Home
Meet Father Kemp
The Fourth Sunday of Advent – 20 December 2009
Last Wednesday night, Edith and I attended a 4th grade play at Monte Vista Elementary School. I was dressed in my typical work apparel: a buttoned-up collar shirt, a sweater and blue jeans. I realized, as I saw the other father’s entering the multi-purpose room, that the standard dress code for elementary school fathers was the same as mine. At first, I panicked thinking, “I am to young too look like all these other guys.” My panic, however, turned into humorous acceptance when I realized that now I am an old guy with three children who will all be in elementary school very soon. Our culture places a nauseating emphasis on something I lack in my choice of clothing, originality, but this emphasis on originality is foreign in Scripture, especially those portions of Scripture that speak about Jesus. To be sure, the Scriptures clearly teach that Jesus was unique or we could justly say original in many ways. He is the only person to be both fully God and fully man. He is the only person born free from sin and to live without falling into sin. His death was the only death that could defeat sin. His resurrection is the only resurrection that can bring life. This list could be expanded, but there are also many things that make Jesus common, radically common. For instance, he was not the first person to claim to be Israel’s expected Messiah, he was their true and only Messiah, but not the first to claim that title. He was not the only prophet of Israel nor was he the only healer in Israel. He under went John’s baptism like all other faithful Israelites. He grew up in a poor family and learned the humble trade of a carpenter just like many other men his age. He lived under the same Law as Israel and, as we read in our Gospel Lesson, underwent circumcision like all Israelite males. In many ways, Jesus was just like every other Israelite male. The author of Hebrews explains Jesus radical similarity in these words, “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is the devil – and free those who all there lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. …For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.” We Christians tend to make much ado about Jesus’ uniqueness or originality, while forgetting that Jesus was radically common. Yet, as we just heard in Hebrews, Jesus radical similarity with men was necessary if he was to be a merciful and faithful high priest on our behalf and offer an atoning sacrifice for our sins. This morning my intended goal is the explore Jesus’ radical similarity with his fellow Israelites by fleshing out the necessity of Jesus’ circumcision (pun intended) through two questions: the significance of circumcision in the Old Testament or we could say before Jesus and the significance of circumcision in the New Testament or after Jesus.
Our first Lesson, Genesis 17: 1-14, clearly states the significance of circumcision, “This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised…it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you…My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.” Circumcision was the sign of the covenant God made with Abraham, the covenant where God promised two important things: he would give Abraham numerous descents, some of whom would be great kings ruling prosperous nations and he would give Abraham’s descendants the Promised Land. In order to be part of God’s covenant, circumcision was necessary and any male descendant of Abraham not circumcised would be excluded ipso facto from the covenant. Jesus, a descendant of Abraham through his mother Mary and his adopted father Joseph, had to be circumcised. How necessary was circumcision? Jesus could not be a child of Abraham without it and if Jesus had not been a child of Abraham, he would not have been Israel’s Messiah and if Jesus had not been Israel’s Messiah we would still be dead in our trespasses and sins.
Why was circumcision necessary? The obvious answer is because God said so. However, this answer, even though true, is not satisfactory. Circumcision in the flesh symbolized circumcision of the heart as Moses said, “Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer.” (Deuteronomy 10:16) and as the Prophet Jeremiah spoke, “circumcise your hearts, you men and Judah.” (Jeremiah 4:4) Circumcision of the flesh symbolized a heart or better yet, a life that was set apart or consecrated to serve God. In some ways, circumcision was an Old Testament sacrament, it was an outward and visible sign of God’s inward and invisible grace that consecrates a person.[1] Circumcision symbolized a consecrated life because the blood shed in circumcision pointed toward the sacrifices cleansing a person from sin as the author of Hebrews said, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” (Hebrews 9:22) Circumcision was necessary because the bloody outward sign of circumcision symbolized a life consecrated to God through the Old Testament sacrificial system.
Now that we have a better understand of the importance of circumcision in the Old Testament, we can turn to the post-Jesus portion of Scripture, the New Testament. Other than mentioning that Jesus was circumcised, the Gospel are fairly quiet concerning this issue. The Epistles however, especially those written by St. Paul, contain numerous passages on circumcision, passages that are radically different from the Old Testament. Consider I Corinthians 7:19, “Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing” or Romans 2: 28, 29, “A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code.” In the Old Testament, circumcision is necessary, but in the New Testament circumcision is optional at best and something to be avoided at the worst, especially for Gentile Christians. Now I hope you can understand why St. Paul and the other apostles were met with such hostility by their fellow countrymen, they were radicals who relativized the outward covenantal sign, a sign God commanded all his people to undergo. Why did the apostles relativize circumcision? Because the bloody sign of circumcision pointed toward the old sacrificial system that had been fulfilled and thus abolished through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. To put it simply, Jesus Christ fulfilled the sacrifice circumcision symbolized, thus the outward and physical sign of circumcision was no longer necessary to symbolize a life consecrated to the Lord. All the outward signs of the new covenant necessary revolve around Jesus for through him, we find forgiveness, and through him, we find God’s covenantal promises fulfilled.
What does circumcision have to do with Advent? It has everything to do with Advent. Listen to what St. Paul said in Galatians 4, “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.” (Galatians 4:4-7) In Advent we penitently prepare for Jesus’ Second Coming and the only way to adequately prepare is to be made into a son or daughter of God, a heir to God’s promises. The only way we can become a son or daughter of God is through the redemption found only in Jesus Christ. Jesus can redeem us because He, though God of very God, was born of a woman named Mary and born under the law receiving the bloody sign of circumcision. Because Jesus was born and was circumcised on the eighth day of his earthly life, he can live up to his name Jesus, which means God saves. Because Jesus was radically common he can redeem us, giving us the full rights and privileges of God’s children. In many ways, Jesus was radically similar to his contemporaries and thanks be to God for through his radical similarity we can exchange the nauseating originality of our sin for a new life, a life of radical similarity with Jesus Christ.
[1] It also (obviously) symbolized the consecration of the male reproductive organ, which demonstrated that God’s promise to give Abraham numerous descendents would happen only through God’s grace, not through human desire or effort. In other words, we cannot fulfill God’s promises for Him!
