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THE HISTORY OF THE GROWTH
Luk_2:21-52
A. The Eighth Day; or, Submission to the Law. Luk_2:21
(The Gospel for New Year’s Day)
[Alford:—“The Lord was made like unto His brethren (Heb_2:17; Heb_4:15) in all weakness and bodily infirmity, from which legal uncleannesses arose. The body which He took on Him, though not a body of sin, was mortal, subject to the consequence of sin,—in the likeness of sinful flesh; but incorruptible by the indwelling of the Godhead (1Pe_3:18). In the fulfilment therefore of His great work of redemption He became subject to legal rites and purifications—not that they were absolutely necessary for Him, but were included in those things which were ðñÝðïíôá for Him in His humiliation and ‘making perfect’: and in His lifting up of that human nature, for which all these things were absolutely necessary (Gen_17:14), into the Godhead.”—Bengel remarks on ðñὸ ôïῦ , antequam: “Exquisite hic denotatur beneplacitum Patris in Christo, atque innuitur simul, nunc infantem circumcisione per se non eguisse. Conf. Gal_1:15.”—P. S.]
Jesus, Ἰçóïῦò .—Hebr. éְäåֹùׁåּòַ , or contracted, éֵùׁåּòַ ,—Jehovah auxilium. It appears from Col_4:11, and Mat_27:16-17, where the correct reading is Jesus Barabbas, that the name was not an usual one at this time. For mystical derivations of the name see Wolf and others.
Which (name) was so named (or: the name given by the angel).—The naming of our Lord was not less an act of faith in obedience to the divine command, than the naming of the Baptist (Luk_1:63). In this instance, the direction was not given to Joseph alone (Mat_1:21), but also to Mary (Luk_1:31).
2. In a certain point of view, circumcision had not the same meaning for the child Jesus, as it bore for every other son of Abraham. The spotless purity of His body needed no symbol of the putting off of the sinful Adam; and even without ðåñéôïìÞ , He would doubtless, in the eye of Heaven, have been sanctified and hallowed in a peculiar sense of the word. But the King of the Jews could not, and would not, omit the token that He belonged, according to the flesh, to that elect people; and when the Son of God appeared in the likeness of sinful flesh, He chose also to receive the emblem of purification from sin, that He might be in all things like unto His brethren, sin only excepted. The principle, afterward so prominently laid down by our Lord at His baptism, also applies in this instance, Mat_3:15. It shows a deep insight into the nature and reality of His incarnation, that the mother of our Lord never thinks of withdrawing either Him or herself from the duties of the eighth or of the fortieth day.
3. He who was ἐê ãõíáéêὸò ãåíüìåíïò , came also at the appointed time ὑðὸ íüìïí by circumcision. His reception of this rite is an incident in the history of the self-humiliation of Him who, being originally in the form ( ìïñöÞ ) of God, took upon Him the form of a servant. By it He became symbolically bound to perform that will of the Father, for whose fulfilment He had come into the world. Olshausen well remarks, that “the harmony of the divine plan of salvation required His submission to even this form of human development, according to which He was received as a member of the theocracy of the Old Testament, by means of the same sacred treatment which brought all His brethren within the bonds of the covenant, in order that He might, after attaining to the perfectly developed consciousness of His higher existence, elevate to the higher degrees of His own life, that community to which He was united by so many various ties.”
4. Now that Christ is circumcised, the law is in this respect also both fulfilled and repealed. Baptism takes the place of circumcision (Col_2:10-12), as the form of admission into the new covenant; and Paul rightly opposes the judaizing zeal for the re-introduction of circumcision, as a virtual denial of Christian principle.
5. The most important fact of the eighth day, is, after all, the naming of the Saviour. What name was ever given which promised more, and which less disappointed the expectations excited, than this? Comp. Act_4:12.
Starke:—Christ was esteemed unclean, according to the law, that, by His satisfaction, He might take away our uncleanness.
Palmer:—The name of Jesus in the mouth of His believing people who are in the world: 1. All that we believe and confess in the world is summed up in this one name; 2. what we do for the world, we do in the name of Jesus; 3. what we shall take out of the world is this name alone; (or, more shortly, the name of Jesus, with respect to the faith, the works, and the hope of the Christian).
Rautenberg:—The name of Jesus, our light in the darkness of the New Year’s morning: 1. The light of grace for the darkness of our conscience; 2. the light of power for the darkness of our life.—This name on New Year’s day, 1. throws the right light on our reminiscences; 2. gives the right weight to our resolutions; 3. and provides the anchor of true confidence for our hopes.
Spritzler:—We must begin with Jesus Christ, the true “beginning.”—Through Him we have, 1. new life; 2. new hopes; 3. new righteousness; 4. new peace.
V. Gerlach:—The New Year, a year of salvation.
Stier:—The right way of beginning the New Year: 1. Not in our own name; 2. not only in the name of God alone, but in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Heubner:—The Christian resolution to lead a new life in the New Year: 1. What this resolution requires—circumcision of the heart and fulfilment of duties; 2. what gives it strength—the name of Jesus; 3. what promises its accomplishment—the protection of Providence (Luk_2:21).
Footnotes:
Luk_2:21.—The Received Text reads to ôὸ ðáéäßïí , the child, to mark the chief person; but this word is unnecessary in the connection and not sustained by the best authorities and critical editions which read áὐôüí . So also Cod. Sinait. The second êáß before ἐêëÞèç is simply redundant, and hence properly omitted in the E. V.—P. S.]