MORE WISDOM FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT

 A SERMON FOR THE FEAST OF THE HOLY NAME OF JESUS

We continue our reflections from yesterday, the feast of the Circumcision, as we continue that ceremony that took place on the eighth day of our Lord’s life.  As part of the ritual of Circumcision, it was the tradition to name the new baby also on this day.  However, so important and highly revered is the Most Holy Name of Jesus that we defer mention of it on January 1^st, preferring instead to reserve a day unto itself to celebrate the bestowing for the first time of this most holy of names on the newborn Infant of Bethlehem.  This year, we are celebrating the feast of the Holy Name on the very next day, January 2^nd, and so it only seems fitting to resume our examination of the ancient Jewish practices surrounding this ceremony and how they apply to our own lives today.

In passing, we should observe how diligently our blessed Lady and St. Joseph observed the Jewish law.  In spite of being many miles from their home in Nazareth, confined to a lowly stable with barely any of life’s essentials, they still managed to find a mohel, someone carefully trained in the craft of circumcision.  They made sure he was able to come on the eighth day of our Lord’s life and perform the rituals associated with the ceremony of the brit milah.  On the basis of their careful observance of Jewish law, we may well conclude that they followed as many of the ancient traditions as possible, and it is in these traditions that we’re able to gain a better insight into certain aspects of today’s feastday.

The Jewish philosopher Martin Buber expressed some of that inspired rationale behind the naming of a child on this day.   He said that every person born into this world represents something new, something that never existed before, something original and unique.  Life calls each person to discover that he or she is unique and that there has never been anyone like him or her before. For had there been something like any of us before, there would be no need for us to be born into the world. Our task in this life is to fully develop and fulfill our uniqueness in the world, as a gift to the world.

For this reason, the name chosen by the parents for their newborn is regarded as prophetic.  It is customary for the couple not to discuss the name of their child with others, prior to the naming. The parents should also not call the child by the decided name, even between themselves, until it is bestowed at the circumcision.  It is the great honor of the parents to be the ones who choose the name, and so it was most unusual in the case of our blessed Lord, that it was not Mary and Joseph who decided to call him Jesus.  Who was it that made the decision?  We need to go back to the first chapter of St. Luke’s gospel, to the scene in Nazareth where the Holy Archangel Gabriel appeared to the Blessed Virgin Mary, greeting her with the words “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women.”  When Mary heard these words, she was troubled and asked “what manner of salutation this may be.”  The angel told her not to fear, and then transmitted to her these momentous words that “Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.”  It was God himself who named his Son. 

Certainly, this was a prophetic name.  The name of Jesus is derived from the Hebrew name Yeshua or Joshua. Joshua is made up of two parts: Ya, which is short for Yahweh, the name for God which the Jews to this day do not dare pronounce, and hoshea, which means “salvation.  Jesus means “God is Salvation” or “God the Saviour”.  Truly a prophetic name, and one coming not from any mere prophet but from the mouth of God himself.

If every individual is truly unique in the world, never has it been more true than in the case of the Son of God.  For his role as Saviour of mankind, there could be no other to take his place, no substitute, no possible being who could be God and Saviour, the salvation of mankind.  Only Jesus, God and Saviour, could take on this role, and because it is a holy name, we instinctively bow our heads when we say the Name of Jesus, and even when we hear it.  The enemies of God know exactly how holy this name is, and that is why they never fail to abuse it at every opportunity, employing it as a casual curse word, deliberately to offend the Christians who revere it.

At the ceremony of the brit, the circumcision, a chair is prepared and set aside for an invisible guest.  That guest is the prophet Elijah, who the Jews believe is present at every brit.  The reason for this is, that according to mystic tradition, Elijah the Prophet was very critical of the Jewish people. “I vow,” said God to Elijah, “that whenever My children make this sign in their flesh [i.e., whenever there is a circumcision], you will be present, and the mouth which testified that the Jewish people have abandoned My covenant will testify that they are keeping it.” It is for this reason the sages instituted that there be a seat of honor for Elijah at every circumcision.  From our point of view, this is a truly remarkable thing.  Yesterday we spoke of the law of Moses, and the importance of its strict observance by the Jews, including Mary and Joseph.  Today, we draw our attention to that Chair of Elijah, and the presence of this great prophet at the Circumcision of our blessed Lord.  Moses, representing the law, and Elijah, representing the prophets.  The Law and the Prophets… 

Suddenly, we remember another great feast, that of the Transfiguration of our Lord.  Who appeared alongside Jesus at that event, but Moses and Elijah, again representing the law and the prophets.  Jesus came into this world to fulfill the law and the prophecies of the Old Testament, and here, at his Circumcision, Moses and Elijah were spiritually present to witness their fulfillment.  As the Son of God received his Holy Name of Jesus, great must have been the rejoicing of Moses and Elijah as this “God and Saviour” took up his role and shed his Blood.  Jesus would teach that it was necessary to love God above all things and our neighbor as ourselves.  “Upon these two commandments,” he told us, “hang all the law and the prophets.”  And it would be Jesus himself who would love God and his neighbor more perfectly than any other man before or since.  He would show this love by shedding his Blood for us, his neighbor, and thus doing his Father’s will.  This Blood was first shed at his Circumcision, and his Holy Name of God and Saviour would rightly be bestowed upon him at this blood-shedding.

Along with Moses and Elijah, let us also be witnesses to the scene, as the mohel holds the Christ Child in his arms as those few drops of Blood flow down and he blesses the infant and gives him his Most Holy Name, saying: “Our God and God of our fathers, preserve this child for his father and mother, and his name in Israel shall be called Jesus the Son of God and Saviour. May God the father rejoice in his offspring, and his mother be blessed with the fruit of her womb, as it is written: May your father and mother rejoice, and she who bore you be blessed. As it is said: I passed by and saw you weltering in your blood, and I said to you: You shall live through your Blood; and I said to you: You shall live through your Blood… Give thanks to the Lord for He is gracious, and His mercy endureth forever. May this little infant Jesus become great.”

And indeed the little infant Jesus did become the great Redeemer of Mankind.  The name he bore from this day forth signified not just what he would be, but actually who he was.  A truly prophetic name whose significance for all mankind is so great that we may not utter it without bowing our head in reverent adoration of the God and Saviour who bore that name and who was that name.