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The Rev. Frank
Logue
What’s Special About “Jesus” Today is a feast day in the church year, which is a way of saying a church holiday, in the old sense of that word as a Holy Day. This is not because it is the start of a new year. For more than 1,000 years from the 500s through the 1600s, March 25 was the first day of the year anyway. This is because March 25, came 9 months before Jesus’ birth and so was the day the church recognized the beginning of Mary’s pregnancy announced by the Angel Gabriel. Some similar math is involved with the Holy Day today as January 1 is eight days after Christmas. On the eighth day, Jewish baby boys were and are circumcised as a sign that they are part of the covenant God made with Moses. This was a very important moment in a young child’s life, both because the child would receive the mark of the covenant in his flesh, but also because he would receive his name. In Hebrew thought, a name contained the essence of the person named. To name a child Mary, for example, is not just to call her Mary, but to make her Mary, instead of making her Bertha, Gertrude, or Hildegaard to name a few other choice, but dated possibilities. And this naming of who a child is to be happened for boys at the time of circumcision. So for much of Church History today was known as The Circumcision. That sounds a little harsh to our ears these days and so the day is now known as The Holy Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. This was always a curiosity to me. I grew up singing songs in church like Jesus Name Above All Names and others that emphasized how special is the name Jesus. Yet, by the time I went to seminary, one of the questions I wanted answered for myself was, “What’s so special about the name Jesus.” After all, there were those scriptural passages like our reading from Philippians this morning which said,
Therefore God
also highly exalted him Jesus was the name above every name and at the mention of that name every knew should bend not just on earth, but in heaven and under the earth. I wanted to know why. On the one hand, my quest for an answer was disappointing. I discovered that Jesus name was a quite common one in his day. In Aramaic—the language which he and his disciples spoke—his name was Yeshua. And in the Hebrew it was Yehoshua. Yehoshua or Yeshua are where we get our English name Joshua. And Joshua had been a popular Jewish name since before Joshua Son of Nun took over from Moses as the leader of Israel. The name Yeshua meant “Yah Saves.” “Yah,” was short for that unspeakable name of God given to Moses by God at the burning bush. Jews so honored the name of God that they would not pronounce it. We think the name given Moses was something like Yahweh, which means, “I am that I am” or could mean “I will be what I will be.” And it was that Yahweh. That God of the burning bush. That God of Abraham, Jacob and Isaac. That God is the one true God and that God saves us. That was the idea behind naming your child Yeshua, Yah Saves. And also, because the great Israeli leader Joshua Son of Nun had the name, that added to its appeal. And by the time Mary and Joseph name Jesus, it was as common as naming him Jesus in Puerto Rico or Mexico. My answer would not come in the name Jesus being some sort of magical talisman unknown by the Jews until the day of Jesus naming. A better clue to the reason why this name is so important comes from our Gospel reading for this morning. Luke writes, “He was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.” Luke tells us two important things in this verse:
The importance is that what is happening through the baby Jesus born in Bethlehem is from God. God promised salvation and now salvation is coming, not through human action but through God. Jesus would not just be called Yah Saves, meaning God Saves, Jesus would be God’s salvation. So despite all the other boys named Yeshua, Jesus would take on that essence in a more powerful way. This was planned by God from before conception. So the end of my quest was this, Jesus name is not special because of the unique combination of syllables which make up the name. Jesus name is special for in understanding what Jesus’ name means and taking his name to heart, we are confessing our faith. The earliest confession of faith in the Christian Church was “Jesus is Lord.” For in saying Jesus is Lord for a Jew, you are creating an equation in which Jesus equals Yahweh. But perhaps the equation can be made even shorter. For to understand the name Jesus can also be a confession. To say Jesus knowing that it means “Yah Saves,” or “God Saves,” really knowing it in your bones, is a confession of faith. Yeshua. Jesus. God’s salvation for all creation comes through this God made man. That is what makes the name Holy—it’s faith that leads to a deeper understanding of God. God tells us that in the fullness of time, Jesus glory will be revealed in such a way that no one will be able to deny that Jesus is Lord. On that day all will know that salvation comes through the mighty name of Jesus and every knee will bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. In the meantime, it is almost like a deep secret. For it takes a step of faith to truly understand. Even after I have described all of this to you this morning, without the eyes of faith to really see why Jesus name matters, you’ll be left seeing but not perceiving. If that is where you are, then pray for understanding. Pray for the name Jesus to come to have deeper meaning for you. This is best done in that great Baptist tradition of giving your life to Jesus, which we Episcopalians are kinda fond of too. For until you give the keys to your heart to Jesus, his name will be like any other name. For those of us who have given our hearts to Jesus, the trick is to do so again and again. For without meaning to, we sort of encroach in on that territory and take back control of our own lives all the time. Bend the knee of you heart before the name of Jesus once again. For it is in the name that comes healing, health and wholeness, which is a great way to start this new year. Amen.
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