The name of Jesus holds us fast.
“And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus” (Luke 1:30-31).
“She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21).
“And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb” (Luke 2:21).
What’s in a name? When it comes to the name of Jesus, everything! In the church year, January 1 is not New Year’s Day. Instead, the new Church Year starts on the First Sunday of Advent. But that does not mean January 1 is without importance, for it’s this day that the Christian Church celebrates the naming of Jesus.
Like every other Jewish boy in the first century, Jesus was both circumcised and named on the eighth day after his birth. These two events, circumcision and naming, went together. A Jewish boy was circumcised to signify being a part of God’s covenant people of Israel, and his name was given to show that God’s covenant (God’s promise to be the God of and for his people) was applied to the newborn boy personally. Usually, the name that was given to the boy was also meant to signify something of God’s being God for that boy. (For instance, the name Jonathan means “God’s gift,” and this name would signify how God is the give of life for this boy.)
When it comes to Jesus, everything about his identity is wrapped up in his name. This name was given even before Jesus was born. Luke tells us that the angel Gabriel told Mary to name her son Jesus when he announced the virginal conception of the baby in her womb.
When it comes to Jesus, everything about his identity is wrapped up in his name.
In his gospel, Matthew tells us that an angel also gave Joseph this same instruction for naming the son of Mary. But, to Joseph, the angel adds a note about the meaning of this name. “You shall call his name ‘Jesus,’ for he will save his people from their sins.” The name of Jesus means “God is salvation,” and the angel tells Joseph that the son of Mary is to be named Jesus because this baby will save his people from their sins. In other words, Jesus will be and do what his very name says. Jesus is and will be the God who saves.
In Holy Baptism (which Paul tells us in Galatians replaces circumcision), we are baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and therefore we are baptized into the name of Jesus. And for us, the name of Jesus actually does what it says! For as we are baptized into Christ, we are eternally bound to his name and what it means for us. We are baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus. In baptism, the forgiveness of sins that Jesus won through the cross and empty tomb is given to each one of us personally in time and space. Through baptism, we are not simply brought into a new covenant with God. Rather, we are actually saved from sin, as the name of Jesus and its meaning is applied to each of us. Although this happens only once in our lives (and for many of us before we are even aware of it), the benefits of both Holy Baptism and the name of Jesus continue to envelope us and bless us our whole lives.
In a sermon he preached on New Year’s Day of 1952 in the Gustavus Adolphus Cathedral in Gothenburg, Sweden, Lutheran Bishop Bo Giertz beautifully proclaimed the truth of what Christ’s saving name means for us:
You are baptized in the name of Jesus. You were brought to Him once, and He blessed you. You were called by His good name. That means that you became His. Your life was left in His hands. You take part in all the blessing that lies in the good name of Jesus. He will clean the stains you get on your clothes [i.e. the sins you commit]. He will pay your debts. He will follow you throughout your life, give you His hand in death, and answer for you in eternity. You should only trust Him and hold fast to Him. You receive the name of Jesus, written upon your forehead, so that you will encounter life, temptations, sin, suffering, and death with this security. And your name has been written among those who belong to Jesus in the great book of life, the book where the good name of Jesus is written above all the other names, as their best friend, their advocate and guarantor.” [1]
What wonderfully good news this is for us! As we enter a new calendar year with all of the unknowns it holds for us, our families, our communities, our congregations, and our world, we enter it with the assurance that the name of Jesus holds us fast. We face the future and whatever it brings us in 2025, knowing that in Christ Jesus, God is our salvation. We face the unknown, knowing that we are marked with the cross and the name of Jesus, and nothing can take that away from us. As Bishop Giertz put it, we can face temptation, trials, or whatever else life or death throws at us with confidence that in Jesus, we are forgiven and reconciled to God. Moreover, in the name of Jesus, we can face death and the day of judgment with complete confidence and without any fear whatsoever. We are wrapped in the blessed and saving name of Jesus now and for all eternity.[1] Bo Giertz, A Year of Grace: Collected Sermons of Advent through Pentecost, trans. Bror Erickson (Irvine, CA: 1517 Publishing, 2019), 45-46.
