What is in a name?
AM Psalm 45, 46
Baruch 4:36-5:9 • Gal. 3:23-4:7 • Matt. 1:18-25
Christmas Eve
PM Psalm 89:1-29 • Isa. 59:15b-21 • Phil. 2:5-11
In the case of the name of Jesus, A LOT! In the gospel according to Luke, Mary is told by the Angel Gabriel that the son she is to conceive by the Holy Spirit is to be named Jesus. In the gospel according to Matthew, Joseph is told in a dream, “you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” The name Jesus is our English derivative of the Hebrew Yeshua. Rough translation to English is “God saves.” This name says A LOT!
This Jesus, this baby that is named “God saves” was “born of human likeness and being found in human form.” To think that this child that we anticipate each year and that we celebrate on this eve of all eves is The Son of God made human. When I sit and really contemplate the enormity of it, I am overwhelmed.
We also call this child, Immanuel, “God with us.” Another name that says A LOT! Again and again when I think of this Son of God being named “God saves” and “God with us.” I am overwhelmed all over again to think that God came to us. He took on our imperfect bodies and was born, grew up, lived, died and was resurrected with us. God still comes to us! He is also our Prince of Peace, our Alpha and Omega, our Good Shepherd.
At this name of names, this Jesus, Son of God, we are told “at the name of Jesus every knee should bend.” We bend in a bow, we lower our head at the name of Jesus Christ in prayer, we bend both knees as we pray. But we really do so much more at the name of Jesus. I am reminded of the Prayer of Manasseh, Canticle 16, as a better description of what we do at the name of Jesus. “And now, O Lord, I bend the knee of my heart.”
Jesus, I bend the knee of my heart in prayer to You not only on this Christmas Eve but on every eve. For I “rejoice daily in Your Name.”
Written by Chris Schaefer
Rejoicing in the Name of Jesus and bending the knee of my heart as I am overwhelmed by the knowledge that Jesus came to us and comes to us always.