I think they named oranges before they named carrots...

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet! Yeah ok, so that’s not actually me talking. But good old Billy Shakes does present a timeless question: why do names matter?

Comedian Demetri Martin once said they must’ve named the orange before the carrot.

“What’s this?”

“Well, it’s orange. We’ll call it an orange.”

“What about this?”

“Darn it.”

If we called a flower a turtle, only people who spoke English would know we were wrong. If I told a French person that a flower was named a turtle, he would call it a turtle as well. Why then, does anyone care about what we call a particular item? Or what kind of label we put on something? Or who was born from whom?

Matthew 1, though pretty much one of the most dry passages of the New Testament, is incredibly important because it denotes the lineage of Jesus. Why does that matter? Well, you see, it is one of the most concrete prophecies made about the Savior from the Old Testament that proves Jesus was the Son of God.

Names give us an identity. They tie us back to our old traditions. In Jesus’ time, sons were named after family members to continue the line. I find it interesting, then, to have read first about John the Baptist’s naming in Luke 1 and now Jesus’ naming in Matthew 1. Neither set of parents had much say in what they were to name their children. I pondered as to why this was for a while, and came to the conclusion that the reason John and Jesus started their own lives with names that did not resemble their families was specifically because they were starting a brand new family. They were laying the foundation for a new era in which lineage didn’t matter. The only name that mattered was God’s; the only Father who would carry on his line for eternity was the Almighty’s. The only name that keeps its meaning, no matter what language or spelling or religion it is spoken through, is the Creator’s. He transcends labels, and His identity will never be mistaken. Jesus showed us this by defying history before he could walk. He was teaching before he could talk.