Today
is the 8th Day after Christmas and is Feast of the Naming and
Circumcision of Jesus. Like all Jewish boys Jesus was initiated into God’s
covenant with Abraham on the 8th day after his birth as we read in
Genesis Chapter 17 verse 10, “This is my covenant,
which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every
male among you shall be circumcised.” It is at this point that his name,
Jesus, is publicly proclaimed for the first time.
This
is a very rich passage and there is a great deal that I could draw out from it
but there are two themes that I think I must share something about. One of
these is the idea of ‘Covenant’ in the Bible and the other is something about
what the name ‘Jesus’ signifies.
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Firstly
‘Covenant’. A covenant is an agreement or contract between two parties, and the
Bible gives us an amazing thought that the creator God enters into binding
contracts with his people. If you will do this I will do that. In the Old
Testament God’s contract is with the descendants of Abraham and the terms of
that contract are that God will give to these people a particular area of land
if they in return will worship him exclusively. As Ezekiel records, “they shall be my people, and I will be
their God, says the Lord GOD.”
But
the Old Testament also records that whilst God is faithful the descendants of
Abraham prove faithless, abandoning their agreement with the one God and
following other gods. As a consequence of this troubles come upon them. God
sends prophets to call them back. For example Jeremiah proclaims, “If you return, O Israel, says the LORD, if
you return to me, if you remove your abominations from my presence, and do not
waver, and if you swear, 'As the LORD lives!' in truth, in justice, and in
uprightness, then nations shall be blessed by him, and by him they shall
boast.”
But
it is not enough. Eventually the prophets acknowledge that human effort is not
enough. Something more is needed. Jeremiah tells them,
The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like
the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to
bring them out of the land of Egypt--a covenant that they broke, though I was
their husband, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with
the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within
them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they
shall be my people. (Jer 31:31-33)
Isaiah
tells us that God’s special servant will inaugurate this new covenant and that
it will not be for the descendants of Abraham alone.
'It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the
tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a
light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.'
This
new covenant will be for everyone. This is the covenant inaugurated by Jesus.
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This
brings us on to the second theme which is the significance of the name ‘Jesus’.
We know Mary’s son a Jesus but that is actually a Greek form of the Hebrew name
Yeshua, or as we would say in English ‘Joshua’. The name means “The Lord saves”
or “the Lord sets free”, “the Lord rescues” or “the Lord heals”. His very name
proclaims that Jesus is the one who liberates.
In
the Old Testament we hear of God’s people being held as slaves in the land of
Egypt but God sends Moses to liberate them. God is a God who sets people free.
But that freedom is completed when the people are lead into the land which God
promises to them. But is not Moses who does this but his successor as their
leader, Joshua. So in the old covenant Joshua leads them to freedom, in the new
it is the new Joshua – Jesus.
One
of the great themes of the New Testament is that the gift that Jesus gives us
is freedom. As Saint Paul tells the Galatian Christians “For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not
submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
God
has made with us a new covenant sealed by the blood of Jesus shed upon the
cross. This covenant is made to set us free.
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Many
of you will know that I started life as a Methodist. There are many things I
value from my Methodist background. One of them is the incredibly demanding
Covenant Prayer which Methodist use sometime in the early days of each new
year. I’m not going to pray it with you today. It is very demanding and I would
hate people to just “go through the motions” with it. Instead I have printed a
copy for you to take away. What I want you to do is read it and think about,
and ask yourself “Am I willing to say this prayer.” Look at what it means.
Understand how demanding it is and then, and only then, pray this prayer. And
once you’ve done that tell me that you’ve done it.
On
this first day of the year we remember the covenant of freedom inaugurated in
Jesus and God’s invitation to each one of us to take that upon ourselves.
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