“And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.”
It is likely that, had our Lord not been circumcised, we would have never heard his Name. His circumcision was necessary, not merely for the letter of the law, but also to establish that he was a Jew. The Pharisees could have brought Jesus’ whole project to an end instantly by simply proving that he was not a Jew.
They certainly tried everything else. Those big shots, the ruling class, back in Jerusalem were politicians who aimed to keep their power and with John the Baptist out of the way, their only worry had become the growing popularity of his cousin Jesus – a working class preacher who grew up in the backwater village of Nazareth — nobody from nowhere. And they had people on the payroll, spies — what the American press frequently calls “researchers” who knew how to craft a false narrative.
That crowd back in Jerusalem was made up of a bunch of dirty politicians and they gathered dirt, or they manufacture dirt. They had their enemy list and files in the home office. In one of his arguments with the Pharisees over Abraham and Jewish fatherhood, the Jews pulled out a piece of manufactured dirt:
“WE be not born of fornication…” John 8:41
How did they know that Joseph was not Jesus’ biological father? There is nothing new about dirt. They knew our Lord’s linage and they assumed the worse, which is what people usually do, and from it they crafted a sordid tale: “We were not born of fornication.” Another fair translation would be: “We were not born of prostitution.” I wonder how Jesus felt when they said that? Well, we don’t have to wonder because you can go to the text. Here they are publicly smearing Mary her life. He was after all human and loved his mother and he seems to bristle just then: “You know why you cannot take in what I say? Because you cannot understand my language. The devil is your father, and you do what your father wants you to do. He was a murderer; you are a murderer. He was a liar; you are liars.” I am happy the Pharisees said, “We were not born of fornication” because it makes it clear that everyone knew that Joseph was not Jesus’ biological father.
But what does that say about his Jewish identity? Absolutely nothing, because his identity as a Jew comes through his Mother. His legal Jewish identity was unassailable. Circumcised on the eight day: Jesus is marked with the sign of the covenant and he is incorporated into Israel. Same with John the Baptist. And the same with St. Paul: “circumcised on the eight day…a Hebrew of Hebrews.” For all their slander, all their muck raking, the Pharisees never once raise the issue of Jesus’ circumcision and his identity as Jew.
Jesus’ Jewish title is Messiah and when that is translated into the Greek of the New Testament his Name becomes “Christ.” To call Jesus of Nazareth “Christ” is to assert that he is “the Anointed of God,” the Person chosen from before all worlds to enter this world as both True God and True Man. And it is his naming on the Feast of the Circumcision that gets the attention:
“And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.”
Every utterance of the Name Jesus is either an act of adoration or an act of mockery and rejection. This Name is so holy, that we bow our heads when it is spoken. St. Paul tells us that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth” (Philippians 2:10). George Herbert, one of the most pious and exemplary priests of the 17th century, made it his business to bow his head and to quietly proclaim “My Master” every time the Name “Jesus Christ” spoken in his presence. And he did regardless of how the person speaking meant it — for good or for ill.
Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, not only because St. Paul or the Church says so, but because Jesus himself said so. And we know the very moment that Jesus Christ gave his word because St. Luke records it in his Gospel and we have it appointed for the Second Sunday after Christmas.
Jesus visited Nazareth, where he had been raised, and attended to the synagogue on the Sabbath, as was his usual practice, and is asked to read from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. Then Luke tells us:
“And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” Jesus closed the book and everyone looked to him for a sermon. Instead, he simply declares: “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears” (Luke 4:21).
“Faith in Jesus Christ” means that we believe the specific Person named Jesus of Nazareth to be whom he claimed himself to be: the Messiah, the Savior of the world, the Son of the Father who deserving the same honor we give to God the Father. We are trusting Jesus of Nazareth. We are trusting a Lord raised from the dead, who is alive right now, who will live forever, and who will return in glory on the last day to judge the world.
We were created in God’s image and restored to that image by the incarnation and passion of Jesus Christ through our baptism into his death and resurrection. We appropriate that reality by living everyday for him, through the divine, indwelling life of the Holy Ghost and sacramental life of Holy Mother Church.
As we begin a new year, we can contribute to 2018 being a good year by remembering who we are as Children of God — as a parish and individually. We are not the audience for the services offered up in this Church. God the Blessed Trinity, to whom we raise up our prayers and praises, is the only rightful focus of our service and worship. And while the grace of God in the Christian life and discipline does make us better people, the end is God’s glory not our own glory. We trust in God that we have been made his children by adoption and grace. That means that we cannot make ourselves more saved or more his children by anything we do. But we can without doubt glorify God the Father by acts of kindness, mercy, and love performed in his Name. A way to start, then, whether as a “to do” list or as part of our New Year’s resolutions I want to suggest that we begin by reflecting on the Works of Mercy identified by the historic Church. There are 14 all together.
The Corporal Works of Mercy (addressed to the body and to the physical needs of others) are:
1. To feed the hungry
2. To give drink to the thirsty
3. To clothe the naked
4. To shelter the stranger
5. To visit the sick
6. To visit and to minister to prisoners
7. To bury the dead.
The Spiritual Works of Mercy broadens our personal and corporate responsibility beyond the temporary needs of the body to the spiritual and eternal welfare of other people:
1. To convert the sinner
2. To instruct the ignorant
3. To counsel the doubtful
4. To comfort the sorrowful
5. To bear injuries patiently
6. To forgive those who harm us.
7. To pray for the living and commend the dead into the hands of God.
The Works of Mercy are not an end in themselves, but they are a good summary of action our baptism and the sacramental life of the Church has equipped us to perform and of the commitments we ourselves make every time we speak the holy, precious Name of Jesus Christ. There are men, have always been and always will be men, even communities that live for dirt. But we are a people called to live for the good, the true, and the beautiful. Who live for love. Who live for Jesus.