There’s a lot of pressure that comes with finding out you’re about to have a baby, not the least of which is what to name it. My wife, who is a school teacher, and I set forth specific ground rules for what name to pick. It couldn’t be the name of someone either of us had dated. I couldn’t be a name that could be easily made fun of on the playground. It couldn’t be the name of a naughty school child or a difficult church member. Once all of those names were ruled out we were in business.
We even went so far as to purchase a couple of those “baby name” books to see what particular names meant.
Of all the names associated with Christ at his birth, the most familiar by far is the name Jesus. The name Jesus appears some 700 times in the New Testament. Unlike us, Joseph and Mary didn’t have to come up with that one. God instructed them before his birth what he would be called.
“Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!” (Luke 1:30-33, NLT)
When we had each of our children, the first question we got was “What did you name the baby?” When the Deatrick’s have a baby, it gets a name. When the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have a baby, people want to know what it shall be called. That may seem like splitting hairs for us in North America, but its a big deal among countries that still have monarchy’s. To the royals, babies are “called.” Its a formal act that is replete with character, reputation, and dignity. That’s the idea behind the naming of Jesus. It’s not just a name. Its the right of royalty.
The name Jesus itself means “Yahweh saves,” which would have reminded the original readers of Luke of all kinds of Old Testament salvation stories. Matthew 1:21 takes it one step further and explains, “for he shall save his people from their sins.”
This baby would be great, literally megas, from which we derive our English word mega. While we generally use the word great loosely, there is a more formal understanding of the word from the world of mathematics. In mathematics, the word mega denotes 10 to the power of 6, or one million. That is something that is quantifiable for us, but the greatness of Jesus exceeds even our basic math comprehension. So how then, is Jesus revealed to us as great? There are three manifestations of Jesus’ greatness that Luke calls out.
First, he is great in his relationship to the heavenly Father. He is “Son of the Most High.” This points to his divine sonship. He is great because he is the Son of God. He is great because he is God.
Next, he is great in his role as the Messiah. Luke’s references to throne and rule points to his Davidic Messiahship. Jesus’ sonship precedes his Messiahship.
Finally, he is great in his rule as the everlasting king. His kingdom knows no end. The sonship yields the Messiahship, which in turn yields the Kingdom of God. This kingdom is not the geo-political kind, but a spiritual movement where God rules in the hearts of humankind and his will is actually done on earth as it is in heaven.
So what does that mean for you on the Christmas Day? Who is Jesus in relationship to you personally? The fact that Jesus is great reveals that we are not and cannot be without him. One of the greatest dangers that Christmas presents to each of us is the temptation to leave the baby in the manger. Yes, Christ was born as a baby in Bethlehem long ago. But if you leave the baby in the manger you miss the entire point of why he came. Because he is the Son of God the has the authority to serve as the Messiah sent from God to be the Savior of the world. As Savior, he has the right to rule in your heart and mine. I don’t want to rob you of the joy of Christmas in the slightest. But if you leave the baby in the manger, all you’ll end up with at the end of your life is warm sentimentality and not a relationship with the creator and redeemer of the universe.
