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HIS NAME IS JOHN

Luke 1:57–66

When Elizabeth’s time to bear the child was completed she brought forth a son. When her neighbours and kinsfolk heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her they rejoiced with her. On the eighth day they went to circumcise the child and it was their intention to call him Zacharias after his father. But his mother said, ‘No; he must be called John.’ They said to her, ‘There is no one in your connection who is called by this name.’ They asked his father by signs by what name he wished him to be called. He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, ‘John is his name.’ Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed and he kept on praising God. And great awe fell upon all the neighbours, and all these events were talked about in all the hill country of Judaea; and all those who heard them kept them in their hearts and said, ‘What will this child turn out to be, for the hand of the Lord is with him?’

IN Palestine the birth of a boy was an occasion of great joy. When the time of the birth was near at hand, friends and local musicians gathered near the house. When the birth was announced and it was a boy, the musicians broke into music and song, and there was universal congratulation and rejoicing. If it was a girl the musicians went silently and regretfully away! There was a saying, ‘The birth of a male child causes universal joy, but the birth of a female child causes universal sorrow.’ So in Elizabeth’s house there was double joy. At last she had a child and that child was a son.

On the eighth day the boy was circumcised and received his name. Girls could be named any time within thirty days of their birth. In Palestine names were descriptive. They sometimes described a circumstance attending the birth as Esau and Jacob do (Genesis 25:25–6). They sometimes described the child. Laban, for instance, means white or blonde. Sometimes the child received the parental name. Often the name described the parents’ joy. Saul and Samuel, for instance, both mean asked for. Sometimes the name was a declaration of the parents’ faith. Elijah, for instance, means Yahweh is my God. Thus in a time of Baal worship Elijah’s parents asserted their faith in the true God.

Elizabeth, to the neighbours’ surprise, said that her son must be called John and Zacharias indicated that that was also his desire. John is a shorter form of the name Jehohanan, which means Yahweh’s gift or God is gracious. It was the name which God had ordered to be given to the child and it described the parents’ gratitude for an unexpected joy.

It was the question of the neighbours and of all who had heard the amazing story, ‘What will this child turn out to be?’ Every child is a bundle of possibilities. There was an old Latin teacher who always bowed gravely to his class before he taught them. When he was asked why, he answered, ‘Because you never know what one of these pupils will turn out to be.’ The entry of a child into a family is two things. First, it is the greatest privilege which life can offer a husband and wife. It is something for which to thank God. Second, it is one of life’s supreme responsibilities, for that child is a bundle of possibilities, and on parents and teachers depends how these possibilities will or will not be realized.