Jesus, the name of God (yikes!)

I don’t know what it’s like where you live, but in L.A. it’s much safer to drop the F-bomb than the J-word in mixed company. If you’re in the South— Mississippi, Alabama, Texas— droppin’ Jesus’s name is no more controversial than ordering a Coca-Cola, but in the major coastal cities of the U.S., it simply isn’t done: say the name Jesus at a bar-b-que in West L.A. and be ready to be talked about later, and not kindly, with the emphasis being on your intelligence and lack thereof. Why? You could say Mohammed or Buddha or Wicca Master all day long and no one would bat an eye. What is it about the name of Jesus that is so shocking, so unnerving, so divisive?

On Friday morning, Br. John continued his talk on the name of God, speaking now, specifically, of Jesus Christ. He began to identify Him by his different roles and relationships. Jesus, the Son of God. Jesus, the Word of God. Jesus, “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). And he said something particularly interesting and, at least to me, new: that our name is the part of us that turns towards others. It exists for the purpose of creating relationships. We delight in people knowing and remembering our names. We struggle to remember the names of others so that we might connect, or reconnect, with them. “A person’s name is, to that person, the sweetest most important word in any language,” according to Dale Carnegie. The name Jesus is the part of God that is seeking to be in relationship with each one of us. It is an invitation. An opening. God with a name tag on at the company mixer: HELLO, my name is….

Scary.

It has become common parlance for the very people who would never use the name Jesus with reverence to exclaim Jesus Christ! (Or, a variation, Jesus H. Christ— not sure what the H is supposed to stand for). It is almost always used at the point of exasperation or rage; why? Are they trying to blame Him for something? Are they asking him to solve something? And if Jesus is nothing more than a fairy tale for the weak, low-aptitude masses, then why bring Him into it at all? Why not mutter Pinocchio or Lancelot or Harry H. Potter? Why is it that the word Jesus Christ is buried in our psyches to spill out like a reflex in the first place?

“I have put my words in your mouth and covered you with the shadow of my hand–I who set the heavens in place, who laid the foundations of the earth, and who say to Zion, ‘You are my people.'” (Isaiah 51:16)

And so it is we have in Christ the name and the word and image of God. And in His people, the face of God made real through the love of Jesus. Here, my friends Joep and Karin from Holland (love the Dutch!) and the most luminous Chinese man, whose name I never got, but whose smile and joyful service as he cleared the dish tubs inspired me each and every day. If I knew how to form the characters to write Jesus in Chinese, I would call him that.