Calvary Lutheran Church

What's in a Name? The Messiah

Grace and peace to you from him who is, who was, and who is to come, Christ Jesus our blessed Lord and Savior. Amen.

Psalm 72:17-19

“May his name endure forever; may it continue as long as the sun. All nations will be blessed through him, and they will call him blessed. Praise be to the Lord God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds. Praise be to his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and Amen.”

Dear Christian friends:

            My sermon theme for these Sundays in Advent is: “What’s in a name?” This question, of course, is not original with me. It was made famous by William Shakespeare in one of his most famous plays, Romeo and Juliet. And the answer he gave to his own question was somewhat flippant. Shakespeare wrote, “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” In other words, what we call something is unimportant, what matters is what it really is.

            The Bible, for course, would disagree. What something is called in the Bible is usually just as important as what it is, because oftentimes the two are the same. For example, when God paraded all the animals to Adam to see what he would name them, whatever he called each living creature, the Bible says, “That was its name,” (Genesis 2:19), that accurately described that creature. When God first brought the woman to Adam he called here “Eve,” because “Eve” means living, and she would be the mother of all the living. The name is what it is.

And that is especially true for the names and titles of Jesus. Jesus’ names and titles are what he is. Indeed, if we knew nothing about Jesus except his names, but we had a thorough understanding of what they mean, we would have everything we needed to know about him.

Now Jesus has been given some 70 names and titles throughout both the Old and the New Testaments. We don’t have time to look at all of them, as worthwhile as that would be. But during these next Sundays in Advent we will try to get a thorough understanding of the most basic ones. So this morning,

 “WHAT’S IN A NAME?  THE MESSIAH”

            If we wanted to learn about Jesus purely from his names, the one name that we would start with, because it would contain the most information, would be the name “Messiah.” Unless Jesus is understood as the “Messiah” he is not understood at all. And the place to learn all about the Messiah is the Old Testament. The Old Testament tells us what the Messiah is; the New Testament tells us who the Messiah is.”

            The whole concept of messiah in the Old Testament was the belief that someone was coming, no one knew when, who would bring about a crucial turning point in world history and who would usher in a new era.

            Several individuals had already made a critical turning point in the history of God’s people. Moses, for example, had delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt through a series of catastrophic plagues. Elijah had delivered the Israelites from the false prophets of Baal with a dramatic display of consuming an offering by fire. But now with messiah, the turning point would be universal. Through messiah now all the nations of the world would in a sense be delivered, just as God said to Abraham, “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:3), that is, through Abraham’s offspring, from whom would come the messiah.

            And messiah would be connected with royalty. The prophet Zechariah wrote, “The Lord will be king over the whole earth, there will be one Lord, and his name the only name” (Zechariah 14:9). The Messiah would rule in the hearts of his believers here on earth, but on judgment day he would rule over all people. And then there will be one Lord—all false gods will be exposed for what they are, false. At that time his name will be the only name, because, as Paul wrote, “Every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-10).

            And messiah would be connected with justice. Solomon wrote earlier in Psalm 72, “He will judge your people in righteousness, your afflicted ones with justice . . . he will crush the oppressor” (Psalm 72:2,4). Justice means that the innocent are set free and the guilty are punished. God’s people here on earth would be set free from sin through the gospel, because the Messiah would forgive their sins. And we say, “That’s not justice. We should have to pay for our sins.” But the justice comes in when we know that someone already paid for our sins in full—that someone is messiah. The enemies of the messiah, on the other hand, who reject that forgiveness will be crushed and receive his damnation.

            Messiah would also be connected with salvation. Ezekiel wrote, “You will be my people, and I will be your God. I will save you from all your uncleanness” (Ezekiel 36:29), and as Martin Luther would say, “Where there is forgiveness of sins there is also life and salvation.”  

            Because the arrival of messiah would be so significant in world history, messiah was also connected with eschatology. In other words, the arrival of messiah would mark the beginning of the end. Nothing that would happen in the world would ever match the arrival of messiah whether you are talking about the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, the rise of Islam, the discovery of America, the Reformation, the Napoleonic wars, the Civil War, World War I, World War II. So the only thing left to happen in the world would be the end of all things.

            This in a nutshell was the messianic hope of God’s people in the Old Testament. Messiah was coming, he would bring about a critical turning point in history, he would act as  king, judge, and savior, and his arrival would usher in the end of all things.

            And that hope in the coming messiah was still alive when Jesus arrived on earth. It was that hope that caused John the Baptist to ask of Jesus, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” (Luke 7:20). Jesus pointed to his miracles and then let John judge for himself. And because of those miracles, it didn’t take long for people to realize that Jesus was that Messiah as he was known in the Hebrew Old Testament, or the “Christ” as he was known in the Greek New Testament. You see, “Messiah” and “Christ” are the same words with the same meanings only in different languages.

            So when Jesus asked Martha whether she believed that he was the resurrection and the life, Martha replied, “I believe that you are the Christ, the son of God, who was to come into the world” (Luke 11:27).  When Jesus asked his disciples “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). And Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven” (Matthew 16:17). If you know Jesus today as the “Messiah,” the “Christ,” it is a knowledge that God himself has given you.

            And Jesus himself knew that he was the Messiah. When the Samaritan woman stated her belief in the imminent coming of the Messiah, Jesus replied to her, “I who speak to you am he” (John 4:26). Jesus said to the Jews, “Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day, (the day of the Messiah), he saw it (by faith) and was glad” (John 8:26).  

            Yes, Jesus fulfilled every requirement of the Messiah. He did come when he was least expected. His coming made a cataclysmic impact in the world. And I’m not just talking about his virgin birth or the healing of the lame and the blind and the walking on water or rising people from the dead, I’m talking about his greatest cataclysmic impact of rescuing mankind from its enemies of sin, Satan, death, and hell. The world was destined for destruction because of its sin, but Jesus washed it clean with his own blood. And he alone could do it because he was, he is the Son of God. The angel announced to Mary, “The holy one to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).

            That title, the Son of God, is not given to anyone who just believes in God or loves God. That title is not given to simply any child of God. No. “Son of God” meant God himself, true divinity. Just as the son of a human being is human, so the Son of God is God. That is what God meant when on three occasions he spoke from heaven and said to Jesus, “You are my son.” God never calls anyone else his son—his children (plural), yes; his sons and daughters (plural), yes, but never his Son (singular).  

            It is also interesting to note that throughout his ministry, Jesus in speaking to others, never used the expression “our Father” when referring to God the Father. He always said, “My Father and your Father.” And that was because Jesus’ relationship to the Father is not the same as our relationship to the Father. We are creatures of the Father, Jesus is one with the Father.

            And if there is any confusion at all as to what the name “Son of God” means, it is immediately cleared up by another, even more direct name, and that is the name “God” itself. Isaiah described John the Baptist as a voice crying out  “in the desert prepare . . . a highway for our God” (Isaiah 40:30) John in his epistle wrote of Jesus, “He is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20). And in his Gospel John wrote, “The Word (another title for Jesus), was with God and was God” (John 1:1). Paul wrote, “For God was pleased to have all his fullness (the fullness of God) dwell in him” (Colossian 1:19). Thomas said to the resurrected Lord, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28).

            The coming of the Messiah was truly a cataclysmic event—to think that God himself should inhabit the very planet he himself created. And that is why other names that define Christ’s relationship with his creation have also been given him. For example, he is called the “Alpha and Omega,” the “Beginning and the End.” In other words, from him everything was started and from him everything will end. And he is called the “Firstborn”, in other words, the first in importance, the first in rank in the whole cosmos. And he is called the “Amen.” “Amen” means “it shall be so.” Jesus is the one who fulfills what he promises.  

            We dare not miss him as the Messiah when we celebrate Christmas again this year. Can that happen even to God’s people? Oh, yes. In fact, it did happen during the 400 years between the Old and the New Testament. Somehow the idea of Messiah got changed. After thousands of years of God’s prophecies and description of messiah, many in Jesus’ day didn’t want to hear about a universal king to rule in their hearts, but a nationalistic king who would save their nation from the Romans. They didn’t want to hear about a spiritual savior from sin, but a materialistic savior, a bread king who would fulfill their every physical desire. How absurd to limit Christ the Messiah to the political affairs of one little nation of Israel rather than expand it to the fellowship with God for the whole world. How absurd to limit Christ the Messiah to mere material possessions rather than expand it to the spiritual treasure-house of immortal salvation.

            But that sounds a lot like how Christmas is celebrated in this nation each year. It is merely a national holiday with parties and customs and decorations and time off from work and school. It is merely a time of materialism and commercialism, of giving and receiving things we have always wanted.

Let us celebrate Christmas this year with a focus on his names and who he is—the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God, the mighty God, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the Firstborn, the Amen. 

Let us celebrate Christmas this year with the high expectations of Solomon in this text. In fact, let us now pray his words in Psalm 72:

Dear Lord Jesus: “May your name endure forever; may it continue as long as the sun. All nations will be blessed through you, and they will call you blessed. Praise be to the Lord God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds. Praise be to your glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with your glory. Amen and Amen.”