child… our new name
As I began reading in Mark this morning I couldn’t help but get hung up on how Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter. Name changes mess with me a little for I can get confused pretty quickly. In my opinion it would have been better if the Bible wouldn’t have talked about all the name changes and just called the people by their appropriate names to begin with.
However, I can’t help but think about what it means to have a new name. I mean throughout the Scriptures, people would constantly get a new name when they encountered some life changing event. It was a symbolism of an event that marked a newness of life for that individual. I mean Jacob (the trickster) was changed to Israel after the angel of the Lord beat him up and Saul to Paul when he quit killing Christians. I could list several more here, but I will save you some time… However, the new names were meant for the better. They were names given to show something far better was at stake for these people. They weren’t condemning names; they were affirming names.
It sounds kind of silly I know, and albeit I like my name Matthew, I used to want a new name. I have felt like and still do at times, that there are a ton of Matthews roaming the Earth, and furthermore, if I could get a new name that would let me have the ultimate life start over. I mean, I wouldn’t have had to move off to college!
However, like many of you and tons of these Bible people I did have a life changing event. I literally got tired of being the person I used to be (speaking of my character and all here), so I had to make a change. I was living the life that would make me popular and successful according the “world.” I went to church when it was convenient (and unfortunately I still do that sometimes) but more than anything I lived my life for me. I had a job that I was making tons of money but I was miserable. I got so miserable, I had to change. A change that was for the better, but was hard to make at first.
Through that tough part of my life I realized that life wasn’t meant to be lived to just cater to my every beckon call. It was meant to serve the Lord. For me, that meant to quit my job and become a preacher.
We all are meant to serve the Lord. We don’t have to quit our jobs, but we must serve. That whole process (when we realize that we are here for the Lord verses here for ourselves) is the first step in becoming a Christian. The other part is accepting Christ. For those of us who are Christians that means we are no longer called by our names when God speaks of us.
So we really do have a new name: child (John 1:12). How cool is that? Despite all the junk in our life and despite taking God for granted, when we accept Christ as Savior, we get a new name. One that is affirming, one that means we have great things ahead, one that lets us know we belong to something much bigger than we could ever imagine. As God’s children we are heirs with Christ. Dang, who would’ve thought that? Me and you heirs! There must be a God…
It’s like we are adopted into God’s family. I think he did this for a reason… the name change thing. In Bible times when a child was adopted by a family he was guaranteed his inheritance. Birth children could have their inheritance taken away but not the adopted. You probably already knew that though.