Naming & Circumcision of Jesus 1.1.12
You may not be able to see it but the Jewish priest into the picture on today’s notice sheet is using a very large knife to circumcise a worried looking baby Jesus. It’s the kind of knife that would do justice to the Christmas turkey. Here the thought of it brings tears to the eyes of us men at least. A concerned Mary is holding her son down.
Jesus was circumcised because he was Jewish, in obedience to the law, for our sake, as the collect puts it. He was also named Jesus, ‘the name above all names’, that has to do with salvation.
To name somebody or something was significant. In the Genesis creation myth, that human beings named animals was a sign that they had power over them. To name one’s child (as in the traditional Christening rite) cements the familial relationship. To invoke the name of a deity or a king was to claim something of their power.
It is no wonder then that proclaiming the name of Jesus is so special for Christians. In naming Jesus we express our relationship with him & bring his redemptive love to bear in particular situations. The name of Jesus can be therapeutic, to do with healing & power over evil.
All this brings me back to the offensive weapon with which I began, that menacing knife. Our culture sentimentalises Christmas, making it suitable for children, an occasion for nostalgia but alienating adult sensibilities. Yet when we look at the Church’s Calendar there is a lot of violence in the story – the ‘18’ rated version!
There is something about Jesus that is deeply threatening & disturbing, especially to knife-wielding men of power. There is something emasculating about him. Look at Joseph passively standing by, to old to have sex with his virgin wife. There were shepherds helplessly contemplating the utter loneliness of Mary after she had given birth to her son.
The infant Jesus points to a different kind of power, power shown in weakness. This is too much for those whose worldly power is built on shifting sands, like the quisling Herod, a Roman puppet. Herod responded to the visit of the Wise Men with violence, the massacre of the Holy Innocents, ordering all boys under two to be put to death by the sword.
The infancy stories have been described as gospels in miniature. Thus they echo & hint at Jesus’ death on the cross. Jesus was an attractive figure, who drew people & yet he was also very crucifiable. People wanted him killed.
Christmas peace is accompanied by violence. There is violence on the second day of Christmas when the Church remembers Stephen the first martyr, put to death by stoning for invoking the name of Jesus. The Holy Innocents are celebrated on the fourth day. On the fifth day we recall the martyrdom of Thomas Becket who died by the sword because he defended the rights of the Church against the Crown.
Human beings are violent, they kill one another in wars, in acts of terrorism, in the name of nation & tribe, in the name of ideology & religion, even, and it has to be admitted, in the name of Jesus. They kill in anger & in cold blood, they murder. I have said ‘they’ but it should be ‘we’. Violence is something we are all party to, to a greater or lesser extent.
This Christmas is no exception; ongoing war & conflict, knife attacks in our streets.
The knife at the centre of today’s feast disturbs. It reminds us of the violence at the core of our humanity. It also reveals the significance of Jesus who lived a life of non-violence, of turning the other cheek that cost him his life on the cross. There is violence in the Christmas story but also peace, the peace of the Christ-child given to us as we worship & seek to serve our fellow human beings in his love.
Amen.