What's in a Name?

Texts
1 Samuel 14:16-30; Acts 9:10-19a; Luke 23:32-43

In the account of Saul's conversion, three names which had heretofore been attached to some less than noble characters in the biblical story are, one might say, redeemed. Saul, the bloodthirsty persecutor turned disciple, was named after the first king of Israel who, after a promising start, fell out of favor with God and died in disgrace on the battlefield. Ananias, the disciple whom the Lord sends to restore Saul’s sight, bears the same name as a man who, earlier in the story (Acts 5:1-11), had been struck dead after he and his wife had conspired to withhold from the Apostles some of the proceeds from the sale of his property. Judas, in whose home Saul was staying after losing his sight, bears the same name as the treacherous disciple who betrayed Jesus.

The three principles in the story all have names associated with disgrace, deception, and betrayal. Yet Judas through his hospitality and Ananias through his compassion help to prepare Saul for his mission to carry “before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel” that name which is above every name. For Saul, being nurtured by the witness of these two disciples, began immediately to proclaim “Jesus in the synagogues, saying, ‘He is the Son of God.’”

What, after all, is in a name (that is, in any person’s nature) which cannot be transformed by the power of Christ Jesus, working within us through the Holy Spirit, to the glory of God the Father?