He Was Named Jesus

12 Days of Christmas Reflection Series – Day 8

Luke 2:21

21 On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived.

Today is the first day of the year and that is why the greeting is “Happy new year or prosperous new year.”

But not only that, today is also the great feast day of the Holy Name of Jesus. According to the bible, the child that was born of Mary eight days ago or on Christmas day was circumcised and named Jesus today. The eighth day falls on the first day of the year, 1 January.

For those who are following the Feng Sui, the Chinese Zodiac this year is the year of the Tiger or to be precise the Water-Tiger.

There is a double inconsistency here. First, those who celebrated Christmas day and sung “glory to God in the highest” and marveled at the wonders of God in the name of Jesus turned him down and give importance to a pagan celebration of the new year and were preaching about the water tiger and promoted Feng Sui and the Chinese Zodiac. Second, the Chinese New Year is not yet today but on 1 February as it did not follow the Gregorian calendar.

For us Christians, our year starts on the first of Advent and ends on Christ the King Sunday. For us, all and every year is the year of Our Lord who was the Word became flesh, born of Mary and was named Jesus. “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth.” (Philippians 2:9-10)

Now, how dare you bishops, priests, and deacons of the church celebrated today as New Year’s Day and even preach about the year of the water tiger instead of emphasizing today’s festivities of circumcision and naming of the Lord Jesus, the name above every name!

Instead of bowing our knees to Him, we are bowing to other gods. The gods of money and prosperity. No wonder that we cannot follow and live out our faith in Jesus because we are entertaining many other things and beliefs aside from Him. We are adhering to other names aside from His mighty name.

Where do we lead our people, when we go with the flow of the commercialized Christmas and follow the non-Christian zodiacs of each year?

Hamburg, 1 January 2022, The Eighth day of Christmas