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The Lord Saves
Luke 2:21
We’re now in the warm glow of Christmas, having celebrated rightly, the birth of our dear Savior, Jesus Christ. And now we come to another holiday very soon. And that, of course, has to do with the changing of the calendar year celebrated on New Year’s Eve and the next day also on New Year’s Day. The world, of course, seems fascinated to observe the holiday with parties and meals and other events.
However, in the Christian church we observe also another very, very important event. And that’s something that Saint Luke describes for us in his second chapter of his gospel, where at verse 21 he writes
On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived. (Luke 2:21)
My wife and I are now experiencing the joy of being grandparents in our family. When we learned that a baby is on the way, we begin almost immediately to burden the parents with our own ideas for names that they should give their child. Will the name that is selected fit nicely with the last name? Will that name that selected be popular, or is it maybe too popular? Will it honor a brave grandfather, or will it give honor to an especially lovable aunt? However strongly we might make our case for a particular name, we understand that finally, it’s the parent’s decision, and they alone are the ones who decide which choice for a name prevails over all of the others.
That wasn’t the case, though, for Mary and for Joseph when they learned of the coming of the Lord. In getting the announcement of her conception from the angel, Mary was told, you will call his name Jesus. And that’s a very appropriate name. The name Jesus comes from actually two Hebrew names which together give a very important message “the Lord saves.” That’s what Jesus means. How appropriate that is for us, who are troubled by our sins and worried that we can’t earn salvation, no matter how hard we might try for ourselves. We hear and trust the name Jesus the Lord saves.
In fact, when the angel appeared to Joseph with the same message of the conception, he told him he will save his people from their sins. That’s the best news we could hear. And that’s the name that we trust. When later on, the Apostle Peter was seized and put in jail over the healing of a man at the temple gate in Jerusalem, and when he was asked under what name or authority he was doing this work of healing and preaching the name of Christ, he told those who questioned him, salvation is found in no one else. It’s under the name of Jesus Christ. There’s no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
So we who follow Jesus have that very powerful name to trust in for our own salvation from sin. We have that powerful name to share with the world, as they too are in desperate need of a Savior and knowing who that Savior is. For Jesus has fulfilled the meaning of that name for each one of us the Lord saves. Amen.
