Weekday of Christmas Time
The Most Holy Name of Jesus
3 January 2026
What’s in a name?
In our culture,
names are often chosen because they sound nice,
or because they carry family significance.
But in the world of the Bible
—and especially in the Jewish world of Jesus—
names were never accidental.
A name revealed identity.
A name spoke destiny.
A name told you who someone was and what God was doing through them.
So when the Church pauses to honor the Holy Name of Jesus, she is not focusing on a word we say, but on a reality we live.
The name Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew Yeshua—which means “The Lord saves.” Every time His name is spoken, a confession is made. Not just about who He is, but about what God is doing.
That is why the Collect today asks that we may find protection and salvation in the name of Jesus. In Scripture, the “name” of God represents His presence, His power, His faithfulness. To call on the name of the Lord is to entrust oneself to who God truly is.
That meaning comes alive in today’s Gospel.
John the Baptist looks at Jesus and does not call Him teacher, rabbi, or miracle worker. He gives Him a name that would have stopped every Jewish listener in their tracks:
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”
This is not poetic imagery. It is sacrificial language.
For Israel, the lamb meant deliverance. The Passover lamb marked the night when death passed over God’s people and freedom began. The daily lamb in the Temple bore the hopes and sins of the nation. By naming Jesus this way, John is saying something astonishing: this man is where salvation will happen.
And notice something important: John’s recognition of Jesus comes before the Cross, before the Resurrection, before the Church understands fully what will unfold. This is faith seeing more than circumstances allow.
That is what a name does in Scripture—it reveals God’s purpose even before it is fully visible.
The First Letter of John helps us understand what that name now means for us.
John tells us that those who are born of God do not remain the same. To bear God’s name is to share God’s life. “See what love the Father has bestowed on us, that we may be called children of God. Yet so we are.”
This is not symbolic language. It is identity language.
In Jewish thought, to belong to someone—to bear their name—meant to live according to their character. Children resemble their father not only biologically, but morally. To be called a child of God is to be drawn into God’s own way of living.
That is why John insists that sin cannot be treated casually. Not because God is harsh, but because our identity has changed. The name we bear matters.
If Jesus is truly “the Lord who saves,” then salvation is not just something He does for us—it is something He begins to do in us.
This helps us understand why the Church reveres the Holy Name of Jesus.
It is not a magic word.
It is not a superstition.
It is a declaration of truth.
To say the name of Jesus in faith is to say:
God has come near.
Sin does not have the final word.
A new life is possible.
In a Jewish household, a child was named on the eighth day—publicly, intentionally—because a name marked belonging. When the angel told Mary and Joseph to name the child Jesus, God was naming His mission from the beginning.
And that mission continues.
To be Christian is to live under that name. To act in that name. To let that name shape how we see ourselves and one another. To find our identity in that name. And to seek God through relationship in that name.
So today, the Church asks us a question as old as Scripture itself:
Do we know the name we bear?
Because in the end, what’s in a name is not just sound or syllables.
It is salvation.