“You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.”
Luke 1:31 NIV
Jesus
Seventy-one years after the approval of the Society of Jesus by Pope Paul III in 1540 and 55 years after the death of its founder, Ignatius Loyola, the first Jesuits, the Frenchmen Pierre Biard and Ennemond Massé, set foot in what is now Canada, at Port Royal, May 22, 1611. “It is according to our divine calling,” Loyola had written, “to travel to various places and to live in any part of the world where there is hope of God’s greater service and the help of souls,”
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It is hard to believe that there are people in Canada who don’t know anything about Jesus, except to use His name, the name that is above all other names, as a curse word. The name of Jesus has been heard in this part of the world from at least the 17th century and likely even before that when the first East Coast fishermen arrived from Europe. The name Jesus was carefully chosen by God for His Son. Luke 1:31 tells us, in the words of the angel to Mary, “You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.” In Hebrew, the name Jesus is Yeshua, which means Yahweh saves. Jesus’ name was carefully chosen to define the reason He came. As God revealed His nature and His will to His people Israel, He promised that He would save His people from their sin. More than anything else, human beings need a Saviour, one who would bear the punishment we all deserve because of our sin, taking the punishment that our disobedience deserves. So, when Gabriel lays out God’s plan for Mary, He not only tells her what will happen, but gives her the name for her Son, the One that would transform the world one life at a time – Jesus. Has He transformed your life?
These have been words from the heart.
Bob Beasley