When you meet a new person, whom do you say you are? – I generally say, ‘Rob’. But when they ask “please, tell me more” what do you say? – I generally, after little prompting, explain I’m a ‘retired academic’.
I do this because I am a creature of a modern secular society that valued what one did for paid work as a, (if not the) primary mark of one’s identity. In the world I lived in, my profession was a central identifier enabling others to understand who I am and what I do. It defined me for others and located me in social hierarchies as well as, loosely, with postcodes, hierarchies of wealth.
People I meet who were born before the late 1990s frequently identify themselves in similar ways. It is implicitly expected. Even those choosing to stand outside the arena of paid work sometimes feel they have to say, “well I’m just a house-husband or house-wife, mother or father, or retiree”.
For better or worse, in the aftermath of post-modernity and increasing cracks in the promises of capitalism, especially for younger people, the importance of work as a mark of identity is slipping. We are now in a world where what counts as primary identifiers are battled over with shrill voices. Unfortunately, many Christians are caught up in these culture wars.
Some may say “why do we have to make all this fuss about identity; can’t we all just be individuals?”. My answer is to say it was ever thus. Just look at the effects of national and religious identity over thousands of years. Moreover, identity is very important because it is an integral part of the story of God’s people and especially the covenants God has made with us all, at least back to Noah.
This, of course, is where circumcision plays a role.
God’s covenants are formal agreements offered to humans, creating and governing new relationships. They were offered by God to restore relationships broken, time and again, by humans. The terms of the covenants articulate what God and God’s people are to do, as well as associated commitments, obligations, and promises. Along with covenants are signs reminding God and God’s people of their agreements and communicating a covenant’s significance to the world. Rainbows, it is written, were God’s sign after the flood. Physical circumcision became one of the signs God established for Abraham and his descendants.
Turning to Joshua 5, the remarkable thing for me is that God requires covenantal signs at this point in the biblical narrative. After all, the Israelites have just crossed the Jordan into Canaan, which they are now poised to take from inhabitants whose hearts have melted away in fear. Why not tell the Israelites to strike here and now; continue straight away with a massive shock and awe strategy? Let the Israelites rest for a night; suggest they celebrate with a small cup of warm milk and honey. But making all the warriors (and all other males) cut themselves and then hang around next to a hill of foreskins (this is what Gibeath-haaraloth means) while they heal, seems a strategic blunder.
I read some research suggesting it takes most adult circumcisions between 4 to 6 weeks to heal. Surely, this would have given the Canaanites long enough to recover their courage and chase the convalescing Israelites back across the Jordan.
However, we can suggest that this pause was important because of the significance God places on covenants. The Israelites had been grumbling in the desert for 40 years, and many had not fulfilled all the signs of their covenant, particularly circumcision. Moreover, they had just crossed into the promised land, with a new patriarch, and God is about to actively participate in the killing of many people. I think we can hypothesise that this is something our God, whose essence is love, will hesitate to do without the Israelites first recommitting to God’s covenant.
Overwhelming victory over enemies can fill people with hubris, making them forget their true mission. God wisely makes the Israelites remember who they are, what their ultimate mission is, and what the covenant requires them to do. He is reminding them of their identity as a people of God. Only once they have made this re-commitment will God allow them to celebrate Passover, leave the manna behind, taste the unleavened bread and roasted grain, and perhaps even sample milk and honey. God is saying, “before expelling the Canaanites and others, you must remember who you are; my chosen people”.
At this point you might be wondering, that’s all well and good but why did God choose circumcision as an identity marker for Israel? Why not just a small nick on the left ear? Alternatively, you may have read in Genesis that God placed a mark on Cain, before sending him to the land of nod. Why not place a similar mark on all male Israelites?
According to Wikipedia, circumcision has ancient roots among several ethnic groups in sub-equatorial Africa, Egypt, and Arabia. Ritual male circumcision is known to have been practiced by South Sea Islanders, Aboriginal peoples here in Australia, Sumatrans, Incas, Aztecs, Mayans, and Ancient Egyptians. One of the Jewish websites I investigated spoke about circumcision as demonstrating control over sexual passions and valorising spiritual fulfilment above physical pleasure. Another site intimated that for women it is childbirth that encapsulates the tensions involved in the promise, while a man requires circumcision as his permanent reminder. Of course, up until more recent decades, circumcision in the west was given a health and hygiene imperative (I understand the debates rage around this idea at present). Maybe, this was also a factor at the time of the early Israelites. Other Jewish sites suggest that it is all a bit of a mystery.
Nonetheless, when you look at circumcision as a physical mark of identity, it’s not that strange when compared to some of the identity markers in our society. Take the current passion for tattoos. Do you know, a tattoo like this (slide) takes many hours, is incredibly painful, and costs around $150 an hour to draw? Quoting one website.
(The) chest is one of the most important parts of the body, as it holds the heart, which is the essence of life. This is the reason why one must be thoughtful while choosing the tattoo design for the chest, as it signifies one’s true belief and dedication.
Circumcision is a little tame in comparison. However, circumcision was and still is an important sign for many Jewish people of their profound covenant with God.
This is a good time to ask about us today. Are the covenant, circumcision, and identity still relevant to Christians? They are. But their character and nature are profoundly different, because of Jesus Christ.
The important thing to note is that we are no longer under the specific terms of first testament covenants. In the century before the birth of Jesus, the vision of the old covenants had been eclipsed by an obsession with regulations because of the belief that scrupulous adherence to the law was reckoned as merit by God.
Replacing the bondage of works, with the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, we have a new covenant. As stated in Hebrews 8:6:
“But Jesus has now obtained a more excellent ministry, and to that degree he is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on the basis of better promises”.
The new covenant covers the relationship we have with God, made possible by Christ – a relationship based on grace and faith, not works of the law.
At its core, the new covenant is the gospel of Jesus Christ. We can live forever in relationship with God—not because of what we have done—but because of what Christ did for us. God gives us forgiveness and through faith, we are accepted and loved. We are urged to put our confidence in what was done for our salvation.
So, what are the signs of this new covenant? It is certainly not physical circumcision. Rather Paul, echoing Moses and Jeremiah, writes of heart circumcision. Quoting Romans 2:28-29:
For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something external and physical. Rather, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not the written code. Such a person receives praise not from humans but from God.
Thus, the signs of the new covenant are internal. As Jeremiah portends (Jeremiah 31:33)
…this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Moreover, as the quote implies, heart circumcision is not a mere sign of the new covenant. Rather, we can say we have been transformed through a Spirit-driven circumcision of the heart; a heart transplant empowered by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Before leaving circumcision, and as a bit of an aside, the Patristic scholar Origen treated the first testament very figuratively. When it came to Joshua, Origen saw the book as an allegory of Christ’s saving work in the life of the believer and of the believer’s work with Christ to defeat the powers of sin holding sway in the human heart. Looking at Joshua Chapter 5, Origen suggests circumcision is about the believer’s salvation through the Gospel. The period of healing afterwards, he argues, is a figurative expression of the Spirit’s work in healing our souls as we grow our identity in Christ. So, the narrative can be interpreted as about each one of us here today.
Turning to identity. Whilst it may be fair to say that the identity of the people of God was never strictly based on ethnicity, the Israelites did (do) distinguish between Jew and Gentile. This is why they were so surprised when the Holy Spirit fell on the centurion Cornelious and those gathered with him. As it is narrated in Acts 10:45-48:
The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the gentiles ….. Peter said, “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
Christianity, on the other hand, except when appropriated by nationalist or ethnic groups, has always been multicultural and multinational. Christian identity is not based on place, genetics, customs, or history, but on the second person of the Trinity. Our identity is to be found in Christ and not external or physical markers or signs. Our identity is an internal recognition that our true meaning and significance come from nothing and no one, but Christ.
Moreover, part of our identity is knowing that not only are we, as are all humans, made in the image of God but we are also loved so much that God gave His son as an atonement for our sins.
What does this mean today amid the culture wars (and the numerous military wars that are currently a blight on the globe)? Here I suggest we turn to what the signs of the new covenant are. Given the Spirit is the source of the believer’s new life in Christ, she is also the driving power behind what it is to lead a good life. It is this which is to be the distinguishing marks of our identity within the new covenant.
And how does Christ suggest we lead a good life? By following his commandments to love God and neighbour, and to love one another as Christ has loved us.
Christ’s commandments are so different to the micro-management established by the Pharisees. Detailed rules and laws can be danced around and manipulated, but Christ’s principles are far too encompassing to be easily played, neither are the virtues Jesus demonstrated, which are habits of the heart, not rules or instructions.
Thus, in the face of the culture wars, we are to love all those folk who are struggling for an identity, including those who see us as the enemy. We are to love our neighbours as ourselves, regardless, or perhaps because of, how desperately or aggressively they seek to identify themselves physically, mentally, and emotionally, apart from Christ.
In sum, when a hurting neighbour asks, whether through pride or self-doubt, “who am I; what is my significance, if any?”, first remember that your identity is not to be found in occupations, money, possessions, cosmetic surgery, or any type of circumcision of the flesh. Rather, your identity and significance are in Christ and through the circumcision of your heart. Then, second, come alongside and sit with your suffering neighbour. Give them your empathy and quiet comfort. And, given time, if the Spirit urges you, gently tell them about the hope that marks your identity in Christ, and the promise of a new heaven and new earth.
Let us pray.
Lord, thank you for your grace and the salvation we can obtain through faith and identity in Christ. Thank you that we are not yoked to works of the law.
Lord, help us to not resist the Holy Spirit’s circumcision of our hearts. And help us to reveal our identity by loving our neighbours as Christ loves us including those who see their significance in contradiction to ours.
And thank you for your word and the freedom we have in Christ to embrace it.
Amen