Religion in Daily Life By the Rev. Edward Chinn, D.Min.

Rector, All Saints’ Church

http://www.allsaintstorresdale.org

January 1 is the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. As we think about him, look at the letters of his name. Those letters tell us much about him. The first letter of the name “Jesus” is “J” and it stands for Jewish. Jesus, his mother and father, his sisters and brothers were Jewish. He stood in the long line of a people that went back to the Abraham, the patriarch who lived about 2,000 B.C. Jesus attended synagogue. He kept Passover. Our English name “Jesus” came from the word used in the Greek New Testament (Iesous). This Greek name rendered the common Hebrew name Yeshua (“Joshua.”).

The second letter of the name “Jesus” is E and it stands for Emmanuel, “God is with us'” (Matthew 1:23). Dr. Fosdick traced the stages in the disciples’ thoughts about Jesus. “At first they may have said, ‘God sent him.’ After a while that sounded too cold . . . God did more than send him . . . . They went on to say, ‘God is with him.'” Still, even this seemed inadequate. Finally they said, “God came in him” (Fosdick, Living Under Tension, p. 156).

The third letter of the name “Jesus” is S and it stands for Shepherd. As Giovanni Papini wrote about the shepherds who came to Jesus’ birth: “They came from a race born of the Shepherd of Ur [Abraham], saved by the Shepherd of Midian [Moses]. Their first kings had been shepherds-Saul and David-shepherds of herds before being shepherds of tribes.” Later in life, Jesus compared himself to a shepherd who goes “after the one that is lost until he finds it” (Luke 15:4).

The fourth letter of the name “Jesus” is U and it stands for Universal. Jesus’ influence has become universal, worldwide. Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote: “My position would see Jesus and Paul as people used by God to bring the monotheism and the moral message of Judaism to the world” (To Life, p. 289). This universal influence is symbolized by the two groups that came to the Bethlehem manger: Jewish shepherds and Gentile wise men.

The fifth letter of the name “Jesus” is S and it stands for Sacrifice. Once “sacrifice” stood for the literal killing of animals to offer blood (life) to God. Slowly, the idea of sacrifice was spiritualized until it stood for self-sacrifice. “My sacrifice is a humble spirit, O God” (Psalm 51:16). I see Jesus’ entire life as a sacrifice, an offering. As Jesus said, “The greatest love you can have for your friends is to give your life for them” (John 15:13).