The 8th Day Of Jesus. What A Day!

1.1.23 Luke 2:21

21 After eight days passed, when the child was circumcised, he was named Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

Usually at the end of a calendar year you see “Top 10” lists of things that happened during the year. If you were to ask people for their “Top 10” things that they remember about Jesus, it probably wouldn’t be his circumcision and naming. This verse might seem small and insignificant in the big picture of all the things that happen in the Bible. There’s no miracles. No one is being raised from the dead or being put to death. It’s something that almost all males go through. Yet when something, even the smallest thing happens with Jesus, just one day in the humble life of God’s Son is powerful, even as an infant. Today is no different. In what might seem like a routine act in the life of a Jewish infant boy, we can find some amazing things to think about.

The 8th Day of Jesus. What a Day!

First of all, let’s think about circumcision. Where did it come from within Jewish culture and faith? God said to Abraham in Genesis 17: 12 For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner—those who are not your offspring. . . My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. When God told Abraham to do this, he connected it to the promise that ALL NATIONS would be blessed THROUGH HIM. In other words, the offspring of Abraham would eventually bring forth the Savior of the world. So circumcision was changed from a purely physical act to perhaps prevent infection and disease into a spiritual promise. Jesus was the fulfillment of this promise. This Messiah would break the chain of sin and put an end to it.

Why eight days old? There is some interesting speculation when it comes to the eight days. If you think about the way God designed this world to function, we revolve our lives around a regular 7 day work week, from Sunday to Saturday. In the original story of Creation, after every day you hear Moses summarize it by saying, “There was evening, and there was morning, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd day” etc. But the seventh day is left open. There is no “evening and morning, the 7th day.” Why is that? Perhaps it is in anticipation of something new to come, an 8th Day, after the 7-day cycle of Creation is over, when the end of the world comes. Fast forward over 4,000 years after the Fall, and Jesus sheds His first blood on the 8th Day. When Jesus comes and dies on a Friday, rests in the earth on a Saturday, and rises on a Sunday, this is done on what could be designated as the 8th Day. He ushers in a new creation through His death and resurrection for the world of sinners.

There’s another interesting connection to the number 8. When Noah and his family got on and off of the Ark, there were 8 of them. In the Bible, Peter compares baptism to the Flood, when sinners were drowned and saints were raised in order to be saved. Now, when every Christian is baptized into Christ, he or she is put on the boat of the church and brought into the new creation through faith in Jesus. When we are baptized into the death of Christ, we are washed in His blood. And the first time Jesus shed His blood was on the 8th day. New life begins on the 8th day. It is for this reason that many baptismal fonts have 8 sides to represent this symbolism of the 8th day, the beginning of a new life.

It’s kind of amazing when you take a few minutes to look down the rabbit hole of 8 days and circumcision what can be found! It doesn’t have to be that deep, and maybe it’s not. It could simply be that His parents were keeping the law of Moses and fulfilling the rite that the law required. Paul wrote in Galatians 5:3 that “every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law.” When Jesus was being circumcised, he was being obligated to obey the whole law, for us, and He did. This in and of itself is a significant thing. As sinners who fall short of fulfilling God’s law every day, we needed Jesus to fulfill the law in our place. So it might seem strange for us to crowd around Jesus on His circumcision and watch the pain that this little Baby is going through, but it’s for us. God shed His baby blood for us. It’s always for us. His entire life was for us. It was never for Him. The only thing for Him was the joy of seeing us be saved.