“We have a Proper Name in Jesus”
In the year 2013, while I was at the Seminary, in one of our biblical hermeneutics study session. We had to mention our names and their meaning. I realized how every name comes with a story. Sometimes a name carries the power of life and death. Some names emanates from hardship, hatred and bloodshed, while other names comes from happiness, love and peace. But they always tell a story. In real world, names are not treated equally. Every generation has its own roll call for unpopular names. Hence we find others changing their names legally to suit themselves. Others change the cycle of names from their ancestors. Therefore, unnamed things are hard to love and harder to file.
A new name, A new start!
Names as we know, can limit us, hurt us or even kill us. For instance, Jacob means ‘trickster’ for he came from his mother’s womb already grabbing his brother’s heel. However, his name changed to Israel after
a night wrestling with God. In Ancient world, jurors at the trial would vote with stones, black for guilty, white for innocent. Jesus says at our trial before God we will be declared innocent, not because we are innocent, but because we are tried under a different name. A name with no record attached to it. We will be given a white stone with a new name on it. All our failings, our crimes against God will be lost forever, our records will be clean.
I invite all to come and be given a new name and new identity. In Jesus, we have proper names that relegate our fake identities and fake
passports. My call is to invite you to confess your name
Soli De Gloria
Rev. P. Mosia