Shepherd of the Springs
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

[Text: And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcision of the child,  His name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before He was conceived in the womb. [Luke 2.21; KJV]

This is the last evening of the year on the Western calendar. We call it, New Year’s Eve, and we celebrate it with gatherings of friends and serving mostly fat-laden foods and spending sums to go to more formal gatherings and blowing of horns at the midnight hour, Mountain Standard Time, and yes, though illegal, on that same midnight hour with the firing of shotguns, totally oblivious of the sixth grade science lesson that what goes up must come down.

And yes, some of us celebrate a part of the New Year’s Eve gathered here and around countless altars in every part of the world where Christians gather with us to give thanks to God for the blessings received in the year now past, and to pray for His grace for the year that now unfolds, and yes, we do all mindful of the circumcision of the infant Savior and the formal applying of His name, Jesus.

I.

Dr. Luther teaches us to train our eyes to see what really occurs on this 8th day of the life outside the womb for our little Lord Jesus.

It’s not nice, but it is necessary. It isn’t clean, but by it we will all be cleansed. For this day of the Circumcision and Name of Jesus marks the first shedding of blood by the Savior of the Word, who’s life is destined for the fullness of  blood-shedding on the cross to supply the fullness of the forgiveness of sins for the whole world of sinners, and, more specifically, for the gathering here and elsewhere where Christians give thanks to God for the Christmas gift above all others.

For us, tonight, the clock ticks, unwaveringly, toward the midnight hour which ends one year and begins for us. For Christ, tonight in His very young life,  the lock ticks, also unwaveringly, toward the hour where darkness and light meet in battle, and in the height of the darkness of the devil’s attack, light wins the moment, the hour, the day, the week, the year, the whole time of fallen human existence – wins it with the triumphant cry: “It is finished!”  -- which is to say, more precisely than we normally translate it, “It is completed!” “It is a done deal!” The shedding of His innocent and holy blood has brought the forgiveness of all sins of all sinners of all time and place, blood shedding that begins with this night and day, the Circumcision and Name of Jesus, the 8th day of His birth. Late in time, it comes to pass: “And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcision of the child,  His name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before He was conceived in the womb.”

II.

Yes, that is the Name, is it not? Mary hears from the very messenger of God: “Fear not, Mary! For Thou hast found favor with God. And behold, Thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a Son, and shalt call His name JESUS.” The circumcision, by itself, means nothing but a very common practice in Old Testament Israel. But the circumcision is not just by itself – it is accompanied by a name, usually the name give to the infant by and often of an earthly father. But here, this circumcision is accompanied by a name given by the Father Almighty, Creator and Sustainer of all the earth. And the name He gives, through the agency of Gabriel is not the name of God the Father but the mission of God the Son. To His earthly, angry step-father, the angel said, “Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary as thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”

“Jesus” is a common name, the Greek translation of the Hebrew name, “Yeshuah,” or, as we pronounce it in English, Joshua. “Yeshuah” means “savior,” and it is a common name among the people of God, in both the Old and New Testament eras. As a common name, it could refer to saving a family for disaster to saving a mother from the shame of being childless. But, when the word spoken by the angel, Yeshuah, reaches Joseph’s ears, he does not have time to figure out what sort of “savior” this child is to be, for Gabriel immediately tells him: “thou shalt call His name JESUS – YESHUAH – for He shall save – save what? Save who? – He shall save His people -- from their sins!

III.

Thus, throughout the New Testament Era, Christians hail and embrace the name of Jesus, for it is the promise of the forgiveness of their sins! The hymn-writer captures this blessed work of the Name of Jesus in these words:

At the name of Jesus, Every knee shall bow, Every tongue confess Him
King of glory now.
‘Tis the Father’s pleasure
We should call Him Lord,
Who from the beginning
Was the mighty Word.

Humbled for a season,
To receive a Name,
Found on lips of sinner
Unto whom He came.
Faithfully He bore it
Spotless to the last,
Brought it back victorious
When from death He passed.


Bore it up triumphant
With its human light,
Thru all ranks of creatures
To the central height,
To the throne of Godhead,
To the Father’s breast,
Filled the name with glory
Of that perfect rest. 

Together, the circumcision and name of Jesus combine to bring you the sweetest Gospel in this Christmas season. In the blood is the payment for your sins. In the name is the promise of your everlasting salvation. Sinners to the end of this present era – and we are all such sinners – now have in the circumcision and name of Jesus both the promise and the work of God the Son, your Savior, who makes you holy by grace, keeps you holy by forgiveness,  and in the end of this time and the beginning of eternal time, He, the Savior, will present you, together with all the saints, before His heavenly Father and say, “Father, these are my brothers and sisters, saved, forgiveness, protected, and kept for You!”

Christians, this Lord Jesus
Shall return again
In His Father’s glory,
With His angel train;
For all wreaths of empire
Meet upon His brow; thus
Our hearts confess Him,
King of glory, now!

A blessed New Year be yours in Circumcision and Name of Jesus, the Christ, your Lord and your Savior!

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.