Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
One of my favorite books when I was growing up was A Wizard of Earthsea. Not because it’s a great coming of age story, or because it does a great job investigating our own nature as people, or even because it is just a good story. I love this book because of it’s use of magic.
The magic employed in this book doesn’t involve knowing incantations in certain languages. It doesn’t involve moving your hands in a certain way. It involves knowing the name, the true name, of the person, place, or thing in order to have power over whatever it is you are trying use magic on.
This magic system recognizes a truth that we all recognize. That names have power. They carry a significance. They carry a part of the very being of the thing they name. The essence.
So in discovering who Jesus actually is, it is helpful to look at the very thing we are celebrating today. His name.
Jesus is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew name Joshua. Which means “to rescue” or “to deliver.” Or even, “to save”.
There is another great person in the Bible that shares this name. Joshua, the heir to Moses’ role as leader of the Israelites.
And Joshua truly lived up to his name. The Israelites, after their bondage in Egypt, wandered in the desert for 40 years. And it was when Joshua was made their leader that they finally left the desert. That they were able to move into the Promised Land. That they were able to make it their own. That they were saved from their wandering and restored to the rightful home of their father Abraham. That they were restored to the land that was theirs.
Jesus does something similar for us. While the Israelites were wandering in the desert, we all have been wandering away from God. We have all, at times, failed to listen to His words to us and have gone on our paths. And in doing so, we have been drawn away from the life and being God gives us into the lands of sin and death that drive us farther from God.
But Jesus, by coming into the world, shows us the way back to ways of life that come from God alone. Jesus saves us from the land of sin and death, just asJoshua brought the Israelites out of the wilderness. And just as Joshua brought the Israelites back into the Promised Land, Jesus leads us to the path back to God.
And Jesus does this through His own death and resurrection. In dying, Jesus is able to come into the land of sin and death to find us, and through His resurrection Jesus opens the path for us to rise into new life with Him.
Jesus truly is our savior. Our deliverer. Our rescuer. Just as it says in the name.
For that reason, we celebrate His very name on this Sunday. We celebrate it because it is a name to give thanks and praise for.
We were once wandering in the ways of death and destruction. No more! We are now raised to have life. True life. And life abundantly.
And as He exalts us by raising us to new life, we exalt his name over all the world, as we hear in the Psalm this morning.
And we bless the Lord, just as we hear in Numbers He has blessed us.
Jesus, through His very being in this world, has given us a glorious gift. He has given us freedom from our sins, rescue from our wanderings, and life from death. This is who He is. The Savior and Redeemer of the world. And so today we join in with the church at large, the saints of this church, here and gone, of this place and beyond, and celebrate the great name of Jesus. The name of the one who has brought us new life. The name of the one who rescued us from sin and death. The name of the one restored us to God. And for the gift of Jesus’ life and name, we can truly say “Thanks Be to God!"