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December 31, 2006
The Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus
Isaiah 7: 11-17 / Luke 2: 22-38
December 31st, 2006
In the calendar of the Catholic Church from which all us Protestants come the Festival day of the Holy Name of Jesus falls on the second Sunday after Epiphany. That’s January 14th. I discovered after poking around a little that Christians have celebrated Jesus’ naming-day at different times.
In 1530 Pope Sixtus IV designated February 25th the Feast of the Holy Name at least for Franciscan monks. I don’t think Jesus will mind us remembering today, December 31st. Actually, as we learned up at the monastery, tomorrow is the right day. But I don’t think I’ll get too many of us into this place two Mondays in a row.
Why all this interest in the day Mary’s holy child got His name? When your parents and mine knew we were coming to join the family they discussed boy’s and girl’s names and somehow came to the conclusion that you would be named Jim or John, Mary or Grace. Maybe they liked the sound of the name or its meaning. Often we honor grandpa or dad or grandma or mother by assigning their names to our children. But we never celebrate the day on which we named our children separate from their birthday. Why this interest in Jesus’ name among Christians? What’s in a name?
Luke tells us that “at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus.” Why? Because an angel had told Mary beforehand, “You shall call His name Jesus.” His name was very important.
What I have in mind this morning has little to do with when Jesus was named in terms of our calendar. Rather it is the significance to us of the name of the little person born to Mary. I want to notice first how careful Mary and Joseph were to follow God’s directions after he was born and in giving Jesus His name. Second, I hope to make clear what Jesus’ name means. Third, and most important for us is to remember how central Jesus’ name is to our identity, to how we live and to what comes to us after we die.
First, what duties did Jewish parents have to their first born? We’re not told where Jesus was circumcised and named, just that these took place on the eighth day after he was born.
In Genesis we read that eight days after Isaac was born to Abraham and Sarah he was circumcised as God commanded. Circumcision was the sign of the Covenant God made with Abraham. It was to be applied to every male child eight days after he was born. Thus, as Paul wrote later on, Jesus was born under the law as a true Israelite.
It was then the parents’ duty to present their little boy to the Lord. In Exodus, just after the Passover, we read that the first-born son is to be presented and consecrated to the Lord. In the Book of Numbers we read that for five shekels this son was redeemed from the duty of serving God in the Temple. We don’t read that Mary and Joseph paid these five shekels. It was an abandoned custom by then.
But they followed the third duty that pertained to mothers. Forty days after Jesus’ birth Mary and Joseph brought two turtledoves or pigeons to the Temple. This was the offering brought by the poor. One of these was a burnt offering; the other a sin offering. The burnt offering was a way of saying thank you to God. The sin offering was not because giving birth was a sin but because the mother was considered ritually unclean after giving birth.
So, we see that Mary and Joseph were faithful in following the important rules of life God gave about the gift of new life.
Then, we remember the angel that announced to Mary the birth of this child said, “you shall call his name Jesus. Why Jesus? Jesus is the same as the Hebrew name Joshua, the name of the sixth book in the Bible. We don’t know why Joshua’s father named him that. Often the names Bible parents called their children are suggestive. Maybe you remember that the prophet Hosea called one son, “Lo-ami, “ which meant, “not my people,” and a daughter, “Lo-ruhama,” which meant, “not pitied.” Isaiah called his sons even stranger names: Shearyashub and Mahershalalhashbaz that were messages of warning to God’s people. At Christmas we remember Isaiah’s speaking of a Son to be born to a virgin whose name would be Immanuel—God with us.
The name Joshua meant, “the Lord is salvation.” It’s first two letters were an abbreviation of the name of God. It was a good name for the man who would lead Israel into the Promised Land. It was a continual reminder that it was the Lord who fought for Israel, who saved them from their enemies. Every time they said “Joshua,” they were reminding themselves, “The Lord is [our] salvation.
Because Joshua was the name of their leader into the Promised Land, his name became popular among the Jews. They named many of their baby boys Joshua—or Jesus. Hidden among all these Jewish babies named Joshua was One baby boy whose name stood for His purpose in life even more than this was true of the first Joshua.
The angel told Mary, “you will call His name, Joshua, Jesus . . . [He] will be called holy, the Son of God.” And Simeon the old man we read about in the Gospel lesson this morning rejoiced, “The Lord God of Israel has visited and redeemed his people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.” Little Jesus was a visitation of “the Lord God of Israel” to bring salvation in a way far more important than the way the first Joshua brought deliverance to Israel from its enemies.
When Jesus was born Simeon recognized that in this little boy-child of Mary, that the first Joshua was a sign pointing to another Joshua who was their salvation.
Every David you and I know calls to mind Israel’s great king. Every Mary and Elizabeth and Paul and Sarah calls to mind biblical people.
But with Jesus it was the opposite. The first Joshua pointed to the great Joshua to come, that is to Jesus, Son of Mary. He was the salvation of the Lord.
But what was this salvation to which Simeon referred? We say Jesus is our Savior. What’s that? We read in Scripture that “He came to seek and to save the lost.” Jesus said to Zaccheus, the little tax collector who climbed up in a Sycamore tree to see Jesus walk by, “Today salvation has come to this house . . . for the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Zaccheus was a little rich man who needed to be saved from his self-destructive life. He was “making it big” in a way that crushed his soul. He was one in a list of needy people Jesus encountered that epitomized the range of what “lost” means.
Christians have often thought of Jesus’ salvation of the lost as referring to deliverance from eternal damnation. “It is appointed unto us once to die and after this the judgment,” we read in Holy Scripture. As Jonathan Edwards reminded a dread-stricken Connecticut congregation many years ago, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God. We seldom hear of this today. We’re a bit more into “abundant living” than into fearing God’s judgment against sin.
Indeed, Jesus spoke fearfully about the consequences of sin. But it was not to induce a fearful life. He didn’t try to scare people out of hell. He said, “Follow me.” He told stories emphasizing His goal of seeking and finding those who did not follow Him, that is, those who were lost.
I look at faces in airports and on the street and think of how everyone is trying to make sense of life. I watch the ads on TV that encourage people to find happiness. Everyone is searching, some searching badly. If I look like this, or own what is advertised, or go on a fun vacation, etc.—I’d be happy. But these good things never bring happiness. When Jesus spoke of the lost, He told it like it is.
Indeed, as C.S. Lewis proposed so wisely about hell, “There is something inside you which, unless it is altered, will put it out of God’s power to prevent your being eternally miserable. While that something remains there can be no Heaven for you, just as there can be no sweet smells for a man with a cold in the nose, and no music for a man who is deaf. It’s not a question of God ‘sending’ us to Hell. In each of us there is something growing up which will of itself be Hell unless it is nipped in the bud.”
The name Jesus, “the Lord is salvation,” for sure pertains to what comes to us after we die. But Jesus told us far more about how to live. He came to nip in the bud the way of life that makes us lose our lives as we try desperately to find them.
As the Apostle Paul reminded us again on Christmas Day, it is vital that we have the same outlook Jesus had. “Let this mind be in you.” Christianity is the way of Jesus.
It is strange how things have evolved. Early in the game thoughtful Christians argued about how successful it is possible to be in following Jesus. Some said, “You can and must.” Others said, “You can’t; He was too good. In fact it’s a heresy to think you can.” Still others seemed to infer, “Only super-Christians have to try to follow Him. For the rest of us taking the Sacraments and going to church make God happy enough.” And so it has been.
But I want to remind us this morning that the Son of God, born at Christmas took a NAME so that in knowing it we could know Him and His way. What is His way? Well, it’s all wrapped up in His name. Jesus, “the Lord is salvation” emptied Himself. He took the form of a servant. He humbled Himself. Here is Jesus’ way; here is salvation.
This is what we associate with the name of Jesus. “My will is to do the will of Him who sent me.” Jesus, “the Lord is salvation.” Jesus, friend of sinners. Jesus, Son of God. He came to seek and to save the lost. Are you lost? I hear echoing in my mind the beautiful soprano aria in Handel’s Messiah. Jesus says, “Come unto me all who are weary and heavy laden. My yoke is easy. My burden is light.” My name is Jesus. Trust in me. Trust me!
O Lord, heavenly Father, thank you for sending to us your holy child, and giving Him the name Jesus, “the Lord is salvation.” Amen.
Pastor Stuart D. Robertson
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at December 31, 2006 09:30 AM