7 Images: The Circumcised Heart

 

Sadao Watanabe: "Hope" (1961)

Scripture recounts that God promised to send a messenger like Elijah to preach a circumcision of the heart before the Day of the Lord. This must have seemed like folk legend to the people of Roman Jude after so many centuries of prophetic silence and frustrated hopes following their reestablishment in the land. The dire conditions of Seleucid oppression foretold in Daniel 11 had run their course, but the glorious promises of Daniel 12 had not materialized. Instead an exhilarating moment of self-rule under the Maccabees, a dynasty of self-anointed priest-kings, had devolved into civil war, and the situation was only stabilized when the warring factions appealed to Rome (!) for adjudication. Rome took the opportunity to designate Judaea a Roman Protectorate over which Herod, an Idumaean,* was installed as King of the Jews.

A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of [YHWH]; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of [YHWH] shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of [YHWH] has spoken.” (Isaiah 40:3-5)

Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says [YHWH] of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a Launderer's soap. (Malachi 3:1-2)

And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good? Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. (Deuteronomy 10:12-16)

Yet after so many centuries without any word from God apart from the scriptures, and their utter failure to establish a messianic kingdom on their own initiative, word came to Roman Judea that an angel had appeared to an elderly priest to announce that this man's elderly barren wife would bear him a son who would prepare the way for the coming of the Lord in the spirt and power of Elijah—just as foretold in the passages cited above.

But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” (Luke 1:13-17)

All the neighbors were filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, “What then is this child going to be?” For the Lord’s hand was with him. (Luke 1:65-66)

And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” (John 1:19-23)

Multitudes responded when John finally appeared at the main crossing of the river Jordan preaching repentance before the Day of the Lord, spurred no doubt by the darkly threatening aspect of Malachi 3:1-2 (see above). Others evidently came to receive confirmation of the presumed righteousness on which their social status depended—not to publicly acknowledge their deficiencies.

Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.” (Matthew 3:5-8)

The reason that ritual immersion in water was the natural sign of a circumcised heart is because such immersion was required after physical circumcision per Levitical injunctions regarding bleeding. The importance of this was such that the circumcision was not considered valid apart from subsequent ritual immersion. Moreover, converts having emerged from the water were at that moment considered newly born (i.e. born again as a new person) based on a reading of Leviticus 19:3 (ref. Yebamoth iv.ix). Given that Gentiles who proclaimed Jesus as Lord were not entering into the Mosaic Covenant, the same ritual confirmation by immersion in water (without any prior physical circumcision) carried over as the ritual confirmation of a non Jewish believer's proclamation of the resurrected Jesus as Lord.

If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will take you. And the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. (Deuteronomy 30:4-6)

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:3-8)

In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. (Colossians 2:11-14)

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in [Tartarus], because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but vas an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him. (1 Peter 3:18-22)

What was not foreseen at this time was that the purpose of the Mosaic Law was about to be fulfilled and in the person of the one who would follow the messenger sent before him, and that the benefits of this accomplishment would accrue to all nations independently of the Mosaic Covenant, which in any case was particular to Israel.

And now the LORD says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him; and that Israel might be gathered to him—for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD, and my God has become my strength—he says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” (Isaiah 49:5-6)

Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares 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. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

[*The Idumaeans were descended from the Edomites, ancient enemies of Judah. Having suffered subjugation under David, and been massacred under both David and Amaziah, the Edomites exacted revenge by destroying the Temple following the exile of Judah to Babylon. The Maccabees later exacted their own peculiar revenge by forcibly converting the Idumaean descendants of those Edomites to Judaism but never accepting the Idumaeans as true co-religionists. Having Herod reign over Judea as King of the Jews, and marry a daughter of the High Priest, must have been beyond galling.]

Evangelion: The Meaning of Baptism

Romare Bearden: "Baptism" (1964)

The Jewish practice of baptizing proselytes (subsequent to circumcision in the case of men) was sufficiently established by the time of John the Baptist that Jews surely understood his call to repent and be baptized as a call to circumcise their hearts (see Babylonian Talmud, Yebamoth IV.46–47, XI.97b and Sanhedrin VII.58a for discussions of proselyte baptism):

And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good? To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. Yet the Lord set his affection on your forefathers and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations, as it is today. Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. (Deuteronomy 10.12-16)

The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live. (Deuteronomy 30.6)

Now some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod's army came from God, and that very justly, as a punishment of what he did against John, that was called the Baptist: for Herod slew him, who was a good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards one another, and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism; for that the washing [with water] would be acceptable to him, if they made use of it, not in order to the putting away [or the remission] of some sins [only], but for the purification of the body; supposing still that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness. Now when [many] others came in crowds about him, for they were very greatly moved [or pleased] by hearing his words, Herod, who feared lest the great influence John had over the people might put it into his power and inclination to raise a rebellion, (for they seemed ready to do anything he should advise,) thought it best, by putting him to death, to prevent any mischief he might cause, and not bring himself into difficulties, by sparing a man who might make him repent of it when it would be too late. Accordingly he was sent a prisoner, out of Herod's suspicious temper, to Macherus, the castle I before mentioned, and was there put to death. Now the Jews had an opinion that the destruction of this army was sent as a punishment upon Herod, and a mark of God's displeasure to him. (Antiquities 18.5.2)

Jewish tradition considered proselyte baptism equivalent to death as a non-Jew and rebirth as a Jew, but the significance of a Jew being born again had no clear meaning because the Jews had no conception that the covenant was about to assume a radically new form in the very person of Jesus himself—thus the puzzlement of Nicodemus. This has something to do with genealogy: circumcision and baptism conferred a legal status as descendants of Abraham regardless of natural parentage. But where the Law established God’s kingship over Israel as a subject nation, our participation in Christ makes us God’s children. This is why there is no personal advantage to becoming a descendant of Abraham in addition to belonging to Jesus.

Both Paul and Peter also relate baptism to burial and resurrection with Christ. Peter’s imagery is especially striking because it presents the Flood as returning the earth to a primordial state from which God caused a new world to emerge, but it equates the ark to the Spirit of God that hovered above the waters (not the earth that perished in the waters) as the true image of our baptism:

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (Colossians 2.9–15)

Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6.3–11)

For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him. (1 Peter 3.18–22)

As regards who may baptize and who may be baptized, we note that Philip baptized the Ethiopian eunuch, though he was essentially a deacon at the time, and we note several instances in Scripture where whole households were baptized:

As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?” And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. (Acts 8.36–38)

One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us. (Acts 16.14–15)

He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole family. (Acts 16.30–34)

Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul? I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, so no one can say that you were baptized into my name. (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. (1 Corinthians 1.)

How this relates to children is unclear. Jewish practice involved waiting until a child came of age and Justin Martyr linked baptism and immediate invitation to the Lord’s Supper. On the other hand, we note the Jewish practice of circumcising male children on the eighth day. The tension persists to this day in the requirement of an affirmation of faith before anyone baptized as an infant can partake of the Lord’s Supper.