Advent 27
Friday, Fourth Week of Advent
23 December 2022
Shakespeare once quipped that “a rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet”. Well, that may have been true in merry old England. But it’s quite wrong in first century BC Judea. Names were incredibly important when Jesus was born. Consider the Gospel of Matthew. The evangelist begins his retelling of the Christmas story with a long genealogy, encompassing forty-eight names in all. Carrie Cabush has already done a wonderful recap for us on the meaning of Matthew’s genealogy, so I won’t dwell on it here. It's a common misconception, however, that Matthew’s focus on names ends with his genealogy. In fact, in the seven verses following the genealogy, names become more important than ever.
Starting in Matthew 1:18, we read about Jesus, “the Messiah”, and his mother, named Mary. In Hebrew, Mary is the same name as Mariam, the sister of Moses. This is a clue for Matthew’s primarily Jewish audience, signaling that just as Mariam protected Moses, Israel’s deliverer, from Pharaoh, Mary will be entrusted with protecting the new Deliverer when He first enters the world.
The child’s adoptive father, Mary’s betrothed, is named Joseph. Here we have some funny wordplay. Joseph’s name means “He-Will-Add” or “Yhwh-Will-Add” in Hebrew. God has indeed added to Joseph’s household –but it’s (apparently) a most unwelcome addition, an illegitimate child who will bring his father nothing but disgrace. Joseph, like Mary, has a celebrated namesake with Egyptian connections: Joseph with a many-colored coat, the pompous but merciful youngest of twelve brothers. And just like Old Testament Joseph was forgiving with his brothers, New Testament Joseph is indulgent with Mary: under Jewish law, he could have had her killed for her unplanned pregnancy (Deuteronomy 22:23, 24). But Joseph instead decides only “to divorce her quietly.”
Joseph is immediately rewarded for his compassion. Again evoking Old Testament Joseph, who experienced divinely ordained dreams, an angel appears to New Testament Joseph in a dream, hails him by the name of his regal ancestor, “David”, and tells Joseph that he will call his adopted son “Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Jesus is the same name in Hebrew as Joshua, the Old Testament general. At birth, Joshua’s name was Hoshea, “Salvation”, but Moses changed it to Joshua, “Yhwh-Is-Salvation”. The connection with Joshua signaled to Matthew’s original readers Jesus’ support for Moses’ laws, His destiny to lead God’s people into a new promised reality, and God’s power to save His people. But Jesus gets another name, too: Immanuel, “God-With-Us”, the name prophesied by Isaiah, a prophet at the royal court under Hezekiah, one of the greatest Israelite kings, again tying Jesus to David and the Israelite glory days.
Earlier this Advent, Bridget Lewis wrote powerfully about the concept of “sonder”, “the profound feeling of realizing that everyone, including strangers passing in the street, has a life as complex as one's own, which they are constantly living despite one's personal lack of awareness of it.” I would argue that this concept neatly encapsulates what Matthew is trying to communicate to his ancient and modern readers with all these names. In the life of Christ, we see that all the separate lives that ever have been or ever will be lived have been leading up to one life. Christ comes not as one apart from us, but as one of us. Yes, Christ redeems us, and we cannot redeem ourselves. But in His grace and mercy, Jesus allows us to participate in our redemption. And all of us, great and small, in our own way, have played an essential role in getting mother and child to this moment, ready for the delivery.
It’s been such a joy to hear every one of you name your stories this Advent. As morning dawns and Christmas comes, remember that every life that has ever been lived and every name that has ever been spoken (especially yours!), is a special component of God’s redeeming story, and that all of our names are woven into the Name He chose for Himself.
Dylan Thayer ’13
