You have to feel sorry for the poor guy. He went into Leicester Royal Infirmary for a botox injection and came out full on circumcised! Not the best way for a hospital to make their mark.
Of course I understand that, with the best will in the world, we are all fallible people. Even with the best systems in place, mistakes will always creep in.
But let us cast our minds approximately 2,000 years on the other side of Jesus. There we meet the man Abraham who both knowingly and willingly surrendered himself to this brief yet painfilled procedure.
It wasn’t a case of ‘nip and tuck’ and it wasn’t even some kind of health precaution. Rather, back in the first book of the Bible, we’re told that it was to be a permanent sign of the relationship that God was undertaking with Abraham through faith.
But what of today, should there be a long queue at the outpatients for those men of Christian standing? I’m already starting to wince.
Well fortunately we are not left in doubt as to whether these kinds of male-only external marks are still on the menu. Far back in Moses’ day the deeper heart meaning was already emerging:
“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.”
And by the days of the apostles it was crystal clear:
“For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.”
So the only mark that really counts is when God takes us onto His ‘once for all’ operating table and inserts a new heart, one that is energized by faith, one that beats for Him and one that will never leave you with regrets.
Pastor Hedley
