Year A
Luke 2:15-21
The Rev. Denise Vaughn
The Name that Saves
When we think about January 1, what generally comes to mind isn’t the Feast of the Holy Name, also known as the Feast of the Circumcision. Of course we know it as New Year’s Day. Yet, this day was known as the Feast of the Holy Name, long before it was known as New Year Day. In fact, January 1 has only been called ‘New Year’s Day” since 1752 only 265 years. We celebrate the Holy Name of Jesus on this eighth day of Christmas because it was on the eighth day that Jesus was circumcised and received his name. The story is told in a single verse of the gospel we just heard from Luke. The shepherds, summoned by an angel, have visited the baby in the manger. They return home, praising God for what has happened and then comes the focus of today’s celebration, along with the celebration of the baptism of Dominic. “After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child and he was named Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.” The Child would be named Jesus, “for He will save his people from their sins.”
Unlike some parents, Mary and Joseph already knew the name of their son before he was born. And many of you may have had your names decided before you were born. My daughter had her name before she was born but for me, my parents were expecting a boy as the first child so I went for four days without a name until my mother heard the name a mother in same room had given her daughter, Denise. She liked it so much she and my dad decided it would be my name. I believe it took a day or two for Dominic’s parents to decide on just the right name for him. Our names are important. The name Jesus or Yeshua in Aramaic or Joshua, as we would say it today, is also a name that carries a great deal of meaning for us, yet it was really a very common name. Lots of Jewish men bore that name in first century Palestine. Parents then as now, would honor their spiritual roots by giving their children names that came from their spiritual tradition.
Yeshua was a very noble name in the history of Israel. The first man to have this name, a trusted aid of Moses and a mighty warrior, led Israel into the Promised Land and won a home for God’s people. Mary and Joseph already knew that the baby boy that became a son of Israel by circumcision that day and was formally given his name by Joseph, would be far greater than his Old Testament namesake. Mary’s son would bear not only the name Jesus, but Immanuel-“God with us”, and he would be called “the Son of the Most High.” Eight centuries earlier the prophet Isaiah predicted this little boy would be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Little wonder that Mary “treasured up these things in her heart,” with amazement.
Yet, for all the titles Jesus had, none is more meaningful than the Holy Name of Jesus itself. In the meaning of this sacred name we see the whole of salvation history summarized in two words, “God saves.” From the day Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden, God has been the one who saves. The Lord was at work in the ark of Noah, and the ram sacrificed in Isaac’s place, in the parting of the Red Sea, and in countless acts of deliverance throughout the history of Israel. But now as Mary and Joseph give their first born son back to God by giving him the awesome name “Jesus,” history has reached its turning point. The saving acts of God have reached their climax. Through this Jesus the blind will see, the deaf will hear, the lame will walk, and the dead will live again. And at the appointed time this Jesus will take our sins to the cross and give his life, to put death to flight by the power of His resurrection.
Beyond doubt, the name of Jesus is endowed with immense divine power. The demons themselves quake at the mention of his name. But to those who turn to God in faithfulness and repent of their sins, our savior’s name is not a source of fear, but joy, for his divine name is also a human name. The Lord of all creation took on our flesh and bone, our joys and sorrows, our frailty and our mortality. He took a name like our names and in fact, a very common name making it difficult to find archaeological evidence for the life of Jesus. Archaeologists and historians have found a number of references from the Ancient Near East that include the name Yeshua, but there is nothing specific to link that name to the stories of Jesus in the New Testament.
Several years ago there was a bit of excitement in the world of biblical archeology when a collector claimed to have found an ossuary, a burial-box, that was inscribed “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.” The excitement was because even though each of these names was pretty common in the first century, there had been nothing ever before found that brought the three names together in the relationships they have in the New Testament. Many were hopeful that at last we have something that gives us historical evidence of a Yeshua who looks a lot like Jesus in the New Testament. The ossuary turned out to be a forgery and so a huge disappointment to a lot of historians.
We do have writings from Josephus, a historian during the time of Jesus, who did document there was this controversial prophet named Jesus who did wondrous things and was eventually put to death on a cross, and whose believers testify to his resurrection. Because of the resurrection, you and I can see God face to face and live, because he is one of us. The mystery of the Holy Name of Jesus, the mystery of the Incarnation itself, is precisely how the not-special, common place ordinary things of human life like a manger and a name, can become signs and symbols and sacraments of the very special, uncommon, extraordinary presence and power of God’s love. In a sense, on this feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, we are given an invitation to let our common names become holy, too, as we follow Jesus in letting God’s love direct our lives in the Name of Christ.
God has spoken his name to us as a person which has forever changed his relationship to us. We would miss the significance of God’s name if we took that name as only a way to distinguish one person from the next. The name of Jesus points us to who he is, who he is for us; the Savior, the one who delivers us; leads us, as did the Old Testament Joshua, into a land of freedom, a different way of life. The name of Jesus is, as today’s collect states, “the sign of our salvation,” given to us by God, a verbal sacrament, something spoken that conveys to us the grace of God. If we have turned to Christ in faith, receiving the healing waters of Holy Baptism and partaking of the Bread that came down from heaven then our name is written alongside millions of other servants of his eternal kingdom-the family of Jesus, those who truly know him by name.
So we celebrate today the Holy Name of Jesus for the same reason we celebrate Christmas: the promises to Mary and Joseph and Israel have been fulfilled, a virgin did conceive and bear a son, and his name means God is with us, Emmanuel. It is the name that is above every other name and in-joy and thanksgiving-at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess the Holy Name of Jesus. We honor his Holy name, when act like and follow our Savior in the walk he made on this earth. So let your name be holy, as you follow the holy Way of the one named Jesus.