Name of Jesus
January 1, 2023
Numbers 6:22-27
INTRODUCTION
Some festivals in the church year are quite well-known – Easter, Christmas, Pentecost – and some are lesser known. Today is an example of the latter. Today’s festival is The Name of Jesus. In Jewish tradition (of which Jesus was a part), a baby boy was circumcised on the 8th day, and thus brought formally into observant Judaism. This is also when he is officially named. Of course, Jesus was named long before that, by the angel who visited Mary nine months ago. The name, “Jesus,” means “God saves,” which is, as we know, the purpose for which Jesus was sent to earth.
But there is something even more special about this 8th day of Christmas. Since the earliest Christians, Sunday, the day of resurrection, was not only the first day of creation, but also the 8th day of creation – the day of the new creation. How perfect that this day falls on January 1, the first of our secular calendar, a day when we are all naturally thinking about newness and fresh starts already. And so, as Christians coming to worship on this first day of the year, and 8th day of Christmas, we are starting off the year just right: beginning our new year in, under, and through Jesus’ name.
All of our texts today will reflect on the remarkable name of God, and the gift it is that we, as children of God, bear that name as well. As you listen, consider what name you prefer to use for God (it might vary based on the situation), and what that says about your relationship with God. Let’s listen.
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| Unnamed Isaac's hospital bassinet |
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
My son Isaac did not have a name for the first 24 hours of his life. Where Grace had been easy to name – we agreed almost immediately on both first and middle – coming up with a boy name was a cause of a lot of stress in our marriage, honestly. Michael wanted to honor his family, I wanted to honor mine. I wanted something that reflected that he was born during Advent (Dec. 7), Michael didn’t like any of my suggestions. What we could agree on was that we wanted his name to be special, to mean something, to have significance. And so, for the first day of our son’s life, we used different names with him, gauging his response to them. “Hello Isaac Richard… or are you, John Karl? Maybe Karl Luke? Isaac Nelson? Nelson Karl?” We finally landed on Isaac Karl: the Karl is from my deceased father-in-law, who died when I was pregnant with Grace, and never knew he’d have a grandson. Isaac came from the name’s meaning, “laughter,” because it was a time in our lives when we needed some laughter, and because he was born on Pearl Harbor Day, and it turns out there was a rear admiral named Isaac Kidd who died at Pearl Harbor. The name was perfect, and our delightful little guy who is ready with a laugh and loves learning about the naval ships on which his grandfather served has absolutely lived into it.
Names are so important. In some cases, of course, names are given just because the parents liked the name, but even in this case, that name becomes a part of your identity. It says something about who you are. When people experience a shift in their self-understanding, or want to communicate such a shift to the world, that often corresponds with a name change – which is also, by the way, biblical, such as with Abram-turned-Abraham, and Jacob-turned-Israel. Names mean something.
Even beyond personal identity, the ability to call someone else by their name, or to be called by your name, communicates a level of intimacy. You are known, at least on some level. Maybe with those with whom you are most intimate, you have different names – for example, my daughter Grace will only let members of her family call her Gracie, and really only those who live in our house, and only while we are in that house. Because for her, that name reflects a level of intimacy only shared by her family.
All this to say: how remarkable that we are allowed to call Jesus by his name – indeed that we call God by God’s name. I mean really, just stop and think about that for a minute: the immortal, omnipotent, ineffably sublime creator of the universe deigned it appropriate and even necessary to become so familiar to us as to become one of us, and to allow us to call him by the familiar name of Jesus. Like… whoa. To paraphrase the Psalmist, what are mere mortals, that God should be mindful of us? Human beings, that God should care for us?
Because think of what it means that we can call God by name:
First, it means that we can know God. Not everything about God, of course, but on some level, God wants to be known by us, and so gives us this person, this God incarnate, and a name by which to call him, Jesus. God wants to be on a first name basis with us. God wants to be close enough to us that we can call upon him any time, any day.
And second, the reverse is also true: that God wants to know us, and call us by name. This goes for our given name, of course, but God also gives us a special name in our baptism: child of God. In fact, this was long promised to us – notice in today’s reading from the book of Numbers, we hear this blessing, known as the Aaronic blessing, that you’ve probably heard many times before: “The Lord bless you and keep you,” etc. And at the end, is this amazing line, “So I shall put my name on [them], and will bless them.” Yes, God will put God’s amazing, majestic name that is above every name…. on us. Talk about being intimately connected!
Today is a special day in our family for another reason – it is also Isaac’s baptism anniversary. It’s the anniversary of the day when we brought him to the font, and he was first called, “Isaac Karl, child of God.” And I can assure you, he takes that name very seriously! The other day we were driving in the car, and I overheard my kids’ conversation. Grace was arguing that she is the oldest child in the family. “No,” Isaac countered, “Mom and dad are both children of their parents, and they are older.” Grace tried to clarify, “No, but I’m the oldest child in the family.” Isaac countered once again, “No, we are all children. We are all children of God.” And so we are!
But, to ask a very Lutheran question, what does this mean for us? What does it mean that God would put his own name upon us, that we would be called the children of God?
That same Aaronic blessing can shed some light on that. When we are blessed and claimed in the name of God, such as in this text, it does something to us. It encourages, empowers, and elevates us in ways we do not deserve and did nothing to earn. Just look at these beautiful words, and what they promise to us, in God’s own name:
The Lord bless you and keep you. We are held by this loving God, and kept in God’s loving care, come what may. We find safety in God.
The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. When God’s face shines upon us, we receive that light, just as we received that light on Christmas Eve. And, we are empowered to share that light (again, as we did on Christmas), to shine it wherever else we may go. And when we fall short (which we will – even those blessed in God’s name remain merely mortal), we can be assured of God’s grace for us.
The Lord lift his countenance upon you. Yes, God will look upon us, smiling. Even when we fail. Even when we don’t think we are worth looking at. Even when, frankly, we’d rather God not be looking at us because we are not really at our best right now – God still does, and God smiles, because God loves us, his children.
And give you peace. The peace that comes from knowing that we are seen, and loved. The peace that comes from being assured that we are children of God, claimed and welcomed in baptism, loved beyond measure, and forgiven for all our shortcomings. The peace that comes from knowing – personally – an utterly loving and gracious God, and being known by Him, and still being smiled upon.
That is what it means to lift up the name of Jesus: it means to trust that all these things are true. It means to live as if we believe them. It means to trust in our identity as children of God, Christians bearing Christ’s own name, and to share this life-giving blessing with all the world.
Let us pray… Jesus, name above all names, we are humbled to be on a first name basis with you. Thank you for blessing us, for knowing us, and for loving us. Empower us, by the strength of your holy name, to be a blessing to the whole world. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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