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“When eight days were completed for the circumcision of the Child, His name was called IHS, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb.”

Merry Christmas!

᛭ INI ᛭

We’re 8 days into Christmas, 8 Days into remembering the entire life of our Lord and Savior IHS Christ. It’s an exciting day, albeit more than a little bit odd to our modern ears—ears and mind and hearts overly affected by scientific, medical, and rational thinking, rather than steeped in the meaning and stories of Scripture.

It’s an surprising day for both preachers and for hearers. The sermon, at least if it’s based on the Gospel, preaches only one verse! Scripture is deep, the Spirit often pouring more into one verse than we think possible. It’s an encouragement to those of you who’ve maybe resolved to read your Bible more this year. It’s an encouragement to say that reading your Bible isn’t like reading a children’s story, a Louis L’Amour novel, or a newspaper article. It’s not a read once and you’re done, reading the Bible is more like an ongoing conversation…

Knowing Scripture is simple but not necessarily easy at times. You can learn the basic, central meaning of the whole Bible by reading a few verses, verses that are like the wading pool, even children can learn them. There are also passages and teachings where you can’t find the bottom, where you need to spend a lifetime chewing on them, until you’ve got no teeth left. The shallow things connect to the deep ones, and the deep ones to the shallow ones, and everything in between. It’s the way of Spirit to do it this way, to draw out ever new connections. It’s His book.

This is what we mean by “the inspiration of the Bible.” It means that the Spirit inspired the words. It doesn’t mean that the Bible is necessarily inspirational in human terms. The Bible contains everything God NEEDS us to know about Christ and every other teaching that flows from Christ and toward Christ. The Bible is not a text that contains everything we WANT to know.

With that introduction, we now turn to our entire Gospel lesson: “When eight days were completed for the circumcision of the Child, His name was called IHS, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb.”

Christ is the highest, heavenliest God—“God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God.” The angel Gabriel, “before [Christ] was conceived in the womb” said to Mary, “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest.” (Lk 1) “Christ by highest heav’n adored, Christ the everlasting Lord, late in time,” “in fullness of all time” (Gal 4) comes to do the lowliest, fleshiest thing. He undergoes something that we’d rather ignore. He came not to be served, to do the most wonderful things, humanly speaking, but Christ came to do what was quite dishonorable for the highest, holiest, heavenliest Son of God. Christ’s circumcision foreshadows that He would not only undergo the knife, but also the shame of being scourged, mocked by soldiers, exposed and crucified, and finally dead—the very reason He’s named IHS. (To save His people, even you, from your sins.)

Christ’s being circumcised on the 8th day is also important for us to consider, especially when it comes to the plague that the LAW works on us. By the 10 Commandments God shows that everyone who commits sin is sin’s slave. Whether it’s a sin you don’t remember, one you pass off as not that bad, or a big, bad one, which might also be called “vice” like the Small Catechism labels it. “The wages of [each] sin is death.” Since the LORD’s Law is always condemning our actions and the desires, thoughts, or emotions that drive our actions, even passing thoughts are sin in His sight.

For those who stand condemned under the Law, and you really do in your flesh, Christ the Lawgiver subjects Himself to His own Law. In another passage we’re told about a time when Christ asks Peter, “From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes, from their sons or from strangers?” Peter said to Him, “From strangers.” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free.” Thus, Christ, since He is the highest, holiest, heavenliest Son of God, since He established and gave the Law at Sinai, He stands above the Law. The Law is not greater than He is, yet He submits Himself to His own Law. For, “when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”

Not only is He subject to His own Law, He takes on our sins as His own. Christ is the sinless one, and He bears all our sins. All your sins, all my sins, all the sins of everyone, everywhere—He bears all sins. “He bore our sins in His own body on the tree.” This is why He’s given the name IHS, “the Lord saves.” His name really is the name above every name, “that at the name of IHS every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil 2) Think about that, on the Last Day, people will genuflect, get on their knees at the bare mention of Christ’s highest, heavenliest, holiest name. (In a bygone era, His name for this reason got a bow of the head. A practice, I’ve been told, was around in the days of Walther.)

All that Christ does is for your benefit, even what took place in today’s Gospel lesson: “When eight days were completed for the circumcision of the Child, His name was called IHS, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb.” You were given His name in Holy Baptism, a name that marked you as God’s own child. “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Gal 3) “In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.” (Col 2)

Not only that, “your old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.” (Rom 6) Indeed, this happens through living out your life in Baptism, which is nothing other than the Spirit working in you through the Word, “daily contrition and repentance.” (SC) The Lord still wants circumcised hearts and circumcised ears, that sin would be put away, that hearing His Word would abound, that true righteousness and holiness would be yours, that you would live a “godly life here in time and there in eternity.” (SC)

Christ’s circumcision on the eighth day has to do with your eternal life, as much as His death and resurrection. For “the eighth day signifies the future life; for Christ rested in the tomb on the Sabbath, that is, the Seventh Day, but rose again on the following Day, which is the eighth day, the beginning of a new week, and after it no other day is counted. For through His birth and death, and everything in between, Christ brought to a close the weeks of time, when days are no longer counted, but there’s only the eternal day without any night… In that life the true circumcision will be carried out. At that time not only the foreskin of the heart will be circumcised—which happens in this life through faith—but the entire flesh and all its essence will be cleansed of all depravity, ignorance, lust, sin, and filth. Consequently, the flesh is then immortal.” (LW3, 141, alt.)

A pledge, token, seal of this future, eternal day is also given to you this day, the first of a fresh 365, the 8th of Christmas, the body and blood of Christ, the Medicine of Immortality.

Merry Christmas!

᛭ INI ᛭