The Feast of the Circumcision of Christ

Today, we celebrate the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ. It raises the question: Beyond being a painful medical procedure, what exactly is the significance of circumcision?

In the Old Testament, circumcision acted as an entry rite—a way for outsiders to be made part of the community of Israel. The ritual goes all the way back to the patriarch Abraham and was performed on his biological descendents on the 8th day after their birth. It was typically accompanied with the bestowal of the child’s name and prayers.

Christian baptism functions as a New Covenant fulfillment of circumcision. Just as an outsider or newborn infant needed to be circumcised to be considered part of the Israelite community, so we baptize those who are outside the Church so they might be joined to it. Baptism, however, has its advantages over circumcision: for one, it’s not gender exclusive; it is administered to both male and females. Secondly, circumcision merely made one a member of an ethno-national group called Israel; Baptism makes one a member of Christ’s Church, the New Israel, a spiritual entity composed of all faithful people regardless of their race or nationality. Finally, the focus in circumcision is on the outward while Christian baptism is ultimately focused on the Holy Spirit’s work in the heart of the person who is baptized.

So why was it that our Lord was baptized? St. Thomas Aquinas gives us a number of reasons.

In being circumcised, our Lord proved the reality of his human nature. A number of heretical sects sprung up early on in Christianity’s history, insisting that Christ’s body wasn’t really human but that it only appeared to be so. Yet, how could he be circumcised if his body wasn’t real?

It shows that Christ approved of circumcision as a divine institution.

In being circumcised, Christ proved his descent from Abraham. Christ acts as the fulfillment of Israel, so far from contradicting Jewish practice, all Jewish practice finds its ultimate meaning in Christ. Galatians 3:16, “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring; it does not say, ‘And to offsprings,’ as of many; but it says, ‘And to your offspring,’ that is, to one person, who is Christ.”

Christ’s circumcision takes away from the Jews any excuse for not receiving him. Had he not been circumcised, they would have had a justification for rejecting him.

By obeying the Law, Christ sets an example for us and exhorts us to obey. This corresponds to what Christ says in St. Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.”

In setting an example for us, it is important that Christ, who came in the likeness of sinful flesh, might not reject the remedy for sin. It’s not as though Christ needed the remedy himself but rather that he might show what is fitting.

Finally, and I would argue most importantly, Christ was circumcised to take onto himself the burden of the Law in order to free others from it. Galatians 4:4-5, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.” Our Lord’s circumcision paves the way for the New Covenant Church.

Now, in the Old Testament, there were three dominant sins for which Israel was chastised by the prophets: Social injustice, idolatry, and empty ritualism. Empty ritualism is what happens when we sit through religious rites without really meaning them; we just want to check off the boxes. It is a kind of utilitarianism that tries to keep the Truth at arms length without letting it shape the heart of the worshipper. If we’re being honest, this has probably happened to most of us at one point or another; it’s natural to “go through the motions” with little to no thought sometimes. But what Israel was called out for was a perpetual cycle of living this way. The Old Testament prophets often urged the people to repent using the metaphor of circumcising the heart. An example of this can be found in Jeremiah 4:3-4:

For thus says the Lord to the people of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among the thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, remove the foreskin of your hearts, O people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem.

This admonition finds its fulfillment in the Church according to Colossians 2:11-13:

In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses.

So we the reason for our collect’s request today: that we receive the “true circumcision of the Spirit; a circumcision of the heart.” And what does that entail exactly? Well, it means that we live into our baptisms, submitting to God with all our hearts, souls, and minds. Our hearts and bodies must be mortified from all worldly and carnal lusts because we have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us (Gal 2:20). We die to the disordered passions that try and control us: unbecoming sexual urges, the impulse to idolize politics, and other desires that run contrary to the Gospel. And, simultaneously, we positively embrace obedience to God’s will by continually returning to the cross where we seek to be crucified with Christ.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.