The Importance of Names

“She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21)

The names we give reflect both the memories of which we cherish and the hopes of which we long to see fulfilled. I know of a few families whose children bear the names of beloved aunts and uncles whose character they would love to see replicated. (As an aside – today’s generation often names their children with no reference to either memory of hope, allowing the child to fill the name with meaning. Untethered from past and future, should we be surprised that so many are meandering through the present?) Jesus’ name bears both the promises of old and the expectation of the future, but what are they?

First, Jesus means “He will save His people.” Has this not always been the hope of old? In Hebrews 11, Paul tells us that Abraham longed for more than a few square miles in the Middle East; no, Abraham longed for that city whose maker and builder was God – a city where there would be no siege by enemies without and no sin in God’s people within (Hebrews 11:10, 13-17). Zechariah exclaimed that “God spoke by the mouths of His prophets from old that we should be saved from our enemies” (Luke 1:70-71). Are you seeing a theme here? The promise was not that Jesus would help, that Jesus would meet us at the rendezvous, that Jesus would be half a Savior. No, Jesus will save altogether. When the Navy Seals seek to extract someone from a hostage situation in a foreign country, they do not kill the assailants and leave the hostage to figure out how to get home; instead, they bring them all the way home. In the same way, Jesus saves us all the way and brings us home.

Second, Jesus will save His people “from their sins.” Often, we function as if Jesus saves us from a hard time. “My marriage is on the rocks, let me run to Jesus.” “I’m in a financial bind, let me run to Jesus.” These are troubling times, but only symptoms of the greatest trouble. The wrath of God does not rest upon men because they are in a financial bind; the wrath of God rests upon men because they are sinners. Even when we confess Christ and are free from the power of sin, we still wrestle with the presence of sin. We still cry out with Paul: “Who will deliver me from this body of death” (Rom. 7:24)? Have you groaned with Paul under the tyranny of those heart sins? Do you grow weary? We can find salvation from sin our Savior, Jesus Christ. As surely as He come once to deliver us from the power of sin, so too He will come again to deliver us from the presence of sin altogether, to usher us into that heavenly home promised of old and hoped for in all generations.