“Naming the Baby”

Fourth Sunday of Advent
Matthew 1: 18-23

I have enjoyed observing our children going through their process of choosing a name for their children. In my generation family names were passed on. My first and middle names are the first and last names of a grandfather that was a Methodist preacher in the Civil War era. This present generation seems not as concerned with choosing family names as they are in choosing names that are unique or have alliteration in it.

In The Bible names are often chosen because they identify a unique characteristic of the person or announce the person’s mission in life, such as Abraham which means "Father of Nations" or Peter meaning "rock" and describing the disciple’s role in the church.

Joseph was instructed by an angel to name Mary’s child: "YOU ARE TO NAME HIM JESUS, FOR HE WILL SAVE HIS PEOPLE FROM THEIR SINS." Jesus is the Greek form of a familiar Jewish name "Joshua." It means literally "The LORD is salvation."

I suspect Joseph spent the rest of his life trying to understand exactly what the angel meant: “For he will save his people from their sins.” It is not as easy to understand as you might think. Joseph is not alone. For the last two thousand years Christians have tried to find ways to explain Jesus’ mission. Some explanations focus on Bible passages that say Jesus ransomed or rescued us from sins; others on passages that say Jesus paid the penalty for our sins; and others on passages that proclaim Jesus conquered sin and death. All of these are helpful in understanding the magnitude of Jesus’ mission but there is a part of the angel’s announcement to Joseph that I think is even more helpful.

The angel quoted the prophet Isaiah “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’” It is not coincidental that the last words of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel affirm his title, Emmanuel: “And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Christmas is just a few days away. Let us prepare for our faith to be renewed as we, like Joseph, ponder the angel’s announcement of the name of the Christ Child.