40 Names of Jesus in 40 days of Lent — Day 29

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.

Matthew 1:21, Luke 1:31, 2:11

One of the names of Jesus is Jesus. It is obvious, but worth talking about.

Jesus — an ordinary name

The name Jesus was an ordinary name, it is fitting that when Jesus gave up his position to become not only an ordinary human but a humble servant of humans that he would take an ordinary human name. There were others with that name around at the time, in fact, it is a variation of Joshua in the Old Testament. (The Authorized Version, which when referring to Old Testament characters in its New Testament translation transliterates from the Greek refers to Joshua as Jesus in Acts 7:45 and Hebrews 4:8.)

There are other people called Jesus in the New Testament, Jesus Barabbas, Jesus ben Ananias and Jesus ben Sirach.

Although the name Jesus is seldom given in English speaking counties it is still common in other cultures such as the Spanish speaking world.

Jesus — a heavenly name

The name Jesus means ‘The Lord saves’ and was given to Mary at the annunciation and to Joseph by an angel in a dream after he had found out Mary was pregnant. ‘The anointed had been the name up to then (Messiah in Hebrew) but the name Jesus came from heaven.

The ordinary name Jesus is the name given to a saviour appointed by God from all eternity and had been long promised and much expected from the beginning of the world. Jesus is Saviour because he saves from every enemy: he saves from sin, from Satan, from the law, from the world, from death, and hell, from ourselves and wrath to come.