By His Blood and in His Name

Click here to listen to this sermon.

“And at the end of eight days, when He was circumcised, He was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb” (Luke 2:21).

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

Those of you growing up with siblings can probably relate to this scene. It’s the day after Christmas. As you shower, get dressed, and eat breakfast, you plan your entire day. It’s going to be a great day! You’re going to spend all your time playing with that favorite gift. But when you go to get it, it’s gone! Immediately, you know where to start looking. You noticed that covetous look in your brother’s eyes. Barging through his bedroom door, you catch him red-handed. “Give it to me!” you yell. “That’s mine!” And even though he knows full well it was your Christmas present, he replies, “I don’t see your name written on it!”

Thinking back, I realized that’s maybe why Santa brought my brother, sister, and me label makers. Wise old man that he is, he realized that if we each had our name on all our own things there would be no need for such arguments. That’s how I came to have a roomful of stuff all marked with a green, plastic label that had the name “Bob” written on it. That label marked that stuff as mine. It was to prevent someone else from running off with my things or, at least having to return them if they were “borrowed.” Putting our name on things marks them as our own.

Guess what? God does the same thing. He also puts His name down to mark His property. “Wait a minute,” I can hear you say. “We’ve been taught that everything belongs to God. We’re His stewards given the responsibility to manage everything for Him. But it’s all His! Psalm 24:1 says, ‘The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.’ Wouldn’t that mean His name would have to be plastered across creation?”

Good question. It is true that everything already belongs to God. But it’s also true that God Himself has some special possessions, some properties that seem dearer to His heart than others. Like Andy from Toy Story, He indelibly marks those that are especially dear to Him with His own name.

Think of the temple in Jerusalem, which the Old Testament often speaks of as the place where God’s name dwells. In fact, God Himself had promised King David, “Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, shall build the house for My name” (1 Kings 5:5). At the dedication of the temple, Solomon prayed, “that Your eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of which You have said, ‘My name shall be there’” (1 Kings 8:29). Certainly, every building on earth is God’s own. But that building was special because that’s where God promised to meet His people to bless them in His name.

And so we come here today because this is the place where God promises to meet us and bless us in His name. Today, as strange it may seem, we celebrate the circumcision of Mary’s Son. No, we don’t celebrate this painful and bloody surgical procedure itself, but rather its significance. For a first-century Jew, the practice of circumcision was theological rather than medical or cultural. It had to do neither with good hygiene nor social standing but with God’s promise.

God instituted circumcision with Abraham and his descendants as a sign of His covenant with them. Every male was to receive this sign on the eighth day of his life. It served as a visible sign of God’s promise to Abraham that through his offspring all nations on earth would be blessed. They were to live as God’s people by walking in His ways and trusting in His promise to send a Savior through Abraham. Sadly, although the bodies of God’s people were circumcised their hearts were not. They frequently worshiped and served other gods and walked in other ways rather than fearing, loving, and trusting in God above all things. Just like you and I are so prone to do!

About 2,000 years later, one of Abraham’s many descendants was marked with that same bloody sign on His eighth day. Unlike previous circumcisions, His was not the sign of promise made but of God’s promise kept. This son of Abraham lived according to His circumcision with His heart as well as His body. That is, He kept and fulfilled the entire Law, and so showed Himself to be the true Son of God. In this way, “Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Romans 10:4).

God always required the shedding of blood as part of His covenant. In fact, very early on God explained: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life” (Leviticus 17:11). The author of Hebrews adds: “Under the Law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (9:22).

That shedding of blood normally consisted of the substitutionary sacrifice of animals. But circumcision required the shedding of human blood. Though a helpless baby who depended on the care of His parents, Jesus began to fulfill His mission to save the world from sin, shedding His precious blood in obedience to the Law for the first time. The cutting off of the foreskin is representative of the cutting off of sin and rebellion against God (Colossians 2:13). While Jesus Himself is without sin, He takes all humanity’s place as the sin-bearer. Through this One who represents all humanity, all people are circumcised once and for all.

At the same time He was marked by circumcision, Mary’s Child was also marked with the name “Jesus.” The purpose of the name was not to be cute or creative but to confess and describe who this Child is. In the ancient world, names were not merely identification tags. They were carefully chosen to reveal some characteristic trait or significance of the individual. Generally, the father named the child and if the baby were a firstborn son, he would give him his own name.

In this case, Mary and Joseph were given the name, just as they were given the Child miraculously and without any choice or say in the matter. Don’t overlook the theological significance of the miraculous revelation of Jesus’ name by God through the angel. In a unique sense, Jesus’ name is chosen by His Father! In fact, Jesus is named after His Father! “Jesus” is a Greek translation of “Joshua”, which means “Yahweh saves.” Like Joshua of the Old Testament, Jesus is to take His people into the Promised Land in victory. But Jesus is much greater, in that His victory will not just be over the Canaanites, but over the forces of evil and death. And the new Promised Land into which He leads His people is eternal.

Jesus will fulfill His name perfectly and completely. Already at His circumcision, the eight-day-old child sets upon the road that will lead through the sufferings of Calvary, the stony silence of the tomb, and the jubilation of Easter morning. In fact, in this eight-day-old Child, Yahweh, the Lord Himself, has come in the flesh “for us men and for our salvation,” as we say in the Nicene Creed.

By His submission to the Law and His perfect keeping of it, Jesus saves and redeems those who are under God’s Law. On the cross, He credits His perfect obedience to you, and He bears the penalty for your failure to keep the Law. In the Great Exchange, what is yours becomes His and what is His become yours. So the circumcision of Jesus is also your circumcision. Its former theological meaning is now found in Him. You no longer need circumcision; instead, you need Jesus—His circumcision and His perfect fulfillment of the Law.

In our Epistle, Paul describes our “adoption as sons” in Jesus. In Him, “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female,” but only Christians baptized into Christ and belonging to Him. “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Galatians 3:26-29). Through your Baptism into Jesus, His circumcision counts for you—male or female—and gives you the rights of a son of God.  

How does He give it? How has God ever given His grace and blessings? With His name. Always He puts His name on someone, and that someone ceases to belong to God in general but instead belongs to God in specific as a precious and prized possession. Like me putting name labels on my possessions so my brother or sister couldn’t run off with them, God has put His triune name on you with all its blessings so that you might never be lost but belong to Him forever.

Just before He ascended to heaven, Jesus told His disciples, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20). Jesus—the Lord who saves—is with you, for you have been baptized into His name. Every time you say His triune name and make the sign of the cross, you recall how the Lord has made you one of His own people, His own child. You are an heir of forgiveness, life, and salvation through Jesus’ blood and name.

In Baptism, you are given the benefits of Christ’s once for all sacrifice for the sin of the world. In Baptism, you are washed in the blood of the Lamb of God who bears the sin of the world to the cross. Baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection, you receive the forgiveness of sins earned by the shedding of His blood, from that first blood at eight days to His bloody Good Friday death.

Risen and ascended, the Lord still comes to you. In His Word, He speaks to you through His called and ordained servant. In His Supper, Christ gives you His body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins. At the altar, you receive Jesus and everything earned by the shedding of His blood, including His name. That includes the privilege of calling upon the Father in prayer in Jesus’ name. Jesus intercedes for you on your behalf. When you pray in Jesus’ name, the Father promises to hear your prayers. You may approach Him with your requests with all boldness and confidence, asking Him as dear children ask their dear father.

The whole rest of Christian life is just unpacking the joy of what it means to live life and die death as one who belongs specially to the triune God—what it means to live under the promise and mark of God’s holy name, as a person walking the way home to the Father and His Promised Land.

St. Peter described this new life as one baptized in God’s name this way: “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).

Now there’s a resolution worthy of a new year! May you, people marked as God’s own by His blood, declare to all the world the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. May you, people marked with God’s triune name, share His glorious name and all the power it brings with all of your family, friends, and neighbors. May you, God’s chosen, holy people, spend this year with the Word of God in your ear, the blood of Jesus on your tongue, and the name of Jesus on both your forehead and your heart. For through His Word, and by His Blood, and in Jesus’ name, you are forgiven for all your sins.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.