Advent IV | 21. Dezember 2025 | Matthew 1:18-25 | David Zersen |

Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah^* took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. ²⁰But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ ²²All this took place to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ²³ ‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,  and they shall name him Emmanuel’, which means, ‘God is with us.’ ²⁴When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, ²⁵but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son;^* and he named him Jesus.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

One of the most challenging opportunities parents have is giving a name to their newborn child. At times, they reflect on it for months before the birth, and sometimes don’t know it even then. Our daughter never got a middle name because we couldn’t agree on it, and decided to let her choose it herself. She never did, thinking it cool not to have one. And that might be a good opinion, given the names that some parents name their children, at times, totally made-up names. In Germany, a list was developed by the government, providing names that parents were entitled to use. “Hitler”, for example, was forbidden, as were other names that provided painful memories of World War II.

Many cultures created names for children that symbolized traits parents hoped would be realized in a child’s life. Native Americans did this, as did the Romans, and, at one time, many of our ancestors. In recent centuries, however, godparents and favorite uncles or aunts or parents themselves had names that were given to newborns. In my case, I had two biblical names, David and John, neither of which any of my forbears/ancestors possessed. Perhaps my parents thought it was a way to avoid conflict in the respective families by choosing a name that no relative had ever claimed.

Joseph was fortunate in that he didn’t have to argue with anyone about choosing a name, and in his culture, the wife apparently had little say in the matter. In any case, he had a dream, and in that dream he learned that the child was to be called Jesus “because he will save his people from their sins.” This week, perhaps because we are approaching Christmas, Ben Cost wrote in The New York Post that “scientists” tell us that Jesus was not his real name! “Scientist” is a very “In” word these days, so people like me get sucked into reading the article. Of course, they weren’t scientists. They were theologians or linguists at best, and they tell us what most of us have known all along, that Jesus is English for the Hebrew Joshua or “Yehoshua” in Aramaic or Hebrew. Important to be reminded, however, is the fact that Joshuas are saviors. Another Joshua once brought the Israelites into the promised land and saved the people from destruction at the hands of the Philistines.

Jesus, however, Joseph dreamed, was to be a savior in a different way. He was to save his people from their sins. There’s a name worth thinking about. What can that mean to Joseph and Mary and the young child? And what can it mean to us? What’s in a name?

When being possessed by sin is worse than being destroyed by a physical enemy.

Joshua was the successor to Moses and is even revered among Muslims today. The name was not used frequently, but there are five usages of it for males in the Old Testament. Most did not have the national significance of the Joshua who conquered Canaan and gave a future to the Israelites.

Stunning is that thought, however, that another Joshua was to give a future to his people by saving them not from something physical, but from the power of evil at work within us. It is the conviction of all monotheists that from birth, there are choices humans make that are not in their best interests. Students of psychology understand that, already in infancy, choices are made that work for the best interests of a child. “I want what I want now,” screams the infant, because the ego wants control over her or his environment. Christians have learned to call this original sin, the antagonism that insists on our own way. Some Christian denominations believe that people are born good, but at some point, they may choose evil. This view has become the majority view in our culture. However, mainline Christians believe that the Psalmist was correct in saying that already from birth, we choose our own way, not the best interests of others. (Ps. 51:5).

To give current examples, at what point in a person’s life does she or he become capable of slitting their parents’ throats because she/he isn’t getting her/his way? At what point does a person using an automatic weapon choose to assassinate anonymous people in a synagogue? When are you finally so evil that at six you can shoot a teacher and say, “I shot that bitch dead”? What does it take for a mother to get her two teen daughters to steal for her on a regular basis to provide for her personal needs? Some may call people involved in such actions deranged or mentally unbalanced, but those are simply secular words for that aspect of our psyche that, in a given moment, seeks our personal interests instead of those of others. It is what our spiritual tradition has called “sin”, and Jesus came to save us from it. When an entire society is captive to views that seek self-gratification, the result can be worse for the society than if it didn’t even exist.

Saving people from their sin involves new direction and forgiveness from a Savior

This is the Sunday when the fourth candle is lit in many Christian churches. It is the candle of love, a world that Jesus the Savior came to teach and to embody. Think for a moment about all the wrong choices that people make in their lives—that you have made in your own life. Think about the times when you chose to say or do something cruel, a time when your goal was to get even or secure your advantage over another. All such opportunities taken by us ultimately suppress the opportunity for another to be encouraged, respected, or approved. Jesus word to each of us, simple as it seems, is “love one another, as I have loved you.” (Jn. 13: 34-35) This is why we gather to listen to his words to us, why we study his words as children or as adults—because he points us in new directions, new alternatives. He offers us the marks of the new world into which he calls us, a community of those who reject self-aggrandizement and choose alternatives marked by love for one another.

This is how Jesus saves us, first by calling us to a way of life founded not on our need to make us better than others, but on the examples shared in his teachings, his parables, and his miracles. Secondly, however, Jesus, as Savior, takes love further than we could have imagined. He shows us that when others misunderstand, misuse, and abuse us, we should forgive them as he did when people tried to get rid of him. He who shared only love with them in his teaching finally forgave them despite their sin. And that is why Jesus is Savior for us today. Not only does he show us a better way than our angry, hateful choices, but he forgives us for them because he wants to show the ultimate way, the way of love that can embrace even those who hurt us.

Today, therefore, we light the fourth candle on our Advent Wreath, the one that will take us to the Christ candle itself. The candle of love is so personal, so powerful, that it encourages us to see beyond our decorations, the fanciful imagery in our city’s streets, the presents wrapped beneath our tree, or even the quiet room in which we find ourselves, if we are now all alone. What we are called by Jesus, the Savior, to see are the people whom we have hurt, troubled, or hated.  With the love we know in Jesus, our Savior, find someone this day from whom Jesus’ love and forgiveness can save you free, can set you free.

What’s in a name? Let it surprise you.

Hymn:  Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus, Born to Set Thy People Free

David Zersen, D.Min., Ed.D., FRHistS
President Emeritus, Concordia University Texas
zersendj@gmail.com
414 727 3890