“On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived” (Luke 2:20).
The shepherds called the male child in the manger “the Messiah, the Lord and the Saviour” but not Jesus. The Incarnate Son of the Father had no name until he began to fulfill the Law of Moses and was circumcised on the eighth day after his birth. Then the Name chosen for him by heaven, by the almighty and eternal Father himself, and revealed to Joseph his adoptive father, was given to him.
In the Gospels, the Incarnate Son is called JESUS around 600 times – in contrast he is called Jesus Christ only 4 times (but of course in the Epistles he is often called Jesus the Christ)
The Name of Jesus is the perfect Name for the One who is sent to be the Messiah of Israel and the Saviour of the world. Let us examine it briefly.
First of all, for the Jew in the days of Joseph & Mary, JESUS was a reasonably common name. It is in fact the Greek form by which three Hebrew and Old Testament names are presented – “Joshua” (Exodus 17:10); Jehoshua (Zechariah 3:1) and Jeshua (Nehemiah 7:7). In what we call the Apocrypha there is a book called “Ecclesiasticus” and its author is “Jesus the son of Sirach.” In the New Testament we find “Jesus Justus” (Colossians 4:11) and “Bar-Jesus” (Acts 13:6). From other sources than the Bible we also know that “Jesus” was a common name.
The fact that Jesus was a common name proclaims to us that the Incarnate Son of the Father truly became one of us, belonging truly to common humanity, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. The name JESUS reminds us that the eternal Son/Word truly became flesh/human.
In the second place, the name of JESUS is a highly significant and symbolic Name. It is in both Hebrew (the language of the Jews) and Greek (the language of the Roman Empire) a one-word summary and statement of the identity and work of the Incarnate Son of the Father.
In Hebrew “Joshua” and “Jehoshua” mean “the LORD is my help/rescue” or “the help of the Lord”. The angel told Joseph that he should give to Mary’s Son and his adoptive son, the name of JESUS “for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Thus JESUS is the Saviour & Redeemer sent from the LORD [Jehovah/Yahweh] who will rescue his people from their sins and from the clutch of the devil.
In Greek, it was usual to connect in sound the word Jesus [iesous] with the verb “iasthai” which means “to heal”. Thus JESUS meant for many “the Healer” and was proclaimed as the physician of soul and body and the one who cured spiritual and physical and mental sickness.
The fact that Jesus was a name with built in meaning points to both his real and full identity and to his vocation given him by the Father.
When the Name of Jesus is joined to the titles that belong to him then he is Jesus the Christ, the Lord, the Saviour & the Son, and it is this Person with two natures [divine and human] whom we serve and adore.
In the CHURCH YEAR the first day of January [now in the West the first day of the secular year] is the Feast Day when the Church remembers both his circumcision and his naming for these two are joined together in the record of the biblical text (Luke 2:20).
In The Book of Common Prayer (1662/1928) the words of the Collect are:
“Almighty God, who madest thy blessed Son to be circumcised, and obedient to the law for man: Grant us the true circumcision of the Spirit; that, our hearts, and all our members, being mortified from all wordly & carnal lusts, we may in all things obey thy blessed will; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Here the emphasis is upon the fact of the circumcision of Jesus, his shedding of blood for us and his submission to the Torah, and then the fact that for us, as believers in Jesus, circumcision is (as the apostle Paul explains) spiritual and moral. But his Name is not mentioned.
We may note that this Collect is not popular at New Year celebrations!
In the American Episcopal 1979 Prayer Book the Collect is as follows:
“Eternal Father, who didst give to thine incarnate Son the holy name of Jesus to be a sign of our salvation: Plant in every heart, we beseech thee, the love of him who is the Savior of the world, even our Lord Jesus Christ:…..”
Here the emphasis is upon the Name of Jesus and its meaning but there is no reference to his circumcision for us.
This Collect is less offensive at New Year celebrations!
Happily in the new “Common Worship” of the Church of England the name of the Festival is “the Naming and Circumcision of Jesus” and the Collect [which could be improved] reads:
“Almighty God, whose blessed Son was circumcised in obedience to the law for our sake and given the Name that is above every name; give us grace faithfully to bear his Name and to worship him in the freedom of the Spirit and to proclaim him as the Saviour of the world…”
BE SURE ON JANUARY THE FIRST TO GIVE DUE EMPHASIS BOTH TO THE NAMING AND TO THE CIRCUMCISION OF THE SON OF MARY WHO IS THE SON OF GOD INCARNATE.
(On a snowy Saturday morning, December 29, 2001, the Revd Dr Peter Toon, Peter@toon662.fsnet.co.uk )
The Revd. Dr. Peter Toon
Christ Church Rectory
Hot Lane, Biddulph Moor
Stoke-on-Trent ST8 7HP
England
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