What's in a name?

Homily Naming of Jesus 2012

What’s in a name? The biblical answer to that question is everything.

Names were so important to the Hebrew people that they would not even speak the name of God—it was so sacred.

Today we celebrate the naming of Jesus, mentioned only in Luke’s Gospel.

The name Jesus is rooted in the Hebrew name Joshua. That’s important because it was Joshua who took over leadership of the people of Israel from Moses after they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, and finally led them to the promised land.

Jesus would have been known as Jesus bar Joseph, or Jesus of Nazareth—to indicate either family or place ties. The word Christ is actually a title—like Messiah, Lord, King.

One of the reasons Luke mentions the naming of Jesus is the emphasis on continuity between the Hebrew tradition of the Torah and other sacred texts of the Hebrew Scriptures and the life and witness of Jesus which is the focus of Luke’s Gospel.

So like any good Jewish infant, Jesus is named eight days after he is born, and he is circ umcised. His mother Mary also follows Hebrew customs of purification for mothers who have just given birth.

The one difference of course is that the name Jesus is given by the Angel before Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

So the birth and naming of Jesus fulfilled divine revelation in the Hebrew scripture. Luke also wanted to emphasize that the law handed down to Moses was being followed.

We are reminded of the Jewishness of Jesus. We have to remember during most of the first century there was no separate Christian church. The followers of Jesus were a sect within Judaism. Jesus asked his followers to preach the good news to all the world. He didn’t specifically call for the formation of the church.

This Sunday as we remember the naming of Jesus, perhaps we need to think more about the Jewish roots of Christian faith, and honour that part of our tradition.

Sadly throughout history many Christians have been guilty of anti-Semitism---mis-reading John’s Gospel and viewing Jews in an extremely negative light.

As we learn more an more about ancient history from archeological finds, we can reach a much better understanding of where our faith tradition came from.

The other part of this day which marks the naming of Jesus is the celebration of Mary’s role in the birth of Christ. Mary’s courage, her wisdom, and her obedience is celebrated in Luke’s telling of the birth story.

While we may not elevate Mary to the role the orthodox have for her—Theotokos or God bearer, or follow the pietism of the Roman catholic Church in its Marian tradition, we can recognize that in Mary we have young woman who was chosen by God for a very special special role of mother of Jesus.

In that sense we need to celebrate Mary as the first saint of what would later become the company of saints of the church. Another name to be revered in our rich Judeo-Christian faith tradition.