Jesus: What's in a Name?

Peter Olson

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Post Office

The late Erma Bombeck, one of America’s best-loved columnists, wrote a funny but poignant piece.

“Most of us have never seen anyone smile in the Post Office. The Post Office instead is like a clinic for lower back pain. Well, I was in line yesterday, when the door opened and in walked a lady with a big smile on her face weighted down with boxes for mailing. She held the door open for her three little girls who filed in, each carrying a package. It was quite obvious that they had never seen the inside of a Post Office.

“She bounded over to a man standing over a counter pasting stamps and asked, ‘Are you a carrier?’

“Of what?” he snapped.

“Another one in line growled, “To the back of the line, lady!”

Her eyes fairly danced with excitement as she announced to no one in particular, ‘It certainly is a nice day, and just think, girls, Christmas is only one week away.”

“Will granddad get his presents?” asked one child.

“Of course, he will,” said her mother “We’ve got it all timed just about right. On Christmas Eve he’ll be sitting around the fire, the door bell will ring and a postman will knock and say, with a big smile, “Merry Christmas from your family in Arizona.”

Every eye in the Post Office turned to stare at this cross between Mary Poppins and Tiny Tim.

“Look girls, doesn’t the Post Office look like Santa is on his way?”

We all looked around. With the exception of Santa pointing his finger at us from a poster and warning, “Mail early” the place had the spirit of a Recovery Room.

Finally she got to the head of the line. “When will dad get these packages?” she asked.

The postal clerk shrugged, “Depends. Maybe by New Year’s or we could get ‘em there in one day.”

“One day would be fine!” she exclaimed.

“It’ll cost you,” he said, scribbling down some figures. “$45.83.”

The woman hesitated, then picked out one box and said, “This one must get there by Christmas Day. It’s my father’s birthday.”

The clerk shook his head and said, “Boy, that guy’s a loser. Imagine having a birthday on Christmas. One present fits all. Thank God I don’t know of anyone born on Christmas Day.”

The man behind me whispered loudly, “Thank God, I do.”

I’ve told that long story as a reminder that we too know the One who was born on Christmas day.

The story of Matthew

We are reflecting on the specific scripture lesson from . Joseph is perplexed, deeply perplexed. The woman to whom he is engaged is pregnant and he knows the baby is not his. He is wrestling with what to do. Will he expose her, making her a public example? He can never do that, he loves her too much. He is a just man, a godly man, so he takes the only course acceptable to his conscience. He decides to divorce her quietly, privately, hoping to cause as little a ripple in the community as possible.

Even that decision, though it came out of the love and justice of his heart, didn’t set well. He continued to wrestle with it. In his wrestling, in the deep midnight watches and wakefulness of his wrenching heart, an angel appeared with the astounding news:

“Do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for He will save his people from their sins.” ( RSV)

There is the naming of the baby -- He is to be called Jesus/Emanuel. It had been declared by the prophet, Isaiah, centuries before. The angel had announced it to Mary at the time of her Annunciation: “You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name, Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High…and of his kingdom there will be no end.” (, RSV)

So, the question, what is in a name? Let s look at the two names, Jesus and Emanuel.

First, the name Jesus.

Jesus is the Greek form of the Jewish name Joshua. Joshua means “God Saves.”

Name History

It’s important for us to remember though that “the Jews chose names not only because of the meaning of the name itself, but because of the tradition associated with the name. So when someone is named Joshua, you are to look back to the first Joshua to find the meaning of his name. The name Joshua takes us back to the Exodus to the liberation of the Jews from slavery in Egypt, and the establishment, and the fulfillment of their life, in the Promised Land.

“The two most important people of that period are Moses and Joshua. Moses began the exodus and Joshua finished it. Therefore, if you want to understand who Jesus was and what he means to us you look at his name and the tradition associated with it.

“The gospel writers told the story of Jesus with parallels to the story of Moses. Hebrew legend says that Moses’ father received a visitation from an angel who revealed that Moses’ son would be one who would liberate the Jews from Egypt.

“Matthew tells us that Joseph had a similar dream of who Jesus is to be, and his name, comes to Joseph, and not to Mary. The revelation is that the name shall be Jesus, which means “God shall save us from our sins.”

“Look at the other parallels. Pharaoh threatens to slaughter the Hebrew children, and Moses is spared; Herod slaughters the innocent children and Jesus is spared. Moses crosses the Red Sea into forty years of wilderness; Jesus crosses the River Jordan after his baptism and enters the fort and forty nights of temptation. These parallels were not lost on the people in those days who first heard the Good News of Christ proclaimed. They understood by those parallels who He was and what He had come for.

“Moses received the Ten Commandments, the Law of Israel on the mountain; Jesus preached the Beatitudes, the Law of the Kingdom on a mountain. Parallels -- all the way up to the Transfiguration, which confirms that He is the Messiah, where Moses is present, to cast his vote.

“To say Jesus is like Moses is to proclaim that He is a liberator, and He has come to release you from your bondage.

“But his name is Joshua, not Moses. Moses began the exodus -- Joshua finished it. Poor old Moses died an old man, short of going into the Promised Land. It was Joshua who finally led his people into the life that was long awaited, most expected, incessantly prayed for -- the fulfillment of their life. It was Joshua who finally helped his people settle down and find peace.

So, when the angel says, “His name shall be called Jesus,” (meaning Joshua) the name reveals what he will do. The name says “God saves.” The tradition of the name means He will save you from whatever holds you in bondage, he will lead you to the fulfillment of your life, and ultimately will bring you to peace. (“What’s in a Name, Dec. 21, 1980)

Bondage

While we are indeed saved by grace—we are still prisoners of sin, doubt… captives of fear itself. Fear of our own usefulness, fear of the future, fear of death.

And yet we still sin, we are still broken. Now, that’s not easy to admit and we are very adept at evading the truth about ourselves. Very much like the husband who said to his wife after she had suggested that he lose a few pounds: “I am not overweight. It’s just that according to the chart I should be six inches taller.” The Scripture is very specific: “You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Now that is Good News only when we are willing to admit the bad news about ourselves. The bad news is that the truth is that we are sinners.

Do you feel burdened down by the guilt?

Do you feel pain in your heart because there is a broken relationship that needs reconciliation?

Do you question your worth or your usefulness?

Is your energy being drained because you live too close to the line of moral compromise —cheating in business? Preoccupied with sexual lusts?

Does your pride often put you in the position of thinking more highly of yourself than you ought to think, of looking down your nose at others?

We could go on and on, but you’ll have to do that personally.

Painful though the process of confession and repentance may be, the joy that comes as a result is “unspeakable and full of glory.” For the one whose birthday we celebrate tonight is Jesus’. He will save us from our sins.

But he will also save us from our fear. Fear is a bondage that holds all of us in different ways. As isolated as we might feel in the shadow of fear, the reality is that we all likely reside in that shadow to some degree.

There was a study of Eskimo culture, it reported that when asked about his beliefs, the Eskimo replied, “We do not believe. We only fear. We fear those things about us and those things which we do not understand.” And so the author comments:

“The winter of man has not departed because, like the Eskimo, we do not so much believe as we fear. We do not fear the Eskimos malevolent ghosts. We pierce the far rim of the universe and roam mentally through light years of time, but we also fear. We do not fear the malevolent ghosts but we fear the ghosts of ourselves.

We have come now in our time to fear the water we drink, the air we breathe, the insecticides dusted over our food. We fear the awesome nuclear power we have lifted out of nature, and cannot return. We fear the weapons we’ve made, the hatreds we have engendered…we fear for the value of the money in our pockets that stand symbolically for food and shelter.

“We fear the growing power of government to take all these things away from us. We even fear our scientists and their discoveries. We fear, and never will we cease to fear...we are in the winter; we have never left its icy breath.”

Now that’s a powerful observation—and so too the words of scripture become all the more important as we hear the peace which God sends into the world.

“Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people, for unto you is born this day a Savior.”

So do not be afraid. Know that God is with you. Know that you are called and claimed by the God who saves—by the God who is with us. Our Emmanuel.

Now look at the name Emmanuel.

Amen.

The Lord spoke through the prophet Isaiah. The angel announced to Joseph that Mary would bear a son and his name would be called Jesus “for He would save His people from their sins.” The Gospel writer followed the record of that announcement saying, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord has spoken by the prophet. “Behold, A Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel” (which means, God with Us) ()

So that too is a name for the child of Christmas: Emmanuel, God with us. The same prophet, Isaiah, had this to say about Emmanuel: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has…light shined. . . for to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (, RSV)

What promise! What hope! This is the word we desperately need to appropriate tonight, for this is no naive’ notion, no surface optimism; this is the bedrock of reality which moves from the groaning despair of “Look what this world is coming to” to that daring declaration; “Look who is coming to the world.”

Do you remember the movie, The Day After? The declaration of that movie was ‘Look what the world is coming to.” Its detractors and its champions have had their day in the media. What kind of political statement it was still continues to be debated, and I’m intrigued by that debate. But there was a religious statement that I hope we didn’t miss. The theme music in the beginning and at the end was that of one of our great hymns ‘How Firm a Foundation”. That theme music at the end of the movie is set against the haunting appeal that goes out from the destruction, devastation, and despair of Lawrence, Kansas. Do you remember the scene: everything is contaminated, all is in chaos, buildings have crumbled, flesh has been melted off human and animal skeletons, and most of the survivors are disfigured and dysfunctional. There is no good, no water and no electricity. Some students and a professor have put together a radio desperately seeking to make contact with the outside world. “Hello, this is Lawrence, Kansas, is anyone there?” They plead “Can anyone hear me? Is anyone there?” At the end of the movie there is a sweeping camera panoramic of the devastation and despair; and a shot of those seeking to make radio contact. The music floats almost imperceptibly into your attention as that longing, anguishing plea is sounded again:

Is anyone there? Can you hear me? Is anyone there? And the music calls to your mind the words that we sing to it: “How Firm a Foundation, Ye Saints of the Lord, Is Laid for Your Faith in His Excellent Word.”

Whether he intended it or not, the screenplay writer made a profound statement. Even when the world is reduced to radiation and dust, and our cries of despair may echo in emptiness around us, our foundation is firm. Is anyone there? Can you hear me? Is anyone there? EMMANUEL: GOD WITH US.

What’s in a name? More truth than we can comprehend, but an experience on which we can all lay hold tonight—JESUS, FOR HE WILL SAVE HIS PEOPLE FROM THEIR SINS; EMMANUEL: GOD WITH US!

Tonight, yes, and tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow—and for all eternity! “For the light shines in the darkness and the darkness will never put it out.”

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