The Name of Jesus

Exodus 3:1-15     Luke 13:1-9

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 

We sometimes forget that Moses was once a shepherd, that he wasn’t always standing on a rock, with his staff I his hand, commanding the sea to open and let the Children of Israel travel through.  However, that is the image that comes to my mind, direct from Paramount Pictures in 1956 – and Moses looks a lot like Charlton Heston.  The other image is a lot older, from a Victorian painting – the very white baby with curly blond hair, floating in a woven reed basket among the bulrushes.

When you hear Moses’ name, your mental images are probably different from mine, but we do get some fixed ideas in our heads, that even when we know they can’t possibly be accurate, stick with us.  They may make us smile as we grow to understand just how inaccurate they are, but there they are anyway.  Here’s another one – what do you see in your mind’s eye?

There [on the mountain of God] the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. 

Ah – we think – the burning bush.  We’ve seen the paintings - a bush engulfed in flames.  How many of us immediately recall that what Moses is seeing isn’t a fire at all, may not look a lot like a fire, but is in actuality an angel?  Would a man caring for a flock of sheep been drawn away from them to check out a brush fire, especially one that doesn’t’ seem to spreading or presenting any threat to the seep? 

When the Lord saw that Moses had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”

Unlike what might be our first reaction, Moses does not flee, he does as he is told.  And as he stands or kneels there, God commissions him to deliver the Children of Israel from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 

Simple instructions which are difficult to carry out.  At the very least, Moses needs some way to convince both Pharoah and the Israelites that he has the authority to do this.  He points this out to God.  “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”, and so God does the unthinkable the almost unimaginable, God gives Moses His Name. 

In the Jewish faith, in many faiths, including Christianity, to be named is to be known, not just in a surface way, but in the deep mysterious way of the soul.  God has called Moses by name, and now God tells Moses: “I am who I am.” …This is my name forever, and this my title for all generations.” 

A long time later – Moses will come down from the Mount Sinai with ten laws.  The third reads: You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.

Unlike Moses, who worshipped the one true God, before God became incarnate and walked among us, along with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, we Christians worship God in the Person of Jesus.  We know His name – do we understand the power of that Name, do we truly understand who Jesus is?

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

Ther is no question who the Gospeler is referring to as “the Word”.  In a few more sentences He will tell us:

The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

We know that at the beginning Jesus was in unity with God, but aside from paintings of the Holy Trinity, when we picture Him in our mind, we see Him as a man. That was and is certainly part of the Plan – that humans should have a human being to Whom they can relate, from Whom they can learn, and through Whom they attain salvation. 

Mother Teresa always said that she had no imagination, and for that reason she prayed to Jesus.  Jesus was (and is) someone to whom she could open her heart, someone she could “see” with the eyes of her soul.  This is why God came down to us, to make our relationship with Him simpler and more direct.

But simpler does not imply easy.  We are taught we need only take time apart each day to meditate in silence, to wait for God to speak to us.  Do we do this?  It is doubtful, because while the instruction sound simple, the distractions of the world make it difficult to do.  Even worse, we seem to have forgotten or have failed to grasp just how important this time is in our lives, how powerful is the connection we make.

It is difficult for us, in a society that no longer sees Jesus Name as all powerful, to understand what it means to have the Name of God on our lips, and in our prayers.  The Jews of Jesus’ day understood.  They challenged Jesus and He replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, … before Abraham was, I am!”  And they picked up stones to stone Him, because they did understand that “I Am” was (and is) the ancient Name God gave to Moses.  A human man has just told them He is God, and they believe He has committed blasphemy.  They do not take this lightly.

It is Lent and we are moving slowly toward the sad reality of Good Friday.  We know what happened, can imagine what it was like in the garden as Jesus prayed and waited, knowing Judas had already gone to betray Him.  But do we remember what happened when Judas showed up with those Roman soldiers?

They arrived at the garden carrying lanterns, torches, and weapons.  Jesus, knowing all that was coming upon Him, stepped forward and asked them, “Whom are you seeking?” “Jesus of Nazareth,” they answered. Jesus said, “I am He.” … When Jesus said, “I am He,” they drew back and fell to the ground.

The power of the Name of God, the Name of Jesus, is beyond human understanding.  Even the Romans fell to the ground as Jesus identified Himself. 

So what does all this mean for us?  It would seem that Moses had an advantage over us today.  He saw the angel in the bush.  He heard the voice of God, and God commissioned him, gave him a task to accomplish.  We see a man dying on a cross.  We know He had last words, that He forgave us all, but what are we supposed to do in this world with this input?  What is our commission, our job? 

Moses encountered the Living God – have we?  Do we really know the living Jesus – not from books, but from being with Him in our hearts?  Have we heard the loving words He speaks to us?  We all have secular lives, but how infused are our lives with the power and the love of Jesus, of our living God?  We cannot know what God wants from us each day, unless we have contact with the living Jesus.

The Name of Jesus gives us a direct connection to Him, and the strength to live our lives as we are called to do, the strength to resist evil and sin, to be holy people.  To reach that Power, that Love, is simple.  We are the ones who complicate things by not setting aside time for meditation, time for prayer.  We must never give up on this daily intimate contact with Jesus as a real living person – not just an idea. Our soul needs that as much as the body needs to breathe the air. 

We have been given the power to be saints.  We don’t need to change anything, except our relationship with our God, which we are called to deepen every day as we pray and listen for His voice, as we call upon His Name.

Let us pray:

Lord Jesus, our God, we rely on Your almighty power and infinite mercy and promises.  and we love You above all persons and all things.  Be real to us, Lord Jesus, in our hearts and in our lives.  Help us set aside the shadows of this world, to make time for You, that we may live in Your Glory and do Your work in this world.  All this we ask for Your Love and Mercy’s sake.  Amen.