What’s in a name? - Bishop Reg Piper

Kathryn means “pure”.  Matthew means “gift of God”.  Elizabeth means “God is my oath”.  Parents often name their children because they like the name.  Some name them because they want the name to symbolise what the child is to be.  The Christmas child falls into the latter category with two names.

Jesus.
Just prior to his birth, an angel of the Lord appeared to his stepfather, Joseph.  The angel said that the woman he was to marry, Mary, would have a child by God’s intervention. He had been conceived by the Holy Spirit.  His destiny was crucial to mankind.  His name was to symbolise his saving work.  He was to be called Jesus which means “the LORD saves”.  He would save his people from their sins.

Nothing could be more significant!  It is now possible to stand forgiven before the Holy God of all creation.  This child is the hope of all the nations from the beginning to the end of time.

Emmanuel.
700 years prior to the birth of Jesus, the prophet Isaiah also spoke of this child and gave him the name, Emanuel.  This name means “God with us”.  This is why the child is able to save his people from their sins.  He is not an ordinary child.  He is God himself come among humankind.  The extraordinary miracles that he did and the teaching he delivered as an adult gave evidence of his being God.  This is why his amazing death and resurrection can still deliver men, women, boys and girls today.

May all the joy and peace which flows from knowing the Christmas child, Jesus also called Emanuel, be the experience of everyone of us this Christmas.

Reg Piper
Anglican Bishop of Wollongong