Matthew 1:18-25
18 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to
Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the
Holy Spirit. 19 Her husband
Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace,
planned to dismiss her quietly. 20
But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him
in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary
as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you are to
name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." 22 All this took place to fulfill what
had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 "Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they
shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us." 24 When Joseph awoke from sleep, he
did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, 25 but had no marital relations with
her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by
any other name would smell as sweet." In his most famous play, Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare
puts those words on the lips of the young Juliet as she expresses her love to
Romeo. If you know the tragedy of that young couple, then you know that it is
in fact their names that initially keep them from being together. Juliet’s
family, the Capulet’s, and Romeo’s family, the Montague’s, were the
Shakespearean equivalent of the Hatfield’s and McCoy’s; that is to say they
didn’t exactly get along well with one another. Juliet, however, doesn’t care,
and her love for the boy from the Montague family provokes the question that
summarizes the entire conflict in the play: “What’s in a name?”
Well, what is in a name? I suppose you could make the
case that names really aren’t all that important these days. After all, I don’t
get nervous about typing my name into
a form online or giving my name to
someone over the phone; it’s when I have to start adding more specific information
like my date of birth, address, and of course, my credit card number. But then
again, I have a pretty common name. I’ve tried “Googling” myself before (that’s
when you type your name into the internet search engine Google and see what
comes up), and I’ve never seen the first page with any information specifically
about me: it’s usually stuff about a random NFL receiver, a college basketball
player, or the blues musician Chris Thomas King. Names (at least my name) just
don’t seem to carry that much meaning these days. Take for example Douglas
Allen Smith, Jr., at least that is what he used to go by. The former Mr. Smith
lives in Eugene, Oregon, and after watching the television show Chuck several years ago, decided to change his name to something he
felt may suit him better. No longer would he be called Douglas Allen Smith, Jr.,
Doug, or Mr. Smith; no, today he is known (legally) as Captain Awesome.[1] So, yeah, I guess you
could make the case that names aren’t all that important these days.
But then again, names do have some value don’t they? I
have friends who, when they were expecting their first child, they created blog
asking for input as to possible baby names. According to Amazon there are over
2,000 books on the subject of baby names alone![2] People fret over whether
or not they will give their child a good name, so I guess you could make the case that names are
actually important these days. When we were adopting Kohl, we received his file
with his Chinese name, Long Xin Shua, and an English name, Kohl. We
liked it, it seemed to fit him. And while other parents had long stories as to
why they chose their kids’ names, I would respond with something along the
lines of, “we liked the one they gave him.” We chose Carter’s name, though I
was slightly in favor of keeping his nickname, “Han Han,” and calling him
“Han-han Solo,” but Sallie (being all the wiser) vetoed it. After all, it’s his
name.
Regardless of whether you think names are important or
not today, there is no doubt that names in the ancient world were incredibly
important. Your name gave you an identity; it told strangers who you were, what
you did, and where you were from. Knowing someone’s name meant you knew that
person. Furthermore, in the ancient world of the Hebrew Bible to know a god’s
name meant one could control and even manipulate that god. That’s why in Exodus 3 Moses says to God, "If
I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent
me to you,' and they ask me, ‘What is his name?' what shall I say to
them?" The people thought
if they had God’s name they could use it to their advantage, so God
said to Moses, "I am who I am." He knew why they wanted to
know his name, so he just simply said “I am…and that should be enough.” Yes,
names in the ancient world were extremely important—which, of course, shines a different
light on the familiar passage before us this morning.
Verses 20 and 21
say, “But just when [Joseph] had resolved to [divorce Mary quietly], an angel
of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not
be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the
Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he
will save his people from their sins.’" Now up until this point
things weren’t all that great for Joseph: his betrothed was pregnant with what
was obviously someone else’s child; he faced disgrace and the difficult
decision of divorce from a woman he never really got a chance to call wife; and
while you and I may think an angelic dream is something to be welcomed, Joseph
would have initially thought it something to be feared, and it sort of was! The
angel that appears in Joseph’s dream doesn’t give him some sort of divine
divorce counseling or advice regarding what attorney to hire for the ordeal.
No, instead the angel heaps more on Joseph, and it has everything to do with a
name.
You see, in the family customs of ancient Judaism, the
father named the child, and when the father named the child, it was understood
that he was claiming the child as his along with all the responsibility of
raising the child. So, in verse 25 when
Matthew tells us “and [Joseph] named him Jesus,” Joseph put aside all those
former notions of divorce, took Mary as his wife and Jesus as his son. Truly he
was a righteous man.
But back to that whole name business: why Jesus? The
angel tells Joseph in verse 21, “you are to name him Jesus, for he will save
his people from their sins.” Now the name Jesus comes from the Hebrew
name Yawheshua, Yeshua, or Joshua,
which literally means “YHWH saves.” So that seems pretty straight forward:
“You’re going to name him ‘YHWH saves’ because God is going to save his people
through him.” Never mind the overwhelming responsibility that must have thrown
upon Joseph, what about that the passage from Isaiah that Matthew quotes in verse 23? “‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name
him Emmanuel,’ which means, ‘God is with us.’" Can you remember
any passage in the gospels where one of the disciples says something to the
effect of, “Hey Emmanuel, what’re we going to do for lunch?” Matthew is
referring to a prophecy from Isaiah about a child being born that would signal
the end of tyranny and the beginning of a new era in the history of Israel, one
marked by prosperity and joy. Maybe you can see why Matthew found the prophecy
fitting and referred to Jesus as Emmanuel.
Of course Jesus is known by many names: Jesus, Christ,
Messiah, the Word, the Son of God, the Son of David, he called himself the Son
of Man, the Good Shepherd, John the Baptist called him the Lamb of God, the
Alpha and Omega, the Vine, King of Kings and Lord of Lords; and during this
season of Advent and Christmas, one of the names of Christ truly stands out:
the Prince of Peace. That title comes from another passage in the prophet
Isaiah, chapter nine verse six: “For a
child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his
shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace.”
What’s in that name?
If Jesus is the Prince of Peace, why do we still seem to be running on little
more than the fumes of peace? I mean, when Mary cradled the Christ Child in her
arms and Joseph called him Jesus, did they think that some two millennia later
that some of the ground they walked on would be torn by bullets and bombs? When
Matthew undoubtedly read the prophecies of Isaiah could he have ever imagined
the future followers of Christ lining up to go fight in war after war? Did
those shepherds, magi, and those first followers of Jesus ever consider that
those of us who follow him today would still deal with the chaotic cacophony of
doubt, depression, fear, anxiety and addiction? After all, is this what it
means for God to save us, that we should be tossed about by the violence of sin
and evil in this world, waiting either for death or some apocalyptic second
coming to take us to a place where there is peace—peace not only from war, but
pain, heartache, tragedy, and death? Is this really who the Prince of Peace,
Jesus, “YHWH Saves,” is?
It may seem that way to you at times. It may seem that
Christ only shows up in the cradle at Christmas, on the cross on Good Friday,
or rising from the empty tomb on Easter. It may seem to you that the salvation
that Jesus offers is a part of some eternal lay-away program, where you pay a
little now, but get the reward in the end. It may seem that the Prince of Peace
is simply holding back that peace, waiting for the hereafter to distribute it
among the clouded mansions of heaven. It may seem that way to you, but then we
hear again this other name of Jesus, the name Matthew gives him from Isaiah’s
prophecy in verse 23: “‘they
shall name him Emmanuel,’ which means, ‘God is with us.’"
What’s in a name? Emmanuel, “God is with us.” God is
with us when the holidays seem too depressing to bear. Emmanuel, God is with us
when the way is dark and cold. Emmanuel, God is with us when it feels like
there will never be peace. When the pain of death, the sting of doubt, the
weight of addiction, depression, anxiety, and fear, when the loneliness of
life, is all too much and you feel like you’ll never find peace…Emmanuel. God
is with us. That’s what all of this is about, Advent, Christmas, the very
message and the person of Christ himself—God is with us! We are not alone in
this world; we are never alone in this world. We are not alone in our darkness;
we are not alone in our joy; we are not alone when we’ve lost everything; we
are not alone when we feel like we have it all; we are never alone. That’s the
truth of Emmanuel; that’s the truth of Christmas. God is with us. Always. Amen.
[1]
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2010/1207/Oregon-man-changes-his-name-from-Douglas-Smith-to-Captain-Awesome
[2]
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_10?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=baby+names&sprefix=baby+names
No comments:
Post a Comment