Feast of the Circumcision of our Lord
On Friday, January 14, 2011 (Tuba 6), the Coptic Orthodox Church commemorates the Feast of the Circumcision of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is one of the seven minor feasts of our Lord in which we remember that the Word of God Who gave us the Law subjected Himself to the same Law in order to fulfill it in a spiritual manner. On the eighth day after His Nativity, our Lord Jesus Christ was circumcised in accordance with the Old Testament Law. All male infants underwent circumcision as the sign of the covenant between God and Abraham and his seed in Genesis 17:10-14 (see also Lev. 12:3). The Early Fathers of the Church teach us that our Lord Jesus Christ underwent circumcision to give us a pure and perfect example of how we should faithfully follow the Divine Law. Our teacher, the Scholar Origen, explained in his Homilies on the Gospel according to St. Luke 14.1.2:
So, when he died, we died with him, and when he rose, we rose with him. Likewise, we were also circumcised along with him. After his circumcision, we were cleansed by a solemn purification. Hence we have no need at all for a circumcision of the flesh. You should know that he was circumcised for our sake. Listen to Paul’s clear proclamation. He says, “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness of life in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ. And you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.”1 Therefore his death, his resurrection and his circumcision took place for our sake.
Our Lord’s circumcision also served a Christological purpose in that it showed He was truly flesh. In the Early Church, certain heretics, such as the Docetists, taught various heretical ideas that denied Christ true humanity. Our Lord’s circumcision in the flesh teaches us that, indeed, He truly took flesh from the Most Holy Theotokos. After His circumcision, our Lord formally received the name Jesus in accordance with what the Archangel Gabriel announced to the Most Holy Theotokos (Lk. 1:31-33). The name Jesus was an indication of our Lord’s service, which was the salvation of mankind (Mt.1:21; Mark 9:38-39, 16:17; Luke 10:17; Acts 3:6, 16; Phil 2:9-10). As a result, the name of Jesus is most powerful, as the Scholar Origen teaches us in his work, Against Celsus:
Christians are seen to draw their courage not from incantations but from the name of Jesus and from the commemoration of what he has done. For by his name it has happened very often that demons are put to flight from people, especially whenever they, who invoke them, pronounce them with the right disposition and with all trust. So great indeed is the power of the name of Jesus that sometimes it is efficacious even when spoken by the wicked. The name of Jesus heals the afflicted in mind, puts to flight the spirits of darkness, and to the sick is an ever present remedy.
We see in these words one basis and rationale for the persistent use of the so-called “Jesus Prayer” in the Coptic Church: “My Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me, a sinner.” The constant use of this prayer throughout the day, at fixed times or at any time we feel the urge to call upon the name of our Lord, helps us bring our minds back to Christ and resist the temptation of the evil one and his legion of demons. The significance of the Feast of the Circumcision for us as modern Christians is the reminder that we have entered into a New Covenant with God and are now “circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ” (Col. 2:11). Indeed, we are called “Christians,” because we have entered into this New Covenant.