Eighth Day of Christmas: The Feast of the Circumcision

YE flaming Powers, and winged Warriours bright,
That erst with Musick, and triumphant song
First heard by happy watchful Shepherds ear,
So sweetly sung your Joy the Clouds along
Through the soft silence of the list’ning night;
Now mourn, and if sad share with us to bear
Your fiery essence can distill no tear,
Burn in your sighs, and borrow
Seas wept from our deep sorrow,
He who with all Heav’ns heraldry whileare
Enter’d the world, now bleeds to give us ease;
Alas, how soon our sin
Sore doth begin
His Infancy to sease!

O more exceeding love or law more just?
Just law indeed, but more exceeding love!
For we by rightfull doom remediless
Were lost in death, till he that dwelt above
High thron’d in secret bliss, for us frail dust
Emptied his glory, ev’n to nakednes;
And that great Cov’nant which we still transgress
Intirely satisfi’d,
And the full wrath beside
Of vengeful Justice bore for our excess,
And seals obedience first with wounding smart
This day, but O ere long
Huge pangs and strong
Will pierce more neer his heart.

“Upon the Circumcision” John Milton 1633

On the western Christian liturgical calendar, today is the Feast of the Circumcision, the day in which we remember that Jesus’ parents, in obedience to Mosaic law, had their son circumcised eight days after his birth.

For Christians, with the baggage of the Church’s long history of overt and covert anti-semitism, it is a bright and shining reminder that our Savior and his family were Jewish, that, in fact, the things we believe about Jesus only make sense within the context of God’s promises to Israel and the descendants of Abraham.

But Milton also saw in Jesus’ circumcision a foreshadowing of his atoning death.  Even as an infant, Jesus shed blood to fulfill God’s redemptive plan for us.  Jesus, even as an infant, obeyed the requirements that God has given his covenant people.

Circumcision first appears in the Bible in God’s covenant with Abraham. The practice was not original with Israel, but the profound religious connections were, as well as the requirement that boys be circumcised eight days after birth.  For some cultures who practiced circumcision, it occurred during adolescence.

My brother commented to me once after reading my blog that all my commenters were very nice to each other.   I told him that if he wanted to see sparks fly, I should post about something controversial like circumcision (just check out Lindsay’s post on the subject, for example).  Many people, especially parents, have passionate opinions on this subject.  Any rousing discussion of circumcision will eventually include phrases like “genital mutilation,” “locker room cruelty,” and the sentiment on both sides that the choice of the other side is just “gross.”

I am not going to get involved in that discussion.

I will just say this: the Incarnation means that God took on to himself all the inconveniences, messes and savageries of ordinary human existence.  He knew the pain of this life, because there is no life here without pain.  From birth to death, it haunts us.  God became one of us, down to the degree of the blood on the penis of a small Jewish baby.

But Jesus’ pain does not only mean he shares a bond with us.  It means he can offer us salvation from all our failures.   Here in his circumcision we see it foreshadowed: he fulfills the law of God, and by doing so, his pain and death can become redemptive for us.  Jesus not only suffers with us; he suffers for us, so that we don’t have to.