“JESUS”
Luke 2: 21
The Circumcision and The Name of Jesus: 1 January Anno Domini 2017
Father Jay Watson SSP
Is today New Year’s Day? No, not really. I mean if you value being a ‘Murican more than you cling to The Lord than yes. If you worship mammon and all the stuff you can buy, have, indulge in, and delude with, then yes. But for the flock of The Good Shepherd, the soon to be returning King and Judge, the Church’s New Year—the new Liturgical Year—started with the first Sunday of Advent on November 27th. But even taking your Christian “cues” from the worship folder, is today the Feast of The Circumcision of Jesus or The Name of Jesus? Yes. The “being” and the eternally existing of The Second Person simply “IS”… “I AM.” The Person and Work of The Word…IS. Crudely put, there is no rescue without a rescuer; there is no redemption without a Redeemer. And because your sin, not just your daily sins, but your sin, is so great and such an affront and rebellion against the Purity and Perfection and Goodness of God so that only a Godly sacrifice can atone for it, there is No Salvation without Blood—a bleeding, suffering, and dying Savior. No Name without Circumcision, which in fact, points to the circumcision of sin by His cutting, ripping, carving, piercing, and puncturing at Calvary.
What’s in a name? Everything. Now to be sure, had you never been given a name you are still something, still you of course, but in an inchoate, unfinished, “potentially becoming” kind of way. You may or may or may not have had a name “officially” in the womb of your mother; but you were still loved and cherished. There is the first name, or what the Church calls the “Christian” name, and then there is the surname. A dog, even if it has no name: “Sparky, Fido, Rover, or Wendell” is still a dog. But with you, a sentient being created in the image of God, albeit, now in the fallen, corrupted, image of your sinful parents Adam and Eve, you do not exist in a hermetically sealed case of stasis—suspended animation. No. You breathe, think, reflect, move, and act. You are what you do to a great and certain degree. If you were the son of John or Anders or Sven, you were, to be sure, Johnson, Anderson, and Swenson. [Baker, Potter, Fisher, Smith, Tanner et al] Even Simon Peter was Bar-Jonas. But in the fallen sense of toiling daily as a sinner…you are what you do. If you lie than you are a liar. If you cheat or fornicate or steal than you are a cheater, adulterer and thief. And even when you don’t sin in word and deed you are still sinner. You need a new Name, a forensic, imputed, adopted, and restored Name, a Name above all names. Because with a regenerating, creating, and eternal Name you are given a new identity—you are given a new YOU. Then you are not just Bill or Linda but Saint Bill and Saint Linda. Holy IN The Holy One!
The Lord from before all eternity, the ever-existing Triune-One was the loving, merciful, forgiving and self-sacrificing Savior. The Second Person always was, is, and ever shall be, The Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.
The Name given The Son of God and Son of Man while even before He was conceived in the Virgin’s womb was Jesus. Jesus means Savior, or He Who Saves, or The Saving One—Salvation. The Ancient of Days, the Alpha and Omega, The Logos/Word, He Who is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, is now The Word Made Flesh—Immanuel—Jesus. And Jesus is Jesus because He gives, forgives, suffers, dies, rises from the dead, ascends to Majesty, and is present in His precious Body that was circumcised and Circumcised and in His Holy Blood which makes you Holy by its washing of you and feeding you. His foreskin cut off, His Body shredded and cut so cruelly, His Blood pouring forth to freely and purely, is draped upon you as your Holy stole and mantle, and you are given robes, and family, and a new name that makes you His—that gives you Peace. He gives you His Name by giving you Himself, by giving you His Body and Blood and Word. He is The Christ and you are Christians. He is The Savior, Jesus, and you are the saved. He is The Son of The Father and you are the sons of the Father—“our Father.”
“He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even death on the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a Name which is above every name: that at The Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God The Father.” [Phps. 2. 8-11]
In the Name of Jesus
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