Naming a new baby is a challenging process. It’s hard to please everybody with a name.

Dad wants a name with alliteration in it, something that would sound good on a sports report--Sammy Sousa or Johnny Justice.

Mom selects a fashionable name and insists on no nicknames, something like Catherine or Benjamin or Cynthia.

Grandpa wants to use a hallowed family name from the past, like Reuben or Horatio or Alonzo.

It’s a miracle of diplomacy that a name is ever chosen.

Once the name is selected, it takes on a certain fascination. One day a hospital nurse retrieved an interesting bit of doodling from one of the labor and delivery rooms. Evidently, an expectant father had had some time on his hands as he awaited the blessed arrival. Here is what he wrote:

“John Paul Jones, J. Paul Jones, John P. Jones, the Rev. John P. Jones, the Honorable J. Paul Jones, Senator John Jones, Dr. J.P. Jones, President John Jones, “All the Way with JPJ!”

What if the baby turned out to be Juanita Pauline Jones?!

Mary and Joseph did not face the hassle of finding a name for their baby boy. That important matter was decided for them by God, and the message was delivered by an angel.

Join me by way of imagination in the village of Nazareth just about six months before the birth of Jesus. Joseph, a young carpenter, is deeply troubled. His fiance Mary is pregnant, and he knows that he is not responsible. She says it is the Lord’s doing, but Joseph is a hard-headed practical sort. He fears that she has been raped, perhaps by one of those hated Roman soldiers. Maybe she fears that if she tells the truth, Joseph will do something rash that will endanger his life. Since she refuses to budge from her story, he has decided to break the engagement quietly in order to restrain the public disgrace. His heart is breaking because he loves her.

Immersed in these sad thoughts, Joseph falls into a troubled sleep. He has a dream. In it an angel informs him that Mary is telling the truth. He is ordered to skip the balance of their one year engagement, to go ahead and marry Mary right away. In other words, let the gossips talk!

The angel revealed something else very important. . . the name of the baby and his title. “You shall name him Jesus,” said the angel. And his title shall be one predicted by the prophet Israel some 800 years earlier—“Emmanuel.”

The name and the title really reveal the breath-taking essence of Christmas.

I. FIRST, IN VERSE 21, WE READ: “YOU ARE TO NAME HIM JESUS, FOR HE WILL SAVE HIS PEOPLE FROM THEIR SINS.”

Jesus is the Greek form of a familiar Jewish name “Joshua.” It means literally “Jehovah is salvation.”

Jesus’ very name highlights the most important mission of his life: to save us from sin and reconcile us to a holy God. The angel listed only one task at the top of Jesus’ job description: “to save his people from their sins.” Jesus was the only baby in history born for the purpose of dying. Across his manger fell the shadow of the cross.

Recently I heard a report on the AIDS epidemic. The disease is more widespread than we thought, and here is the really frightening factor: 90 percent of the people who are infected with HIV, which leads to AIDS, are not aware of their infection.

There is only one virus that is worse. It is the sin virus and it infects 100 percent of humanity. Here is the really frightening part: 90 percent of people do not know they are infected with an eternally lethal virus.

The symptoms of the virus are everywhere: divorce, drug and alcohol addiction, child neglect, lying, stealing, racism, family friction, and money worship. Unless the sin virus is cured, it will increasingly wreck our lives in this world and separate us from God forever.

The good news is that a cure has been found for the sin virus. God sent it through a baby, His Son, born into a Bethlehem manger. How do you appropriate the cure? Repent of your sin, declare your need, claim this Jesus by faith as your Savior and Lord.

The devil is not happy at all because the cure is so free and available. So, in order to mislead us, he suggests that we don’t need to be saved and changed by God. The devil reminds us of our good deeds: we give to the Salvation Army and we haven’t broken any law, except speeding, in a long time. So, who needs to be saved?

Some preachers help the devil because they prefer to proclaim a Christ who came to compliment our best rather than to redeem our worst.

My friend Wallace Chappell tells a story about a college student named Elizabeth who came home for Christmas after having been enlightened by a religion course. She said to her pastor, “I am not interested in a God who saves me; I am more attracted to a God who identifies with me.”

The wise pastor said, “Elizabeth, let me ask you a question. Imagine yourself on the 8th floor of a hotel in Nashville, and the building catches on fire. The stairs are blocked by fire. Let’s suppose that firemen at great risk to themselves manage to climb extended ladders to your window. At that point, do you want those firemen to save you, or just identify with you?”

Thanks be to God that the first task of the Bethlehem baby was to save his people from their sins.

II. THERE IS A SECOND NAME OR TITLE THAT GOD GAVE US FOR HIS HOLY CHILD: “EMMANUEL” WHICH MEANS “GOD IS WITH US.”

This is the only place in the New Testament where we find the word “Emmanuel.” But isn’t it interesting that the last words of Matthew’s gospel constitute the definition of Emmanuel: “Lo, I am with you always.”

Emmanuel tells us that Jesus was authentically human, really one of us. He was not a divine superman disguised as a human. He had no x-ray eyes or knowledge of computer technology. He was as human as you or I. He experienced loneliness, illness, and anger.

He laughed, played, swam, got spankings, caught fish, built tables, and attended parties. He was tempted. He wept and felt despair.

Why is that important? Because if Jesus really experienced our humanness, then he can understand us thoroughly.

Bishop Earl Hunt recalls that as a boy of about ten, he had an intense desire to have a record player. This was over 60 years ago when record players were rather primitive by today’s standards. One day he found a second-hand model in a downtown store for only $5.00. Of course, those were Depression days when $5.00 was a significant amount of money. Earl rushed home to tell his Dad, thinking all the while that because money was so scarce, his chances were somewhere between slim and none. To his amazement, his Dad liked the proposal. They worked out a series of chores around the house by which Earl could earn the money. Then the father and son went downtown and bought the record player. Earl was thrilled beyond description.

Some years later, when Earl and his parents were visiting grandparents at Christmas, his father said, “Son, do you remember the record player that I helped you buy years ago?” “0f course I do,” said Earl. His father said, “Come with me. I want to show you something.” They walked out to an old barn, filled with ancient kegs and boxes. There his father uncovered an old, dust covered object. It was one of the earliest Victor record players, with a huge megaphone-type speaker and the trademark of a dog on top. The father fondled the old machine lovingly and said, “Son, when I was a boy I worked three months in the fields to repay my father for buying me this thing. I wanted it badly. So, you see, when you came to me asking for a record player, I understood immediately. I had been there.”

That homely illustration has a message in it. Because Jesus was an authentic human being like us, he understands us. Jesus has walked the paths we walk. He is truly Emmanuel, God with us. As the author of Hebrews declares, “Because Jesus himself was tested.. .he is able to help those who are being tested.” (Hebrews 2:18)

About this time each year, people will ask one another, “Have you caught the Christmas spirit yet.” It is contagious and church is a wonderful place to catch it.

I recall the story of the 7-year-old boy who exclaimed to his teacher, “My mother brought my brand new baby brother home from the hospital today. Please come over this afternoon and see him.” The teacher said, “Oh Johnny, I’d love to, but I better not come over so soon after your mother got home.” Johnny said, “But you don’t have to worry. It ain’t catching.”

I don’t think that birthing babies is contagious, although when one looks at this congregation, one might wonder.

My prayer is that you will catch the authentic Christmas spirit, which is a lot more than some seasonal jolliness and charity. The real Christmas spirit is based on two important convictions: this Jesus, born in Bethlehem, is our friend who understands our every need, hurt, frustration and joy. He is Emmanuel, God with us.

The second conviction is this: This Jesus, born in Bethlehem, is the Son of God who sacrificed his perfect life so that we could be saved.

If those two truths cause your heart to beat faster and a tear to occasionally moisten the eye, then you have the real Christmas spirit.

Over 100 years ago Father Damien deVeuster, a Belgium priest, began working with lepers on a small Hawaiian island. Father Damien found a source of fresh water in the mountains and developed a system to bring it down to the colony. He built the first sanitation system and clinic. He and the lepers constructed a chapel for worship.

Each Sunday Father Damien would begin his sermon with these words: “You lepers know that God loves you.” This went on for years. Finally, one Sunday Father Damien began his sermon this way: “We lepers know that God loves us.”

Father Damien had contracted leprosy. Yet he went on loving and serving until his death in 1898.

Even as Father Damien cast his lot with the lepers, Jesus Emmanuel invested himself totally with us sinners. “He was bruised and wounded for our sins. He was lashed, and we were healed.”

All that Jesus came to do is summarized in those names: Jesus . . . Emmanuel. If you know that, you’re ready for Christmas!

Copyright: Dr. William R. Bouknight, Christ UMC, Memphis.