In the name of Jesus. (Easter 4)
Acts 4: 5-12; John 10: 11-18
What do we mean when we use the phrase ‘in the name of Jesus’?
We have probably all seen scary film footage of sharp-suited evangelists shouting a blessing at people kneeling for healing. ‘In the name of Jesus I heal you’ – hand on forehead, knocking them over.
A few weeks ago I saw a Facebook notification of someone stating that their church will be ‘praying the name of Jesus over the city’. It felt a bit like an incantation or a spell. I wondered how the residents of the city might feel to have the ‘name of Jesus prayed over them’ in that way?
Of course for some people the name of Jesus is used as an expression of surprise or shock – it becomes a swear word ‘ Jesus!’
Meanwhile in our quieter corner of the church, we may find ourselves reluctant to speak the name of Jesus much at all. I think for many of us the embarrassment factor begins at ‘church’.. goes up for ‘God’.. up again for ‘Christian’ and is highest for ‘Jesus’.
Fortunately, Peter & John had no such embarrassment – or the story we heard from Acts would never have happened.
When the religious court, the Sanhedrin asks Peter and John ‘by what power or by what name did you do this?’ – then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, uses the opportunity to talk about the power of Jesus to heal and to save.
When Peter talks about the man being healed, and being healed in the name of Jesus, he then goes on to say that this Jesus is the means of salvation for all people. The words Peter uses for ‘healing’ and ‘salvation’ are the same. The man is saved from his life of begging and misery when he is healed.
Peter is clear he heals in the name of Jesus, but I don’t think Peter means that the name of Jesus is like a magic spell. Peter speaking the name of Jesus reminds the disciples, and the man is who is healed, and the 5,000 who hear and see and are also saved, that Jesus was the one who came to save. Through the living, continuing power of Jesus – who is like the stone rejected which becomes the most important stone of all – healing and saving continues.
The very name ‘Jesus’ tells Peter’s hearers why Jesus came. Jesus is the Greek form of Yeshua – itself a variant of Joshua – meaning “Yahweh (God) saves”. Jesus (Yeshua) came to bring and to live the Good News of God’s saving, healing, delivering love.
In this healing in the name of Jesus, Peter and John are declaring that the love of Jesus is still alive and active, and still bringing the saving, healing, delivering love of God.
We might be left with questions when we read this story from Acts: here’s just three of them.
Firstly, why did the Sanhedrin want Peter & John imprisoned and questioned for healing someone? It wasn’t the sabbath (Jesus was often accused of healing on the Sabbath); they didn’t touch the man (so there could be no accusations of doing something that would make them ‘unclean’). Surely healing a man and releasing him from his dependence on begging could only be good news?
According to NT Wright (Anglican Bishop and new Testament scholar), good news isn’t good news
“if you were already in power … and not particularly (good news) if you were in charge of the central institution that administered God’s law, God’s justice and the life of God’s people, and if you strongly suspected that this new movement was trying to upstage you, to diminish or overturn that power and prestige and take it for itself.”
The Sanhedrin were, it seems, concerned about upsetting the balance of power – of people starting to believe what could be dangerous, subversive, news of a God who cares for the poor and the down-trodden and who upsets the status quo.
Secondly, I don’t think we’d be human if we didn’t hear these amazing stories of the first disciples and the healings in the early church and not ask ‘why can’t we do that?’. How wonderful it would be to visit someone in hospital and say ‘in the name of Jesus Christ, get well and go home!’ and see it happen.
And yet.. if that did happen the danger would be that the focus of attention would be on the person who spoke the healing word and not on the name and person and ministry of Jesus. We have seen how Peter takes the opportunity to use even the questioning of the Sanhedrin to talk about Jesus – the cornerstone, the vital part of the building, the most important focus of all.
Perhaps miraculous healing, in our age, is too much of a distraction or even temptation. Even in the early church there were people using healing power to gain fame and wealth for themselves – but Peter always wants to proclaim the truth of God with us in Jesus to save and heal. I believe that prayer makes a difference and I believe that people are healed through God’s power today – but we don’t see that instantaneous, shocking, healing happen everyday.
So our third question – what does all this mean for us?
We might read the story and be amazed at the faith of Peter and John, and, like the crowd in Jerusalem, be ready to believe in the healing power of Jesus.
We might heed the warning not to want to use the name of Jesus like a healing spell to fulfil our wishes or bring us fame and fortune.
But what do we do?
We should remember the words of Jesus speaking of himself as the Good Shepherd of all the sheep. That includes us. The healing and saving power of Jesus, God’s desire to see us whole and loved, is for each one of us. We don’t need anyone else to ‘proclaim the name of Jesus over us’ like a spell or even a blessing. The Good Shepherd cares for us, protects us, saves us.
And like Peter and John, we can know the inspiration of the Holy Spirit helping us to proclaim the Good News of the healing love of God in Jesus in ways that might speak to the people around us.
What might proclaiming the Good news of God’s healing look like?
About 2 weeks before Easter, someone I knew when I was in Oxford, Beryl Knotts, died. She was wonderful – always smiling, hugely compassionate, great at hospitality. She had worked with Oxfam and served in South America with VSO and whenever anyone came to Oxford from elsewhere in the world, needing somewhere to stay, Beryl would find a space. She had 2 spare rooms in her house constantly available for guests – for a few nights, weeks or even months.
For her 90th birthday she challenged herself to knit 90 squares to make a blanket to give to a refugee family via ‘Oxford welcomes refugees’.
She laughed often and generously – especially at herself.
I never heard her preach – but her whole life was a lived example of the healing love of God.
She had planned her funeral (she was almost 93 when she died and had been getting weaker) and demanded ‘no eulogy’. But she wrote some words for the service expressing her gratitude to God for what she called her ‘rich and rewarding’ life journey. In those words she said :
“I believe loving goodness is always available through the Holy Spirit to those who trust and seek it…I have seen this goodness lived out in the struggles of many of the people I have known.. they are not all famous people…”
Beryl lived a life proclaiming the healing power of the name of Jesus without once preaching a sermon.
I believe we can all do the same.
In the name of Jesus – remembering the healing work of Jesus, committing ourselves to the same work of declaring God’s love, even when we upset the power of others – we can stand up against injustice and speak out for kindness and goodness and healing.
This might mean support for poor people, near and far;
action against climate change;
defence for the rights of the weaker people in society – children, refugees, those who are isolated;
speaking out for Post Office workers and all those badly treated by those in power;
backing our NHS as it seeks to heal without profit;
getting ready to vote on May 2nd ( and in a General Election later in the year) in the way which best proclaims God’s salvation.
In the name of Jesus we are saved and healed.
In the name of Jesus we can be part of the Good News of salvation and healing for others.
In the name of Jesus we can be bold to speak out so that all may know God’s love for them.
We break this bread/ we go from here
In the name of Jesus.
Amen.
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