Bear His Name

Text: John 17:11b-19

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

          Today’s Gospel reading gives us an opportunity to pause between Jesus’ Ascension into heaven and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Chronologically, the reading from John doesn’t fall within this 10-day window. It’s a prayer that Jesus spoke on the night when He was betrayed. And it conveys the sentiment of what He still desires, even as He sits on His heavenly throne. “Keep them in Your name, which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one.” Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ, is asking His Father that we might be kept in His name. The name placed on us in our baptisms. The name we put on our signs and proclaim to the world about who we are. The name of Christ Himself rests on each of His followers. Christian is what we’re called, and Jesus prays to His Father that we would be kept in that name. His great desire, even as He’s on the way to the cross, is that His people would be kept in His name. And today, 2,000 years later, we retain His name. Christian.

WE BEAR HIS NAME AND THEREFORE HAVE

THE PRIVILEGE TO BE COUNTED AS HIS.

          It’s Mother’s Day, as you know. Happy Mother’s Day to all who have the privilege of bearing that name of mother. It means something, doesn’t it. When that child first says, “mommy” it brings joy to your heart. The name each of us has been given had meaning to our parents who gave it to us. Last names used to hold greater meaning than they do now, given that they generally would indicate what trade a person was engaged in. Now it has become traditional for a woman to change her last name to indicate the connectedness she has with her husband and the new unity of family they’re forging together. Names mean something. And the name of Christ that we bear as Christians is no different. It means something.

It means that we’re His, kept under His care. He says in His prayer, “While I was with them, I kept them in Your name, which You have given Me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.” Not one was lost who allowed His name to be placed on them and didn’t reject it. It’s the same with you, who take the name of Christ. Unless you reject the faith He has instilled in you and reject the name He has given to you, you will continue to be His, kept under His care.

It’s a sad reality, but those who reject His name in unbelief are on the road to destruction. More and more in our country we hear about the nones, those who are unwilling to call themselves anything, much less Christians. We can mourn this decline, but instead of wallowing in the truth that many are falling away, we can follow our Lord’s direction and pray that those who once carried His name and have now rejected it will be brought back into the fold. And in addition to prayer, we can take the opportunities placed before us to live out the name we still hold on to. The 4^th Century Church Father Gregory of Nyssa once said, “If we are not to lie when we call ourselves Christians, we must bear witness to it by our way of living.” When he says “our way of living” he’s not talking about living a perfect life. We know we can’t do that, and only Jesus ever has. He’s talking about being reflections of Christ. Bearers of not just His name, but also the message He came to proclaim. The message that it is only as we trust in the all-availing sacrifice that He made for us on the cross that we can be saved. Calling yourself a Christian means unflinchingly carrying with you that message. To one another. To your family. To your neighbors. To the world.

Jesus goes on to say, “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” Bearing the name of Christ certainly does not assure you of an easy life. Time and time again, Jesus tells us that our lives, lived with His name on us, is not going to be a walk in the park. So why do it? Why should we be proud to carry His name in this world that is sure to hate us? Quite simply, we do it “because (we) are not of this world, just as (He is) not of this world.” In the end – on that last day – what we face in rejection from this world will pale in comparison to the glory He has prepared for those who don’t reject the name and relationship He has given to us.

Just hearing that this is the prayer Jesus would speak to His Father in the hours before His suffering and death should help to sustain us in the troubles of this world. It should lay the foundation for the joy that’s to follow. We have received the full measure of this joy in the assurance that Jesus has succeeded in His mission for us and for all people. We can depend on Jesus’ word, which is the word of His Father that we will be one day separated from this unbelieving world. And that He desires for us, even in whatever time we have here, that we would be kept from the destruction caused by the evil one. He says it right there in His prayer. “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.”

“Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth.” Jesus desires that His people, His bride, the Church would remain in the truth. Because the Truth is the weapon we have to battle the evil one. That word sanctify carries the meaning of being set apart and carrying on the work that He had started. We are set apart in God’s truth, which is His Word. The source of holiness, of power, of saving faith is God’s Word. As we face a world that increasingly denies the truth of God’s Word, it becomes harder and harder to battle on these grounds. And yet, the only way to win the battle is to have the truth on your side. Jesus is the Word, and Jesus is the truth. And He is on our side. And He sends us into the world to proclaim His truth.

When those who bear His name – you and me – Christians all over the world – proclaim the truth, we’re telling the world that the only way to overcome this world is through faith in the One who has already done the work on our behalf. This is our apostolic mission. An apostle is one who is sent. Jesus says to His Father, “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” This is how it happened with the disciples and how it works for each of us. Sent into a hostile world with a message of salvation in Christ alone. Bearing His name and spreading His message. That name means something. It means everything. Bearing the name of Christ means that we are eternally connected to Him. And that He is on our side every step of the way. What a privilege it is to bear His name. Amen.

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.