The Rev. Johann Vanderbijl: “The Circumcision of Christ”

From the Rev. Johann Vanderbijl of the Anglican Church of St. George the Martyr in South Carolina, here is a sermon preached on New Year’s Eve, and commemorating the Feast of the Circumcision:

Psalm 103 Philippians 2:9-13 St. Luke 2:15-21

The Circumcision of Christ

Biblical imagery is all too often lost on those who have been schooled in Enlightenment thought…which pretty much includes all of us born after the eighteenth century. For this reason, many do not quite understand why we, as Christians, would celebrate something as Old Testamentish as circumcision…since we have been saved by the substitutionary sacrificial death of Christ on the cross, why is the day on which He was circumcised marked as a significant day for the Church?

Circumcision, as a rite, was practiced by most Ancient Near Eastern nations…not just Israel. However, the significance of the rite in Israel was unique. For the other nations, circumcision was an act symbolizing the individual’s rite of passage into adulthood applied at the end of a period of testing or trial or after some sort of personal and individual confession of faith…in Israel, on the other hand, it was a sign that extended beyond the individual to indicate an inclusion in a community defined by membership in a Covenant with God without any form of testing or trial. Rather this inclusion was founded upon the promise of God and not upon the profession of the person. You see, in Israel, circumcision was performed eight days after birth. The exception to this rule was when an adult outside of this covenant community wished to become part of the community…but even then, once the adult had been circumcised, the ritual was performed on their children as eight day old infants, not as pubescent teenagers who had reached an age of reasons or of accountability.

The question thus arises…why the difference?

But before we answer that question we need to understand the significance of the rite itself as a theological statement for the people of God. The ritual first started with Abram who was told to circumcise himself and all the male children born within his household. But why circumcision? Well, because the act itself graphically portrayed the story of salvation. Sin, like a deadly virus, was passed on from parent to child…this spiritual reality was symbolized (not actualized) by the act of procreation (the transmission transcends the physical). Nonetheless, sin is passed down from generation to generation like a defective gene or bad DNA. For this reason, the promise of God to deal with sin could be demonstrated most clearly in the stripping away of the flesh from the male procreative organ by the shedding of blood (flesh being an image often used for sin in the Scriptures). Each time this act was performed publicly, all those present were reminded that they all had sin, but it also reminded them that one day sin would be removed or stripped away by the shedding of blood…a promise further illustrated in the elaborate sacrificial system…however, looking back now, of course, we could add that sin would be stripped away by the shedding of a Man’s blood…but nevertheless, that was the meaning of the image for the people of God.

Now, once we understand this, we can answer our previous question. The removal of sin was not something man could do for himself. Sin could not and cannot be removed after passing a time of testing or trial…sin is part of the warp and woof of humanity and can only be removed through the payment of the penalty for it…the penalty of death…a penalty symbolized throughout the Old Testament in the shedding of blood. Thus in order to be part of the covenant community of those who believed that their God Himself would free them from sin and death, the sign had to be applied in anticipation of the fulfillment of what it promised rather than the other way round. So, the sacrament of circumcision was applied to infants born to adults already in the covenant community. Unlike the pagans whose religion was based upon their own effort and attempts to gain merit, the rite of inclusion for membership in the fellowship of the people of God was based on a promise of what only God could do.

But still, why celebrate this sacrament in the New Testament Age in which the imagery has changed from circumcision to Baptism? Is there a connection and if so, what is it. Well, I believe that there is a connection and we see it most clearly in a passage unfortunately not assigned for this service, namely Colossians 2:11-12 which reads: “In Him (that is Jesus) you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands (in other words a circumcision radically different from the Old Testament rite), by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh (here you can see the portrayal of the stripping off of the flesh as an image of sin and our sinful nature through the shedding of blood)…but here’s the important part for us…how is this putting off of the sins of the flesh achieved in the New Testament? See what St. Paul says further: “…by the circumcision of Christ.” Hello? Our sins were put off in the circumcision of Christ on the eighth day? No, that is not what St. Paul was referring to here…we know that because he has already indicated that this circumcision he was speaking of was something different to the Old Testament one…so what is this circumcision of Christ the Apostle was referring to? This circumcision was the fulfillment of the image of circumcision. Ask yourself where the sins of Mankind were stripped off by the shedding of blood, once for all? Yup, that’s right – at the cross…the cross where Jesus’ shed blood stripped away our sins and set us free to live in covenant community with Him.

And pray tell, how is this circumcision of Christ fulfilled on the cross applied to us in the New Testament? St. Paul continued in Colossians: “having been buried with Him in baptism.” (Reread Colossians 2:11-12) Now herein lies the reason why we celebrate the circumcision of Christ because at His circumcision He was given the Name Jesus – a Name which signified that He was the Man born to save His people from their sins – born to do what God had promised to do – a promise graphically displayed in the rite of circumcision and fulfilled in what Jesus was born to do. On the cross He fulfilled the Old Testament imagery of the removal of sin through the shedding of His own sinless blood.

So, dearest brethren, as you come to partake of the symbols of that shedding of His blood to save us from sin and death, ask Him to grant that all in you which is not of Him might be stripped away in Him so that the fulfillment of that image of circumcision might be evident in your lives. And as you leave to enter into a new year of life here on earth, take with you the power of that image so that the true circumcision of the Spirit might grant us grace to obey His blessed will in all things.

© Johann W. Vanderbijl III 2008

There is a lot to think about here; I particularly like the analogy of the transmission of sin from generation to generation “like a defective gene or bad DNA.” That probably is as good an explanation of the transmission of original sin as we will ever find this side of heaven.