“Jesus has put His Name on You!” Circumcision and Name of Jesus 2025

31. December 2025
Octave of Christmas
Luke 2:21

This is the Word of the Lord that came to me, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His + Name. AMEN.

On this day—the Octave of Christmas, the Circumcision and Name of Jesus—the Church makes you look at one verse and refuses to let you sentimentalize Christmas. “When eight days were completed for the circumcision of the Child, His name was called JESUS, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb.” (Luke 2:21) That’s it. One sentence. And it is as sharp as a knife.

Because this isn’t just about a cute ritual, circumcision is blood. It is the law. It is a covenant. It is a mark cut into flesh that says: you belong. And it is the first time the Holy Child sheds blood. Not by accident. Not by fate. By obedience. By design. The Son of God steps under the Law—under our Law—so that He can carry it all the way to the Cross. “God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law.” (Galatians 4:4–5)

And then there is the Name: JESUS. The Name is not an incidental detail; it is His mission spoken out loud. “You shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21) That’s what the Name means. Savior. Deliverer. The One who does for you what you cannot do for yourself.

Now, here’s the problem: you and I spend our lives trying to do the opposite. We try to make a name for ourselves. That’s the old Babel itch: “Let us make a name for ourselves.” (Genesis 11:4) We want a reputation, a legacy, control, a clean conscience we earned, a life we can manage, a year we can secure. We want to own ourselves. We want to belong to ourselves. And if we’re honest, we often wish for God’s help without God’s claim—God as useful, not God as Lord.

But God does not play along. He does not “support your goals.” He claims you. He puts His Name on you. That’s what blessing is. Not a vague wish. Not religious well-wishing. Blessing is God placing Himself—His favor, His protection, His peace—onto His people, publicly, out loud. That’s why He gives you the Aaronic Benediction: “The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24–26) And then the clincher: “So shall they put My name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.” (Numbers 6:27) Put My Name on them. Mark them as Mine. And I will bless them.

That’s not poetry. That’s ownership and care. A name on something declares whose it is and who is responsible for it—God’s own logic in the blessing placed on Israel. And God does the same thing to you, not with a hot iron, not with a knife, but with water and the Word. In Holy Baptism, the Triune Name is spoken over you, and you are marked as Christ’s own. You are not primarily “your own person.” You are the Lord’s. And that is either terrifying or freeing—depending on whether you’re still trying to be your own god.

So what does this have to do with the turning of the year? Everything. We are tempted to treat a new year like a blank page where we finally get to write a better story about ourselves. Resolutions. Reinvention. Image management. Control. But that’s not how Christians enter a year. Christians enter time under a Name already given, under a mercy already promised, under a Savior already bleeding for them. You don’t walk into this year alone. You walk into it branded—sealed—named.

And that cuts both ways. Because when God’s Name is on you, you can’t keep living as though you belong to yourself. Repentance is not general regret. Repentance is telling the truth in God’s presence. “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD.” (Psalm 32:5) Not “I’ll do better.” Not “I’m sorry life is hard.” Confession says: Lord, I have broken faith with Your Name. I have used Your gifts to serve my idols. I have taken what is Yours—my time, my body, my money, my mouth—and acted like it was mine. I have tried to manage guilt instead of killing sin. I have been attempting to negotiate with You instead of fearing, loving, and trusting You above all things.

And here’s the point: confession is not you paying God back. Confession is you clinging to God’s Name when you have nothing else. When everything in you, and sometimes everything around you, contradicts that God is for you—when the year looks ominous, when your family is strained, when your body is failing, when your past won’t shut up—then you have this: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13) That is not a motivational slogan. That is a divine promise. God has tied Himself to His Name. He cannot be other than who He has declared Himself to be. And who has He declared Himself to be toward sinners? The God who saves.

That is why the Church will not let you skip over circumcision today. It is the first public confession that this Child has come to be your substitute. He belongs to Israel—He takes Israel’s covenant mark into His own flesh—so that He can be Israel for Israel, and righteousness for the unrighteous. His blood begins to flow now because it will not stop until the Cross finishes the job. “He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree.” (1 Peter 2:24) The Name JESUS is not cheap. It is paid for in blood.

And this is why Galatians is appointed today. Because you are not saved by sliding around the Law, and you are not saved by claiming the Law as your personal ladder. “Before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law… therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” (Galatians 3:23–24) The Law does its job when it stops your mouth and drags you to Jesus, not when it props up your ego. And then Paul says the quiet thunderclap: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Galatians 3:27) Not “as many of you as achieved spiritual consistency.” Not “as many as kept your resolutions.” Baptized into Christ. Put on Christ. That means His Name covers you. His righteousness covers you. His sonship is given to you. “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:26)

So the Christian life is not you trying to manufacture a better name. It is you receiving a better Name. And receiving what comes with it: forgiveness, adoption, access to the Father, and a future you did not earn. That’s why Scripture talks about a “new name.” God is not done with you yet. You are being carried toward what He intends—toward resurrection, toward holiness, toward glory—and He will finish what He started. The world measures you by your record. God names you by His promise.

Which is what brings us right back to the Divine Service, where this isn’t theory. You came here today to be handled by the Name. You began the service “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19) You confessed your sins under that Name. You were absolved under that Name: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them.” (John 20:23) And in a little while, the Lord will once again put His Name on you in the Benediction—because He intends to keep you. To make His face shine on you. To be gracious to you. To give you peace. (Numbers 6:24–26)

That peace is not a mood. It is shalom—wholeness with God—because Jesus has made peace by the blood of His Cross. (Colossians 1:20) And the irony is beautiful: the day that begins with a knife ends with a voice. God speaks His Name onto you. God speaks His peace into you. And that is how you walk out into the year: not swaggering, not self-inventing, not pretending you can control the next twelve months, but actually strengthened—because you are named, claimed, and kept.

You do not know what this year will bring. God does. And you don’t need to. You need His Name. You need JESUS, not as a religious ornament, but as your Savior—your only Savior. And you have Him. He has put Himself on you. He has put His Name on you. And He will not abandon His own.

Enter the year that way: repentant, honest, emptied of your idol-projects, and filled with Christ. Call on His Name when you are afraid. Call on His Name when you are tempted. Call on His Name when you fail. Call on His Name when you rejoice. Because “there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) And that Name is JESUS. Amen.

This is the Word of the Lord that came to me, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His + Name. AMEN.

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
St. John Ev. Lutheran Church & School - Sherman Center
Random Lake, Wisconsin