The Holy Name

 

The Holy Name

3 January 2024

10:30 am said Mass at the Rogue Valley Manor

Numbers 6:22-27; Psalm 8; Philippians 2:5-11; Luke 2:15-21

The Rev. Fr. Antony Hutchinson, Ph.D., SCP

 

God, take away our hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh. Amen.

 

January 1 is the Feast of the Holy Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ.  Once called the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ, it commemorates the events recounted in today’s Gospel, the circumcision and naming of the baby Jesus.  In recent years the Church has focused this feast on the naming rather than the bris performed by a moyel, which was perhaps a bit too graphic for modern tastes of primarily gentile congregations. 

 

The principal idea of the Feast of the Holy Name is that just as Jesus was marked as part of God’s chosen people by the imposition of Abraham’s sign of the covenant, and just as he was marked as God’s agent for saving us by being given the name the angel had prescribed for him earlier, so Christ marks us as his own and gives us his name when we are baptized.  That’s why the other readings talk about God placing his name on his people, and of us having to follow Christ’s example of acceptance and humility. 

 

The importance of naming, and recognizing the right names for people and things is a key idea behind the Feast so re-conceived.  Myths of power established through naming are found in many cultures. 

 

We place a great deal of stock in the process of naming.  Note the care that new parents usually take to ensure that they have chosen just the right name for the newborn.  Think of the difference between the two expressions “to name names,” and “to call names.”  We say “you are calling that person names” implies that what you are saying is not truly who or what that person is.  But if you are truly going to tell the truth and not varnish it one bit, you “name” names. 

 

Playwright Eve Ensler says that “[T]he power and mystery of naming things… has the capacity to transform …, rearrange our learned patterns of behavior and redirect our thinking.”

 

Chinese philosopher Confucius’s key doctrine is the Rectification of Names. “Calling things by their right names is the beginning of wisdom” runs a Chinese proverb based on the idea (cf. Analects 12.11).

 

I spent 25 years of my life working as a spin doctor for the U.S. federal government.  I know all too well the power of the words you choose to call things, both to establish truth or to hide it.  Our military talks about “going kinetic.”  That means starting to move troops and weapons to actually kill people.  Our political leaders often talk about “preserving our way of life,” but what they usually mean by this is holding on to our possessions, our privilege, and our control of others.  One previous U.S. administration decided to use the words “enhanced interrogation techniques” to describe what previously had always been called “torture” and thereby justified a horrible departure from our best national values.   

  

Given the centrality of Jesus to Christian faith and the importance of names, it is natural that Christians have always reflected on the names our Lord Jesus should have. 

John the Seer in Revelation 19:11-16, describes our Lord coming to set the world right:  

 

“Then I saw heaven opened, and there was a white horse! Its rider is named Faithful and True... his name is called The Word of God. … On his robe and on his thigh he has a name inscribed, "King of kings and Lord of lords.”

 

It is hard for most of us today to appreciate that Jesus of Nazareth did not stand out from his contemporaries simply because of his name “Jesus.”   Though common in Spanish, it is almost never used in English, so English speakers think the name refers to our Lord alone.  

But it was extremely common in Palestine at the turn of the era.  The Jewish historian Josephus mentions at least ten different people at the time who played historical roles that had the name.

 

The Greek word Iesous transliterates the Aramaic name Yeshua‘ (“Josh”) a shortened form of the Hebrew name Yehoshua‘ (Joshua).  Jews now prefer the Hebrew name “Joshua” for sons rather than the shortened Greek-form “Jesus” since the latter has become so deeply associated with Christianity. 

 

Both Matthew and Luke say that the name “Jesus” was given to the baby before his birth.  In Luke, the angel Gabriel during the annunciation tells the Blessed Virgin that she should name the baby Jesus (Luke 1:31), without giving any reason for the name.   Matthew, however, also gives a folk etymology for the name:  Gabriel says to Joseph, “[Mary] will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”  This play on words, shared also by Philo of Alexandria, is a little bit like claiming that a man was named Bill because his mother knew he would be working in Accounts Receivable, the billing department.

 

This explanation thinks that the name Jesus, Yeshua‘, is related to the verb “to save,” yasha‘.  But this folk etymology, however theologically satisfying it might be, is not correct.  Just as Bill is a shortened form of William, and has nothing to do with billing, Yeshua‘ is a shortened form of the Hebrew name Yeho-shua, or Joshua, and has nothing to do really with the verb “to save.” Yeho-shua combines the divine name of God, Yahweh, with the verb shawa‘, which means “help,” not “save.”   The original name Yeho-shua was the cry of a mother in labor—“Yahweh, HELP!” 

 

The one thing we learn for certain by Jesus being given that name is that he came from a pious and nationalistic Jewish family.  Joshua is the hero who followed Moses and brought the children of Israel into the Promised Land.  Other people in Jesus’ family have similar nationalist names. Mary, his Mother, brings to mind Miriam the sister of Moses.  Joseph, his legal father, brings to mind the patriarch Joseph who saved the Israelites by providing refuge in Egypt. Matthew 13:55 mentions four brothers of Jesus:  James, Joses, Simeon, and Jude.  All are names of great patriarchs from Israel’s past: James has the Aramaic or Hebrew name Jacob, the original name of the Patriarch later known as Israel.  Joses is the Greek form of the name Joseph.  Simon and Jude are Greek names for brothers of Joseph, Shimeon and Judah. 

 

The name of Jesus is thus a nationalistic call for help, understood as an assurance of salvation.  Jesus’ family gave it to him, under angelic instructions or not, in part because it evoked hope. 

 

We thus again return, as in most of our Christmastide readings, to the doctrine of incarnation:  God taking on human weakness and limitation, becoming fully human.  

 

“Yahweh, HELP!” we cry.  And we recount to each other the stories of God rescuing His people in the past through mighty acts of love beyond measure, mercy passing thought. 

 

“Yahweh, HELP!” we cry.  And we find hope for being saved. 

 

“Yahweh, HELP!” we cry.  And to us a baby of promise is born, a child ensuring peace is given. 

 

In our prayer life and quiet time this week, let us reflect and meditate on the Holy Name of Jesus.  And let us be honest and open in our naming of names, and calling out the demons in our lives who parade under false names or no name at all. 

 

In the holy name of Christ, Amen