Unexpected Christmas | Part 3 | Label Makers | Chris Voigt

Label Makers
An Unexpected Christmas
December 12, 2021

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.”

According to this line from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, names are a rather meaningless thing…at least from Juliet’s perspective. But I’m not sure that I would agree. One of the very first tasks that God gave to Adam in the creation story is the naming of all the animals. Naming is both important and powerful work. We give names or labels to all kinds of things. Names communicate value, purpose, and quality. They can identify aspirations or create expectations. But for all the good and positive things that names can imply or communicate, names or labels can also be damaging or hurtful.

Do you remember the generic label trend from the 70’s and 80’s? Those no-name white boxes, bags, or canned products with plain black lettering? For too many years, we lived on many of those, what were then less than high-quality brand substitutes. Generic mac and cheese? Gross! But eventually, the no-name trend gave way to the power of store brands…with recognizable names and reputations we could trust, that taste as good and sometimes even better than the brand name products. Oh, how far we’ve come! Although, I’ll never eat generic cornflakes again, no matter how good the store brand is. Names carry power and have meaning. Names can be an indicator of value or importance. No-name brands didn’t have the same pull.

This Christmas season we are looking at the names of the people in Jesus’ family tree. We’ve discovered there are a few surprising and unexpected inclusions in Jesus’ genealogy! This week, we’ll be taking a look at the story of someone who carried not only a distinctive name, but who also bore an eyebrow-raising label.