What's In A Name? : On the Road Chaplain

What’s In A Name?… Merry Christmas to all my readers. I hope your day is filled with family, friends, and the JOY that comes with celebrating once again our Savior’s birth.

My Christmas Day musings are about names. In Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, the importance of names was utmost. Juliet asked Romeo “What’s in a name?” because he was a Montague, a family who loathed the Capulets—Juliet’s family name. It was all about money and power. For Juliet, she didn’t care, she loved the man, not the family’s royal crest!

So you could conclude names don’t make much of a difference, but you would be wrong because it isn’t so much your last name, but the name people call you by, “hey Joe, or hi Sally” names that are very personal and for you—that name is you, so to speak.

Some folks don’t like their first names so they change them, which is understandable because some of those names can be “tough” if not downright odd. But on this day, we cannot ignore the major part of the Christmas story, one of which Isaiah foretold:

“For a child is born to us, a son is given to us.
The government will rest on his shoulders.
And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
–Isaiah 9:6

We could answer’s Juliet’s question by saying there’s a WHOLE LOT in this one name! About 700 years before Jesus arrived on the seen, Isaiah was busy letting people know that this Messiah would have not only one name but many. He wanted the people to realize the Messiah was not the ordinary ‘Joe’ but God’s Son who gives comfort, is mighty and he is God in the flesh. He is also everlasting and the Prince of Peace—meaning Jesus put to death the enmity between God and humanity.

Another witness to the importance of the Savior’s name was his earthly father, Joseph. I’m sharing Max Lucado’s take on this because no one can say it like he does:

“Joseph—the quiet father of Jesus. Rather than make a name for himself, he made a home for Christ. And because he did, a great reward came his way. From Matthew 1:25 we learn “…and Joseph gave him the name Jesus.”

Queue up the millions who have spoken the name of Jesus, and look at the person selected to stand at the front of the line: Joseph. Of all the saints, sinners, prodigals, and preachers who have spoken the name, Joseph—a blue-collar, small-town construction worker—said it first. He cradled the wrinkle-faced prince of heaven, and with an audience of angels, cows, donkeys and pigs, whispered, “Jesus…you are called Jesus.” Seems right, don’t you think? Joseph gave up his name—so Jesus let Joseph say his. God hunts for ‘Josephs’ through whom he can deliver Christ into the world.”

Here’s an interesting catch, however, about the name ‘Jesus.’ It was just an ordinary Jewish name, about as common in Judea as John is common to us. The name had not yet associated with the significance that we understand today. It was a beautiful Jewish boy’s name—a common name of the common people. But here, as everywhere in the great spiritual movement of the Kingdom, God took hold of the commonplace to show that there was something infinitely more than the common! And Jesus was born a man to a common family, no royal entrance, no regal robes, but born by a peasant young girl and her husband Joseph.

Do you see what God was up to? Through Jesus, God was telling ALL people no matter their creed, race, lineage and financial status, that they matter to God and are deeply loved.

Looking at these two perspectives of the name of Jesus, I think it best to say that the name of Jesus means everything! Everything we need to live here and for eternity; everything we hope for, everything we cherish and so much more.

As you gather on this Christmas Day, remember that the child whose birth we celebrate IS Jesus—the living, eternal, almighty God! It’s not just a name—oh no—Jesus means: “Savior” for He will save His people from their sins. In other words, He IS everything!

Come Lord Jesus come, AMEN!