The Name of Jesus

New Year’s Day 2014


Luke 2:21, “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.”
Matthew 1:21, “She will give birth to a son and you will name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

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We thank God that we survived 2013. We pray that God will help us survive 2014. The purpose or goal of this sermon, and for every sermon this year, is to help us to survive spiritually. We need many things to survive physically and mentally. But a sermon is not the place to give financial advice, or motivation self-help advice. There are many pagans and sinners who are rich, healthy, and happy. I believe that the Gospel has something more to give us. I believe that the Word of God can give us eternal life and salvation. Therefore there is joy and love in our hearts.

On this New Year’s Day 2014, to find what we need to survive, let’s consider this:

Today we are celebrating the beginning of the new year, but in other places of the world, the yearly calendar starts at a different time. For example, the Chinese new year is based on the lunar calendar and this year the new year will be January31 on the solar calendar. The Jewish new year begins in the fall, “Rosh Hashanah.” The Japanese school year begins in April. The church year begins on the first Sunday of Advent, four weeks before Christmas. As I understand it, the church year originally started on Christmas Day and then Advent was added as a time of preparation and so the church year now starts four weeks earlier. But I think that Christmas is a great time to start the year. Just as birth starts the life of a person, so the birth of Christ starts our eternal life.

Counting the days from Christmas today is the eighth day. On the eighth day, according to the Jewish Old Testament Law, a baby was officially named and made a member of the Family of God. It would be like registering a birth at the city office. And in this short passage from the Gospel of Luke, I feel that we can find Gospel power to start us on our life in this New Year.

Luke 2:21, “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.” The Angel had told both Mary and Joseph what the child’s name should be. The name Jesus means in Hebrew, “The Lord Saves.” Jesus is not going to be a political savior or an economic or social savior, but something more important. This is what the Angel told Joseph in Matthew 1:21, “She will give birth to a son and you will name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Jesus is going to save us from our sins. This is important because in the Bible, all our problems are caused by sin. Even disease and death are ultimately the result of sin, even if it is not our own personal sin but the sin of someone else. But we are in this world surrounded by sin.

Recently I have come to think that the phrase “save his people from their sins” is like the phrase in the Lord’s Prayer, “Deliver us from evil.” We have all sinned and will continue to sin in the new year. We pray “Lead us not into temptation,” but we know that the temptations in life are often greater than our will power. And so we pray that God will deliver us from the evil of our sins. To put that simply, “I ate a cookie before dinner; I hope mommy didn’t see me and spank me.” “Oh, oh! I was going over the speed limit, I hope I was not caught on radar and will not get a ticket.” “God, I have done wrong, I am sorry. Please do not let that sin mess up my life or hurt anyone else.”

I think this might give us strength to survive spiritually in the new year. Whenever we say the name “Jesus,” it is a confession of faith that Jesus does save us from our sin. The name of Jesus becomes a prayer that Jesus will forgive our sin again.

This year we will again remember and celebrate how Jesus worked to save us. This year we will again read the beautiful stories in the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus taught and healed and forgave many people. He suffered the consequences of our sin when he died on the cross. Then on the third day he rose again and proved that his name really is Jesus, he is “The Lord Saves,” he is the Savior.

I am a bit of a pessimist, maybe. I think the new year will probably have as much sin as the old year had. There will be all the old problems and new ones that no one has invented yet. There will be natural disasters and man-made disasters. There will be heartaches and headaches and backaches. We will make mistakes. We will sin. This may be the year when God does not physically save us from disease or accident or shame. And yet, we know that Jesus does save us, because he suffered death and shame. He suffered the consequences of our sin. And so we know trust him to save us spiritually and eternally. This is why I am really an optimist in heart. It is because I trust God. Jesus is my Savior. He has given me the Holy Spirit. In baptism my sin has been forgiven. In the Lord’s Supper my sin is forgiven again. For me, this is the power to survive today and everyday of this new year.

Amen.

Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church


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