Sign of the Covenant

“The New Year. The future... Yeah ole daddy Earth fixin' to start one mo' trip 'round the sun, an' evvybody hopin' this ride 'round be a little mo' giddy, a little mo' gay...”

-The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)

written by Joel & Ethan Coen, and San Raimi

Happy Circumcision of Christ Day! It’s somehow fitting that it falls on New Year’s Day because each of these events cause us to both look back and to look forward. The fact that Jesus was circumcised according to the Covenant that God established with the Hebrews tells us that Jesus does not overturn the Father’s relationship with humanity but is the fulfillment of His promises to it through His chosen people. Jesus fulfills God’s promises; His Covenant is fulfilled in His son. God has been narrating mankind’s story, influencing the events of History through Israel, molding reality bit by bit so that history itself could change. Without the aid of God, mankind’s destiny is fated to be one of pain and suffering, failure, and death. Only within a relationship with the God of all can man reach its fulfillment. Only in God is man’s destiny not futile.

We remember that this day, in the Temple at Jerusalem, was the first time Jesus’s blood was shed for us.

In Jesus, we see God’s love for humanity, not as a distant, impersonal love, but one in which His love for us is so complete that He was willing to become flesh for us. God became man for us but not as some abstract concept but as a man in history, within a particular moment, within a particular community, and with a particular family. Obviously, the context in which God chose to manifest in is hugely important and the fact that He would allow Himself the outward and visible signs of God’s Covenant with His chosen people is of immense importance.