Circumcision? Come on, what's the big deal?

What's the big deal about circumcision? Well, here is some context that we will need to have in the back of our minds as we consider the overall thrust of Paul's discussion which we will take up below. From the beginning of Paul's ministry of church planting he was followed by a faction of Jewish "Christians" who insisted that Gentile converts be circumcised in order to be true followers of God; we also think they required adherence to the Old Testament ceremonial law in other ways. Paul regarded such teaching as poisonous because it took the focus off of Christ and Christ crucified. Circumcision was regarded by pre-Christian Paul as an ethnic and religious boundary marker, separating the pure lineage of Israel from the dirty Gentiles. This boundary marker is removed by the gospel and so it has no place in the Christian church. Now, on to the rest of the recap.

We have been working our way through Philippians and finding it relatively easy to get into Paul's thought world about the concerns he has for the flock in Philippi. He is in prison, likely in Rome, and wants to encourage this young church he planted not to lose heart on account of his suffering. In talking about his own suffering he sets the stage for the remarks he makes about what he anticipates to be their imminent suffering under Roman persecution. They are to take heart for the same reason he does. The gospel will not fail because it is God's work; the resurrection vindicated Christ's suffering and the suffering of Christians will be vindicated in the end because suffering in this fallen world never has the last word. The resurrection has the last word. This theme leads us straight into the poem about Jesus in chapter two and the revelation of the character of God in him. Rather than regarding equality with God as something to be exploited he humbled himself and gave himself away to the point of death. Here we meet suffering again. It is not that Jesus is willing to suffer for a while to be exalted - the way this passage is so often interpreted; it is rather the case that Jesus reveals true exaltation as consisting in giving rather than taking, even when it means death on a Roman cross. As someone has said, God is not the God of power and weakness, God is the God who reveals his power in weakness. This poem is also a direct confrontation to Rome and the way Rome looked at power. At the top of the heap in the Roman world was the Emperor, who presented himself as quasi-divine. At the bottom of the heap was anyone who dies on a Roman cross. The Caesar cult in Philippi would have celebrated this view of power by inscribing the words, "Caesar: savior and lord", on public facades and shouting them in the mantra of cultic worship. This rich poem about Christ and what he reveals about God serves as a reminder to the Philippians to seek their identity not in the power of the world but in the power of the crucified Christ who is the true savior and lord. It is this theme of power found in humility that carries over into the discussion about circumcision and gives us the context for for those remarks. There are several clues that point to this:

Paul traces the pattern of Jesus' refusal to exploit his power when he recounts his setting aside of his proud ethnic heritage ("whatever gains I have I count as loss") in order to become a Christian. Also, he echos the great theme of the Christ poem from chapter two when he says that knowing Jesus is to know him through cruciformity. (For our purposes let's define cruciformity this way: to have one's life shaped by the cross of Christ; finding one's identity and one's hope in the resurrection only through participation in Christ's suffering.)

The pattern of setting aside that which might be exploited and finding power in the crucified Lord is the pattern that is traced in the whole discussion about circumcision if we understand what circumcision really stood for in this context. Circumcision was the badge of honor that stood for favor with God. It had become in Jesus' time - and even before - an emblem of ethnic pride. Rather than a cruciform messiah who preached love of enemies, did love his enemies, and spoke the good news to Gentiles, many of Jesus' Jewish contemporaries wanted an ass-kicking Jesus to vanquish Rome in a bloody revolution. This is what being God's people meant to many of God's people and because Jesus subverted this approach he was seen as an enemy of God. It was this kind of Judaism that pre-Christian Paul had practiced and that led him to persecute the church murderously. This approach to knowing God he came to see as something to be set aside: Philippians 3:7 - "Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. 8,More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ". Paul set aside that which he used to think of as true and Godly power, his proud ethnic heritage with circumcision as its emblem, and declared that what he really wants is to know Christ by sharing in his cruciform life: 3:10, I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death".

Paul knew that the world's version of power that is always the enemy of the gospel could come to the church in a Roman version or through those who taught circumcision as necessary for true knowledge of God: either is dangerous and both he opposes.

Questions for discussion:

1. Though we are not being asked to be circumcised or to follow the Jewish ceremonial law in order to truly know God, what sorts of approaches to God might tempt us to turn from the cruciform Messiah and trust in human wisdom rather than in the wisdom of the cross?

2. Read this question (2) in total before you reflect on it.
Circumcision in the context in which we have been discussing it equaled ethnic and cultural pride. Do you think that we purposely or unwittingly claim Jesus in our own cultural and/or ethnic image? It is easy to see this sin in others (e.g. Serbian Christians who are wiling to kill Croatians in the name of ethnic pride) but when does it happen with people like you and me?

3. What sort of danger signs do you recognize in yourself that signal to you that you are about to pivot towards the world's vision of power and away from Christ crucified. How can you bring these demons to the surface and deal with them?

4. Is a desire to forgive one's enemies a measure of how much you take your identity from your participation in Christ's cruciform life? Why or why not?