People don't usually give us nicknames on first meeting. But that’s what Jesus does when Andrew brings his brother Simon to see Jesus: "One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed)."
Andrew doesn’t need any more time with Jesus to be convinced of his identity as the Christ. And, as do most of us when we make a thrilling discovery, he immediately tells those nearest and dearest to us. In the absence of Twitter, Instagram, or and other networking platforms, Andrew finds his brother in person and brings him to meet Jesus. I don’t know that it would have been as transformative if Peter had first seen a picture of Jesus on Facebook – there is something about the immediacy of presence that opens us.
"He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, 'You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas' (which is translated Peter)." No social niceties – just, "Here’s what you’re going to be called from now on."
In our scriptures, more than once we see people’s names changed to reflect new missional identities. Abram becomes Abraham; Sarai becomes Sarah. Jacob is renamed “Israel” – a name that the whole community takes on. In the New Testament, the Hebrew-named “Saul” takes on the more Greco-Roman “Paul” some years into his ministry of evangelism among non-Jews. And here Jesus renames Simon bar Jonah “Peter,” or “Petros.”
And he does this on the strength of one look, as John tells the story. It’s possible that Jesus’ renaming Simon “the Rock” is a teasing way of saying “hard-headed”; we do know that Peter was stubborn. Rocks are also foundations, though, and Jesus may have been signaling the role he intended Peter to play in his new community, a role Peter maintains even into leadership in the earliest Christian communities.
What name might Jesus give you? Perhaps you already have a sense of having another, spiritual name. If not, here’s an invitation to play in prayer. Ask God, “What is my name as you see me?”
What name would you give yourself? What name describes your essence? Think of animals, or flowers, or emotions, activities – “Peaceful Runner,” or “Dancing Bee.” I’m being random, but it could be fun and insightful, to give yourself a name that describes you.
And then decide whether that is a name you want. It might describe who you have been, but not who you are becoming, or who you already are in God’s sight.
There’s an old song that goes, “I will change your name/You shall no longer be called wounded, outcast, lonely or afraid./I will change your name./Your new name shall be confidence, joyfulness, overcoming one; faithfulness, friend of God, one who seeks my face.”
The name God gives us conveys not only who we truly are, and who we are becoming, but how we are called to participate in God’s mission of healing and restoration. If you find yourself with a new name, look out! You may find yourself walking a new path of blessing and being blessed.
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