Bible Passage: Luke 2:21
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: January 1, 2023

Bulletin January 1, 2023

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

Today marks the eighth day since we celebrated the birth of Jesus.  Eight days after the actual birth of Jesus, Mary and Joseph kept the Jewish custom of officially naming the baby.  In the case of their child, there was no mystery whatsoever what name they would give.  An angel had brought them a directive from heaven.  They were told to name their boy-baby Jesus.  It’s a name that means, “The LORD saves,” or “Savior.”  They were to give him this name because he will save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1)

 How would Jesus do this?  If I handed you all a slip of paper this morning and told you to write down your answer to this question, what would you write?  Many of you would write down something along the lines of, “Jesus died on the cross to save us.” And that would be a fine answer.  It is good to know that we are saved because Jesus shed his blood on the cross and died for us.

But may I say to you that Jesus also shed his blood to live for us?  It’s true.  In our text today, Jesus sheds his blood.  We are told after eight days passed…the child was circumcised.  Circumcision is the cutting off of a little bit of skin from the part of a boy baby that makes him a boy baby.  It is not a major medical procedure.  It takes a doctor 10-15 minutes to perform a circumcision.  And there is a little bleeding, not much, but some.

Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day of his life.  And though this may seem like an insignificant detail about baby Jesus, there are no insignificant details about Jesus!  Today we consider what it means that an Eight-Day-Old Jesus Shed His Blood for Us.

To appreciate the circumcision of Jesus, we must first of all spend some time in the Old Testament, with Abraham.  You see, this is where circumcision takes on special meaning in the Bible.  Recall that the Lord God came to Abraham and made him some wonderful promises.  The Lord promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations.  The Lord promised to be Abraham’s God and the God of his descendants.  The Lord promised to give Abraham and his descendants the land of Israel.  And the Lord had promised Abraham that all nations on earth would be blessed through him.  This was the promise that the Savior would come from Abraham.

The Lord called what he had with Abraham a “covenant.”  Many times covenants are two-sided contracts.  “You do this and I’ll do that.”  But notice, in the “covenant,” the Lord promises to EVERYTHING.  He puts himself on the hook; he obligates himself.  There was nothing for Abraham to “do.”  All Abraham was to “do” was believe that the Lord would keep his promise.  This is the essence of the Lord’s covenant with Abraham.  It was a “promise/faith” covenant.

Then the Lord did something interesting with Abraham.  He told Abraham that he wanted Abraham and his male descendants to bear a mark of this covenant on their body.  The Lord told Abraham to circumcise every boy baby on the eighth day.  The Lord said, My covenant will be marked on your flesh as an everlasting covenant. (Genesis 17:13)  Circumcision became the mark, the seal of the Lord’s gracious covenant.

Fast forward about 500 years from Abraham’s time to the time of the Exodus from Egypt and the giving of the Law at Mt. Sinai.  It was at this time that the Lord “codified” circumcision into his requirements for his people.  Leviticus 12 tells us:  The Lord spoke to Moses and told him 2 to tell the Israelites these things:  When a woman produces offspring and gives birth to a male, she will become unclean for seven days…On the eighth day, the foreskin of his flesh shall be circumcised. (Leviticus 12:1-3)

Which brings us to the circumcision of Jesus.  On the eighth day, this mark and seal of the covenant was circumscribed on his body.  And the infant Jesus shed the first drops of his blood.  This mark and seal on the body of Jesus reminds us what Paul wrote to the Galatians (4:4) that Jesus was born under law.  Jesus did not come here to be a “renegade” Savior.  Saving us did not require “boldly going where no man had gone before.”  No, he came to go where many men had gone before…”under the knife,” under the Law.  He came into this world to be the descendant of Abraham God always wanted, to be the Israel God always wanted, to be the Son God always wanted.  One who perfectly loved and trusted God.  One who perfectly obeyed and did the will of God.  The perfect son, the perfect brother, the perfect teen, the perfect young man, the perfect neighbor, the perfect carpenter, the perfect everything!  And to do it all in our place, as our substitute.

The Jews have a ceremony that takes place on the 13th birthday of their young men.  The ceremony is called a bar mitzvah.  “Bar” is the Aramaic word for “son.” “Mitzvah” is the word for “commandment.”  At 13 years of age, a young Jewish male is said to be a “son of the commandment.”  At eight days old, we might say Jesus showed us all that he was here to be the perfect “bar mitzvah.”  Jesus was a “son of the commandment.”  Psalm 40 puts these words into the mouth of the Messiah:  Here I am.  I have come to do your will, God.” (Psalm 40:6) 

And it was the stated will of God that eight-day-old boy babies descended from Abraham have their foreskin removed.  So eight-day-old Jesus had his foreskin removed and he shed the first drops of his holy, precious blood, showing the world his willingness to live in complete submission under God’s Law.  And then three decades later, a thirty-three-year-old Jesus shed his blood on the cross to cleanse us for all the times we do not live in submission to God’s law.  All this he did that he might live up to his name:  Jesus! Blessed be his name!

Amen.