Luke 2:21 - Because a Baby Boy Bled - January 2, 2022

This weekend the world held the biggest party of the year. My question is: why? I guess because we turned a page of the calendar. Is that really any reason to celebrate? We’re all a year older than we were 365 days ago, with more aches and pains, more gray hair and wrinkles, we’re all one year closer to death. Sure, you always hear people saying that they hope the new year will be better than the last. But do we really have any reason to hold out that hope this year? Between runaway inflation, new variants of Covid, rising crime rates, political polarization, rampant immorality, and animosity between nations – do we have any reason or right to be optimistic about 2022? Well, actually, yes. That is, Christians – those who have received and believed in Christ this Christmas – have every reason and right to wish a fond farewell to 2021 and have confident optimism as we step into 2022. Why? Because a baby boy bled.

The obvious question is: why did Mary and Joseph circumcise Jesus? Bible scholars have twisted themselves into knots trying to explain this, but the answer is very simple: because God said so. 2000 years earlier, God had told Abraham: this is my covenant, which you shall keep, a covenant between me and you and your descendants after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised by cutting the foreskin off your flesh. It will be a sign of the covenant between me and you (Genesis 17:10-12). For Abraham and his descendants, circumcision was a sign of God’s unilateral (one-sided) promise to save them. God repeated this covenantal agreement with Moses and the Israelites years later (Leviticus 12:1-3). In this way circumcision proclaimed both law and gospel. It was law in that it was a painful, bloody reminder that infants – which most people, even many Christians, mistakenly consider to be innocent and blameless – are, in fact, tainted with the terminal infection of original sin (Psalm 51:5). Babies are born with black, rebellious, ungodly, unbelieving hearts. Babies are born to curse and hate and murder and steal and lie and covet. (And if you doubt that, just remember that you were once a baby, too.) And because of original sin, babies are born to die now and forever in hell. Thus, circumcision was a visible, physical reminder of where the total depravity of humanity comes from.

Martin Luther put it this way: Why did God not command to circumcise the finger, hand, foot, ear, eye or some other member of the body? Rather he selects that member which serves no other work and practice in human life and was created by God only for the procreation and increase of mankind. If the evil was to be lopped off, then the hand or the tongue should in fairness have been circumcised before all the other members, since all wickedness among men is performed by the tongue and the hand…Circumcision is to picture what we are always saying: that God does not condemn or save the person because of the works but the works because of the person. Therefore our fault does not lie in the works but in our nature. Our person, nature, and entire being are corrupted in us through Adam’s fall…If, then, he had commanded the hand or the tongue to be circumcised, this would have been an indication that the fault lay in the words and works, that he is favorably disposed toward the nature and the person and hates only the words and the works. But now, since he takes that member which performs no other work than the procreation of human nature and personal being, he makes it clear that the fault lies in the entire essence of human nature, that its birth and the entire origin is corrupt and sinful. [1] Circumcision shows us that our biggest problem – no matter what year the calendar says it is – is not that we sin; our biggest problem is that down to our very core, we are sinful.

But circumcision was also a visible declaration of the Gospel. It was a reminder to Israel that God had promised to send a Savior and that this Savior would come from the seed of Abraham (Genesis 22:18). Every time a baby boy bled on the eighth day of his life in Israel, God was reminding his people of his promise that when the time was just right, he would send his only-begotten Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law (Galatians 4:4).

But we still haven’t really answered the question, have we? Why was Jesus – who, by virtue of his conception by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary (Matthew 1:20) didn’t have a sinful nature – circumcised? Because of us. Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day of his life because we haven’t lived up to God’s expectations even one day of our lives. Jesus bled to obey God in our place, on our behalf. And because Jesus bled we are assured that we don’t have to pay for our sins of 2021 – or 2022 for that matter – with an eternity in hell. Jesus’ circumcision is a reminder that he didn’t just die for us, he lived for us too. When we are talking about redemption and salvation, we often focus on Jesus’ passive obedience to the law: his suffering and death. Here we see an example of Jesus’ active obedience to the law. Jesus actively did something that he didn’t have to do as God’s perfect Son; but something he did to serve as our perfect substitute. Jesus obeyed his Father’s will even as an eight-day old infant. He did it, so that even though each of us were totally depraved, polluted with sin inherited from our parents that no soap will scrub off and no effort can sweat away – we might be saved. Through faith, you receive what Jesus did so that when God looks at you he only sees Jesus – perfect in every way. Through faith you will receive evidence and assurance of this good news through Jesus’ body and blood in His Supper. Today is a day for celebration; because baby Jesus bled, we have forgiveness in his name.

We don’t have to practice circumcision out of obedience to God’s Law anymore because Jesus has fulfilled (i.e. he kept it perfectly and therefore removed the need for it) that element of God’s ceremonial law (1 Corinthians 7:17-19). But God still confirms his promise to save us in a visible and physical way today through the sacrament of Holy Baptism. Law and Gospel are both still preached at the font; baptism continues to remind us that babies are born sinful and in need of a Savior. Baptism is also a continual reminder to us that salvation is unilateral – God saves us without any participation on our part – he puts the sinful nature to death by drowning it in Jesus’ blood and he creates a new life of faith through the power of the His Word. Because baby Jesus bled – both eight days after his birth and three decades later on Calvary’s cross – we can be confident that our children are saved through water and the Word even before they can walk, talk, or confess their faith.

And just like circumcision marked a baby boy for the rest of his life, God intends for baptism to have life-long effects. Picture it this way: when God found us we were like fish flopping around on the beach doomed to die, with no hope of saving ourselves. In Baptism, God picked us up, breathed life into us and placed us into his living water. As Christians, we continue to swim in the waters of Baptism by daily confessing our sins and receiving forgiveness. Our Baptism into Christ is the reason we can be hopeful and joyful as we stand on the brink of another new year – even though we don’t know where or how or if we will make it to 2023. Because Jesus bled not only has our slate of sins from 2021 been wiped clean but wherever we go and whatever we do in 2022 we do it all in Jesus’ name and with God’s blessing. And because we are so quick to forget that, God regularly reminds us right when we enter his house in the invocation and again when we leave his house by placing his name and his blessing on us. Our world likes to make resolutions this time of year to be better, healthier, kinder, more generous. Sadly, statistics say that only about 8% of New Year’s resolutions are kept [2] – which means that for the vast majority of the world 2022 will not really be any better than 2021. But because Jesus resolved to be born for us, to bleed for us, to live for us, to die and rise again for us – we can be sure that wherever life takes us in 2022, we will live it in Jesus’ name.

Finally, Luke reminds us that this news is too good for us to keep to ourselves, he encourages us to resolve to spend 2022 proclaiming Jesus’ name. Now you might ask: how does Luke do that? Where in this single verse is there anything about sharing and spreading the Gospel? Let’s read it again: after eight days passed, when the child was circumcised, he was named Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. Much like today, when parents will post pictures of their newborns on Facebook or send out cute postcards listing the height and weight of the next Packer’s linebacker – on the eighth day after he was born, Mary and Joseph made the bold, public announcement that the name of their baby would be Jesus – which means, the Lord saves (Matthew 1:21).

Understand what a remarkable act of faith this was for Mary and Joseph. They hadn’t been married when the angel showed up to tell them that they would be having a child (Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-38). They weren’t in the same bed when this child was conceived. They had been compelled by the Roman government to travel to Bethlehem at the very point when traveling was the last thing Mary should have been doing. There were no vacancies at the motels in Bethlehem and so they stayed in a stable. Strange shepherds were the only ones to come to congratulate them on the birth of their child. By all appearances, this was an illegitimate child born to poor, homeless, nameless Jews. By all appearances, there was nothing special about this child. By all appearances the world could care less about the birth of this child. But Mary and Joseph believed what the angel told them. They trusted that this child was more than he appeared, they believed he was their Savior and the Savior of the world. So they obeyed God by having him circumcised and by giving him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).

What does this mean for us? Well, it means that we don’t need a voter’s meeting or polling data or the newest How to Make Your Church Grow book to determine our direction for the New Year. Proclaiming this name, Jesus – the Lord saves – has been the church’s mission since the beginning and will continue to be our mission in 2022. We will preach Jesus’ name to a world that has already moved on from the baby born in Bethlehem. We will baptize little depraved sinners in Jesus’ name and into his family. We will teach Jesus’ words and works to a new generation of young believers. We will feed and fortify the faith of all ages against the attacks of Satan and the world with Bible study and the Lord’s Supper. We may commit the bodies of fellow believers to the dust but we will commit their souls to the Father’s care in Jesus’ name. The name of Jesus is what we will tell our grandchildren and our coworkers and our neighbors – even if they don’t want to hear it. Proclaiming Jesus’ name is not an easy, and lately it seems an unpopular, resolution for the New Year. The world will not like it that we take the attention off of them and their accomplishments and point the spotlight at Jesus and what he has accomplished for us. But it is the only resolution that will save souls for all eternity. So here in our little corner of creation, because a baby boy bled for us, 2022 will find us proclaiming Jesus’ saving name.

The world around us had a huge party this weekend to celebrate little more than the turning of a page of the calendar. The church has much more to celebrate. We celebrate Sunday – not coincidentally, the 8th day of the week – as the day on which Jesus rose from the dead, we still stand in the glow of God’s Christmas gift to us, and today in particular we rejoice that because Jesus bled for us, we can look forward to 2022 with optimism, hope and joy because we are forgiven in his name, we live in his name, and we proclaim his name. Amen.

[1] Plass, Ewald M., What Luther Says, 321

[2] https://nypost.com/2018/12/21/new-years-resolutions-last-exactly-this-long/