What’s in a name?

“What’s in a name?” “That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.”

Today I want to challenge these words from Shakespear’s play –  words Juliet is speaking about her one true love, Romeo –  “That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet”.

I want to suggest that names DO matter, and the reading in Acts (4:5-12 see below) centres on the power and significance of a name. In this case, it’s the name of Jesus that that through the power of the Holy Spirit, brings healing and salvation.

The lead up to this is in Chapter 3 of Acts: a man crippled from birth, who gets carried to the temple gate each day (a gate called Beautiful – so it must have been a nice gate) and he gets to beg to those going through the gate to the temple.  Peter and John were going to the temple to pray, the beggar asks for money, but Peter’s response: “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give to you.  In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk”

The people who witnessed the man who had been lame from birth, now saw him walking, leaping, dancing and praising God.  The outcome, for the early church, was outstanding, the community of believers grew, from a handful of Jesus’ followers to numbers quoted in Acts from ….120, 3,000 and now 5,000. All of these people were baptised in the name of Jesus.

Sounds good so far, doesn’t it? Church growth, salvations and healings, so…. why then, were the leaders so upset. Peter and John, for all their good work, were arrested hauled in front of the who’s who of the synagogue: leaders, elders, teachers of the law.  The priests ask them a specific question: “By what power or by what name did you do this [by what power did you heal this lame beggar]?”

Peter even points out that they were “…questioned [that day] because of a good deed done to someone who was sick…

Why does something so good cause so much trouble?

Wouldn’t you think that synagogue leaders would at least wonder HOW this healing miracle came about, how a man went from being totally crippled to dancing and leaping and praising God?

But they seemed not a bit interested in the outcomes (people being healed, salvations, the spectacular growth of the church etc)…..

Peter and John were rocking the religious boat. The power brokers wanted to keep things just as they were.    They had incorrectly assumed that Peter personally had caused all these healings, that he was some powerful, shaman like healer:

(Chp 3,verse 12) “Men of Israel [Peter says], why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?” (v. 16) “It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see”.

Remember the words Peter spoke to the crippled man…

“Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give to you.  In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk”

This is the Christian story, this is our story, this is what is means to be a Christian.  Silver and gold we might not have either, but what we DO ALL HAVE is the name of Jesus.  THIS name matters. It is with this particular name that we can approach people just as Peter did as reach out with the message of Christ.  A message that allows people to become whole, to touch life as they have never known it before.  In doing so, that they too may dance, you praise God! This is what Peter was pointing to.  And this is something that you don’t need to go to Bible college to do!

In Chapter 4 of our reading….

(Chp 4, verse 13) “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished….”

What these men were trying to explain is that a movement (we now call the Christian movement) had broken out of the religious protocols, was spreading like wildfire and could not be contained in the normal channels or regulated by rules and structures.

For the religious power brokers, the work of Peter and John was frightening!  It was this raw power of God breaking out, unmediated and on the move.

There are many powerful names in the world, there are many significant voices that we can listen to.  Peter and John do something very significant in our Act reading.  They stand (as ordinary men) before the power brokers of their day, (full of the Spirit) and say it’s not me, it’s not from me, it’s not my name, it’s not my power…. It is Jesus’ name:

This is what we give to the world (it is NOT silver and gold)…. It is the NAME of Jesus Christ.

 

Acts 4:5-12 New International Version (NIV)

5 The next day the rulers, the elders and the teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. 6 Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and others of the high priest’s family. 7 They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: “By what power or what name did you do this?”

8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, 10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. 11 Jesus is

“‘the stone you builders rejected,

which has become the cornerstone.’[a]

12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”