On the eighth day of his life, Jesus was formally given his name. Everyone present was told at the ceremony that this baby was to be called 'God saves!' At the same gathering he was circumcised (Luke's Gospel chapter 2, verse 21), which was compulsory for all Jewish baby boys; fortunately, this second part is not necessary for Christian babies. Having a name, though, is very important. Parents think, talk, read and pray for hours or even months about the right name for their child. Names have meanings and we want to make sure that what is symbolized by what our children are called is appropriate. In this country, some names are actually English, but many are from Greek, Hebrew, Latin, French, Germanic, Celtic etc origin and the meanings can be obscure until one looks into them.
The name of the son of Mary, and adopted son of her husband Joseph, was actually probably pronounced 'Yeshua', a form of the longer Hebrew 'Yehoshua' (Joshua in English). Although this was in common use in 1st century Israel, he may also have been referred to by the longer version as well. The English 'Jesus' comes from Latin via the Greek form of the name. If you listen to Messianic Jews (Jewish followers of Jesus) talking about him today, they still unmistakably call him Yeshua.
However we pronounce it, though, Jesus' name was not at all obscure. Joshua son of Nun had been the great leader who had taken the Israelites across the Jordan and on to military victory in the promised land of Canaan. Many centuries later, Jeshua (also called Joshua) son of Jozadak was the first high priest to hold office at the newly constructed Temple in Jerusalem after the Jews returned home from exile in Babylonia. Both were specifically appointed by God for their tasks (Deuteronomy chapter 31, verse 23; Zechariah chapter 3, verses 1 - 7) . Their name was significant: in both situations, God was being seen to be the means of giving his people a new home and the Joshuas were the religious front men involved in bringing that about in practice.
Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God. He had been prophesied by many Old Testament writers and they had called him all sorts of meaningful things; for example, Isaiah used the terms 'wonderful counsellor', 'mighty God', 'everlasting father', 'prince of peace', and 'Immanuel' (meaning God with us). When Joseph found out that his fiancée, Mary, was pregnant but not by him, an angel reassured him in a dream that it was OK because the baby's father was God. The angel told Joseph that the boy would be called Yeshua, because he would save his people from their sins. This was not to be a salvation in terms of owning their own land, but freedom from themselves - and from Hell. Jesus was all of the things that the Old Testament prophets had foretold, but his central purpose for leaving Heaven and coming to Earth as a human was to make a way for us back to God and to give us a home in Heaven, through his own death and resurrection. Jesus grew up bearing the name that would symbolize his life's mission - your freedom from your sins and my freedom from mine, if we are willing to accept his gift of eternal life.
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