The name of Jesus

 

Sunday 25^th April – Easter 4

Acts 4:5-12. A man was healed by the “name” of Jesus and we are saved by his “name”. Names in the ancient world carried meaning and power so let us look at the name of Jesus. Jesus is the Greek rendition of Jesus’ actual name which was Joshua and Joshua means “God is salvation”. Although some Christians see this as a proof text proclaiming the uniqueness of Christ (effectively only Christians can be saved), this cannot overrule the universality of God’s healing love for the whole world, which He loves in all its pluriform diversity of religious practice and belief.

1 John 3: 16-24. Everything that flows from the name of Jesus, in terms of his life and teaching, which in shorthand we say is “love” is to be emulated by believers. In the East this is known as Deification and in the West as sanctification, both really meaning “growing into the likeness of Christ”.

John 10: 11-18. Building on the assertion that God is salvation Jesus invokes the “I am” mode of speech which in Judaism is the name of God. (See Exodus 3:14). God/Jesus is the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep of his own accord. A perfect gift offered to God to cement an eternal relationship between God and humanity.

 

 I am going to talk about names. Because in the Acts reading a man was healed by the “name” of Jesus and in 1John we are to believe in the “name” of Jesus.

I know everyone here is well informed, but even intelligent and well-informed people can miss obvious things hidden in plain sight right in front of us.

The thing is of course that “Jesus” was not his actual name. This is a Greek rendition of his actual name which was “Joshua”.  

And Christ wasn’t his surname either. Christ isn’t a name – it is a title, again Greek, which translates the word Messiah which means the anointed one.

As Christ is a title that’s how you see Jesus Christ and Christ Jesus or Jesus the Christ in our Bibles.

Why this matters is because in the Acts reading we read that we are saved by the name of Jesus.

Saving and healing are the same word in this passage, and of course even in English the root of our word salvation is to salve, like a healing balm.

So what does Joshua mean? It means literally “God is salvation”

Through Jesus we have an access point to the healing will and purposes of God. And healing lies no-where else but with God.

Jesus is a conduit for the love of God to be revealed fully to the world and in John’s first letter we are instructed that our personal mission as followers of Christ is to grow more Christ-like in our lives, thinking and actions.

We don’t do this in a vacuum of course. We have Christ as the shepherd of his flock guiding us every step of the way so we don’t get lost or separated from the others.

Our compass is his life and actions of course, so we have to try and understand and then emulate those actions.

Understanding the principles that guided Jesus and building them into our lives is a life-long task and we all fail often. But even though we fail, we pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and start all over again – I feel a song coming on……

How can we be sure that Jesus is the true template and guide for our lives though?

Well, primarily because God raised him from the dead which was God sending a very clear message that everything that Jesus claimed about himself was true and he was indeed the image of the invisible God.

In his gospel, John neatly conflates God and Jesus by putting the words into Jesus’ mouth “I am the good shepherd” and here I need to speak about names again.

“I am” is also the name of God revealed to Moses in Exodus 3:14.

As Archbishop Michael Ramsey said many years ago. God is as Jesus is. You want to know what God is like? His character, purpose, message for the world – look into the heart of Jesus and there you’ll find it.

We know God is love because Jesus was love.

We know God loves mercy and forgiveness because Jesus loves mercy and forgiveness.

We know God’s character is one of humble self-giving sacrifice because that is what Jesus’ character is like.

Jesus leads us into the heart of God, and it is God’s will to heal and save us all. Understanding the name of Jesus leads us to know that God’s will is perfectly represented in and through his life. “God is salvation”.