Why "Jesus"?

Luke 2: 21

January 1, 2006

Why "Jesus"?

Today is not only the first day of the year; it is also the day on the church calendar that we focus on the naming of Jesus. It was the eighth day after his birth. According to Luke: “At the end of eight days, when the child was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.”

Have you ever asked why you were given the name you were given? I was named Dan after one of my Dad's army buddies. Carolyn was born close enough to Christmas that Christmas carols were being sung, and her folks liked Carolyn better than just Carol. I named Heather after the character Heidi, only using the English equivalent. Carolyn named Megan. And I liked Joshua - the older brother in the television series "Here Come the Brides". People ask me why our kids named our grandson Storm? I don’t know, but the fact that people ask suggests that we seek reasons for people’s names.

Some names are chosen in no time with hardly a thought. A man by the name of Cleveland Washington insists he was named after a football game. He was born on a Sunday during a televised football game between the Cleveland Browns and the Washington Redskins. The game was on when mother, father, and baby returned to the hospital room - thus Cleveland Washington. (It could have worse. Can you imagine going -through life named Brown Redskin?)

Other names come slowly with painstaking care. Do you remember the days of waiting following the birth of the first son to Prince Charles and Princess Di? Finally it came - William Arthur Philip Louis of the House of Windsor. Each of the four names called forth memories of a family member from the past - William after his grandfather, Louis after Lord Mountbaten, and so forth.

It is my guess that the naming of Jesus was more like that - slowly and painstakingly chosen. First we note that the choosing of a name was not left to the human parents. It was an angel who appeared to Joseph in a dream who instructed Joseph with these words: "...and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

So Mary and Joseph were relieved of, or deprived of, depending on your perspective, the decision of what to name Mary's baby boy. They didn't have to agonize over a name; the angel gave it to them.

But it reads to me like heaven may have had a bit of a struggle. Jesus, it seems, was not God's first choice for a name. Way back in the 8th century before Christ, Isaiah, speaking for God, promises a sign of salvation, a promise or prophecy that we today believe prepare us for Jesus. But listen to the words of Isaiah 7:14; "There the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." If the virgin, or young woman here is Mary, we have a problem. Yes, she did bare a son, but his name was not Immanuel, but Jesus.

Another prophecy we believe fulfilled in Jesus is Isaiah 9:6, but again, different names are being proposed: "For to us a child is born, to us a child is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." But you see, his name became none of these. He was given the name Jesus.

Why Jesus? Why not Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, or Prince of Peace? Or why not Immanuel, which means "God with us"? In fact, there is a rather curious verse in Matthew that doesn't seem to make sense at all. Read Matthew 1:21-23 together and you begin to wonder if there's been a typo: "...you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Immanuel (which means. God with us) .

I think the debate in heaven when it came time to announce to Joseph what was to happen to Mary, that is that she would conceive a child by the Holy Spirit and that he would name the child something - the debate might have gone something like this:

"Well, 800 years ago we proposed some names. How about Wonderful Counselor?" "No, not strong enough. He's going to do more than give advice." "Well, how about 'Mighty God'?" "Uh-uh! Too pretentious. The kids will pick on him in school." "Everlasting Father?" "No. That might be a hard one to tack on a baby, too." "Prince of Peace has a nice ring to it?" "I don't think so. Too royal. Princes have been walking all over my people for centuries." "How about Immanuel? After all, it means 'God with us' and that is indeed what he will be?" You know, I like that. But there's something incomplete about it. I've appeared to them at times when they didn't want me, because I came to judge, to condemn, to reprove, to punish. Immanuel, God with us, might scare them."

I can just imagine the heavenly hosts quite frustrated by now, and one of them muttering, "Oh, Jesus!” and God saying, "Hey, I like that. Jesus. It's a name they will be familiar with. My servant who succeeded Moses and led the people into the promised land was named Jesus, or in Hebrew Joshua. And it has a beautiful meaning - God saves. Naming him Immanuel would have told them only that I was with them. The name Jesus tells them why I am with them - to save them." And so the angel came to Joseph in a dream and told him, "You will call his name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

We know him first as Jesus - God saves. He would acquire well over a hundred titles following. We would certainly come to know him also as Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. It would not be long before we saw in him the fulfillment of the name Immanuel, God with us. We would come to know him as King and Lord, Shepherd and Lamb, the Alpha and the Omega, the Bread of Life and the Light of the World, high priest and servant, bridegroom and day star, and hundred more. His life would bear out the meaning and purpose of each of these names. But we would meet him first as Jesus.

Later, the name of Jesus would take on power. Peter healed a cripple in Jesus' name. Paul casts out a demon in Philippi "in Jesus' name". Evil spirits are subject to the disciples "through Jesus' name". Salvation comes by the name of Jesus.

But when we meet him first, in the Bible at the manger where Jesus lay, or in the first Christian song we learned "Jesus loves me", the name Jesus makes God approachable. In that name God not only announces his presence but also his purpose, "you shall name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." Amen.

May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.