in His circumcision, would be applied to us, credited by faith to our account, and actually change us. The collect said, “Grant us the true circumcision of the Spirit that our hearts may be made pure from all sins.” In your Baptism this work was begun in you. In Christ Jesus you are all sons of god through faith. For as many of you are were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. You are all one in Christ Jesus, Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
Elsewhere St Paul writes, In Christ you also 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 Jesus from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespass and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross (Col 2:11-14).
No matter what the past year has done to you, no matter what the new year has in store for you, rejoice and be glad! For in Jesus, all your sins are brought to an end, like the year coming to a close. He is your new year. He is your new birth. He is your new life.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
As we review the closing year, how have we used it? “Is there one commandment we have not transgressed? Is there one day in which we have not sinned? Is there one gift for which we have been perfectly thankful and used as God intended? Is there one rescue from trouble for which we have offered the proper praise to God?” (Walther) Is there one sermon we have heard (or preached) that we have fully applied and taken to heart?
As this year comes to a close, we can only cast our eyes down in shame and cry out with the tax collector, Lord be merciful to me, a sinner! And for those good things we have done, we can only say, We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.
We enter the new year with repentance and deep thankfulness that despite our unworthiness, God continues to show us His mercy and still wishes to make use of us in His kingdom. Let this be our resolution, that we will pray fervently to our Lord in the new year for the healing of our souls. “The most necessary thing for a truly happy and blessed new year is that we do not carry forward the sins of the old year” (Walter).
Our secular new year coincides with the commemoration of the circumcision and naming of Jesus, done for Jewish boys on the eighth day from birth. That we remember the naming of Jesus at the new year is fitting. For our new year, indeed each new day, should begin in the name of Jesus. It is written, Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him (Col 3:17).
The name Jesus unfolds the meaning of the name prophesied for the Messiah in Isaiah, “Immanuel,” “God with us.” Jesus means, “The Lord is salvation.” He is not named for his father or relative. His name came from heaven. And it describes, even at His conception, the purpose of His coming. You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins (Mt 1:21). In other words, Jesus is God with us, among us, in order to give us His salvation.
And that saving work begins already as an eight-day old infant. On the day Jesus was named He was also circumcised. It is such a strange, crude thing to have as a religious ritual. Germany recently tried to outlaw it. The cutting of a man’s sexual organ? Why did God command that?
Well, what is the purpose of man’s sexual organ? Procreation. The begetting of children. But since the Fall the children of Adam have been conceived in sin. Man’s generation is sinful and deadly. Circumcision was, for the people of God, for Abraham and his offspring, a perpetual witness to the fallenness of man’s begetting. Circumcision was a perpetual witness to original sin. Circumcision was Law.
But it was also Gospel. It prophesied of the One who would be born of a woman, the Seed of the woman, who would undo the curse of Adam. One who would share in man’s flesh and blood, but not share in his concupiscence, his inborn sinful nature. It is written, Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned (Rom 5:12). In other words, we are not sinners because we sin. We sin because we are sinners.
Only One could change that. Only One could wipe out our debt of sin: the GodMan, Jesus, who made atonement for us with His Blood. On the eighth day He allowed Himself to be circumcised – to be put under the Law, to redeem us who were under the Law (as you heard yesterday). He was, as the Christmas carol puts it, “Born to give us second birth.”
His eternal generation is from the Father. He takes on human generation, yet without a human father, in the womb of the Virgin Mary. St Paul says it this way, As by the one man’s disobedience (Adam) the many were made sinners, so by the One Man’s obedience (Jesus) the man will be made righteous (Rom 5:19). Jesus is born that we might be reborn, without the guilt of sin.
And the Circumcision of Jesus is a graphic reminder that in order to affect your redemption, your salvation, God truly became one of us, truly took on our nature, our flesh and blood. In the cutting of His foreskin we see that it was no spirit or angel who came to Bethlehem, but a fleshy Word. The Word truly was made flesh and tabernacled among us.
Not only was the Word literally, tangibly made flesh, taking on our human nature, yet without sin, He also who knew no sin was made to be sin for us. Thus He suffers the indignity of circumcision, not for Himself, but for us. God with us. God for us. Like His baptism, He does it to fulfill all righteousness, to identify Himself with us poor, miserable sinners, and shed His Blood for our forgiveness. He offers the morning sacrifice in the first shedding of His Blood on the eighth day. And He completes the evening sacrifice with the pouring out of His life-blood on Good Friday. There He became your circumcision – cut off from the Father, the sign of high price of your sin, but also the blessed sign of your redemption and life.
So our prayer on this glad night is that all that Jesus did for us, beginning in His circumcision, would be applied to us, credited by faith to our account, and actually change us. The collect said, “Grant us the true circumcision of the Spirit that our hearts may be made pure from all sins.” In your Baptism this work was begun in you. In Christ Jesus you are all sons of god through faith. For as many of you are were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. You are all one in Christ Jesus, Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
Elsewhere St Paul writes, In Christ you also 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 Jesus from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespass and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross (Col 2:11-14).
No matter what the past year has done to you, no matter what the new year has in store for you, rejoice and be glad! For in Jesus, all your sins are brought to an end, like the year coming to a close. He is your new year. He is your new birth. He is your new life.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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