Readings: John 1, Deuteronomy 4: 1-14, Ephesians 1
NAME CHANGE
Jesus said: “So you are Simon, Son of John, but you will be called Cephas.” John 1:41
Simon’s day began as an ordinary day in the life of a fisherman. As he was preparing his boat and nets for fishing his brother, Andrew, came running through the sand shouting – “We have found the Messiah.” What in the world was he talking about? Jews from Abraham on have been looking and waiting for the promised Messiah. Now out of the blue his brother says he found Him, here in our area, how can this be? To Simon’s credit, he could have dismissed the whole idea as crazy and went fishing – but he didn’t. Instead, he followed Andrew to see for himself. When he reached Jesus, Jesus took one look at Simon, identified him, and changed his name from Simon (meaning to hear) to Peter (meaning rock). Can you imagine the shock, confusion and wonder Simon must have been feeling? Here he was standing face to face and nose to nose with the long awaited Messiah and the first words out of His mouth were – “you will be called Cephas.” Simon could not have imagined how dramatically his life would change from that moment on – as a matter of fact, it would never be the same.
But then, that’s how it is when Jesus meets us face to face, nose to nose, and heart to heart. He changes our name from sinner and enemy of God to a holy, blameless child of God. And, as Peter will soon discover, when we spend a great amount of time with Jesus, watching Him, listening to Him, and learning from Him, our lives change dramatically and we never want to go back to who we were before Jesus came into our lives.
As we continue our journey with Jesus, we join John, the disciple Jesus loved (John 13:23, 19:26, 20:2, 21:7, 20) who, though the words and power of the Holy Spirit, records the works, the miracles, and the teachings of Jesus to show that He truly is the promised Messiah who has come to change us and “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” John 20:31.
Prayer: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” Ephesians 1:3-6
