Honor the Name of Jesus.
Christmas 1 – Holy Name
January 1, 2023
Fr. Tim Nunez
Today is a feast day, the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. That raises the issue of what’s in a name? But before we get into names, let’s start with the ways we use language to make sense of, well, everything. For example, you are all sitting in pews. We could say seats, we could say benches, but the most accurate word in English is pews. That’s true whether someone knows the word or not, if we were in another country with another language we’d need to learn new words and/or find people who understood ours.
Being a pew, its meaning goes deeper. It’s not just a place to sit, it’s a place specifically set aside for prayer, for hearing God’s word, for exchanging God’s peace and on and on. Some objects, some places are special. The layers of meaning can go very deep and frame our lives.
When it comes to names, when it comes to people, it’s different. If I say “pew” you know what I mean whether it’s one of these pews or a pew somewhere else or just a general pew. If I say “John” that doesn’t imply anything. I could mean John Motis or John Wayne, and while they may have some common attributes, their name is incidental to who they are. And if you focus on John Motis, then there is quite a lot to his name. He’s a father and a grandfather, a deacon, a businessman, a volunteer, a neighbor and on and on.
Note that his name is not merely defined by him. Here I confess that I am contradicting a great push in our culture. We hear all the time that each of us defines ourselves. That is not and has never been true. You are not merely who you understand yourself to be. We cannot know ourselves without feedback from others. And you are not merely who I understand you to be.
And over time, each of us builds meaning into our names and that happens in community. It’s always a mixed bag, we all have our virtues and flaws. Our names are specific to each of us.
Let’s consider the name of Jesus. Jesus is the Greek form of the name Joshua. Joshua means literally “Yahweh (God) is Salvation.” There are several people named Joshua in the Old Testament, but of course the main one is the Joshua who succeeded Moses and has a book of the Bible named after him.
Joshua is a heroic figure and unique among the heroes of the Old Testament. The rest of them all have flaws. Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Solomon and so forth all have their struggles. Their humanity in that regard helps us connect with them. But we don’t hear of any flaws that Joshua had or any missteps he took along the way.
In Joshua’s time, his name points to the fulfillment of God’s Covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as he led Israel’s conquest and settling of the Promised Land. You may remember his famous quote, “Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15)
That quote, which comes at the end of his book, summarizes their memory of his achievements and thus what his name means to Jews and Christians; godly, resolute, unflinching faith. Yahweh is Salvation.
The name of Jesus was bestowed upon him ahead of time by God the Father himself, as commanded to Mary by the angel Gabriel who said, “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1:32-33)
His name was commanded separately to Joseph by an unidentified angel who said “…he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21)
Yahweh is Salvation.
And while Jesus and Joshua remain very popular names, when we speak of this Jesus we look specifically at the only Son of God who came into this world to save us from our sins. Jesus’ name holds its meaning, his identity because he fulfilled, and continues to fulfill, what the angels foretold about him. He was and is our salvation.
Here’s the challenging part. When we are baptized, we are initiated into Christ’s Body, the Church. We call ourselves Christians, Christ-ians. That means that we are committed as individuals and as a community formed under his name. What we say and do reflects on his name as well as our own.
I don’t know if it has happened to you, but it really hurts when someone else points out to you that your opinion, attitude and/or your behavior does not honor Christ, or that you’ve been a hypocrite. I would love to pray the confession and not have a list of my sins scrolling through my mind as I pray those words.
But that’s exactly why I need my Savior. That’s why I need Jesus.
So there’s a good resolution for this New Year, and every year. That in our lives, the actions we take and choose not to take, the words we speak and those we restrain, everything about us would honor the One whose name we hold above all names, the one whose Body we understand ourselves to be. It’s not so much a claim as a goal to which we strive, the very best goal.
And, like any goal, it takes commitment. It takes time. The big goal must be broken down into steps that you can actually take to learn more about what Jesus wants from you and how you should pray on that, then what is the next right thing to do today, tomorrow, next week and so on. That’s going to work out differently for each of us. And don’t ever despair that you won’t get there.
He didn’t come to give you an impossible goal. He came to save you, because you cannot save yourself.
AMEN