When I was 11, for Christmas my parents gave me and my older brother new book bags;—canvas briefcase-style backpacks with a single shoulder strap. And on each bag, our full names were embroidered, stitched in white lettering: first name, last name, and middle initial. It was not the gift I wanted.
I knew that returning to my fifth-grade class that January sporting a briefcase with my name embroidered on it was not going to win me any cool points. So, when I opened my gift that Christmas morning, I failed to see its significance. And I let my disappointment be made known. “This is not what I wanted. It’s not what I’d asked for.” I had asked for the video gaming system that was popular that year. Now, we did end up getting that system later, which caused a lot of excitement initially, but in a year or two, it was outdated, and soon after, it stopped working. Looking back, the bags made a better story. And they made us stand out, sort of. Not for any cool points. They were briefcases, after all. But, when someone made an ironic “nice bag” comment;—and it wasn’t one of those times that I got all embarrassed and pretended like I didn’t hear it;—I would tell them how my dad was in the military, and he’d gone “TDY”;—that stands for “temporary duty,” I tell them. “He’s the executive officer for a four-star general, and they did a trip across the Pacific Ocean, to South Korea, and my dad got these bags there, one for me, and one for my brother. And he had our names put on them and everything.”
Sometimes, I did get embarrassed about the bag. But I always loved telling people what my dad did. The best thing about those briefcase bags was that dad had one just like it that he carried to work with him every day;—same embroidering, same family name.
The name outlasted the video games and the bags. That was the gift. Our parents had given us their name, because to them, we were sons worth having. Their name on us meant that they claimed us. In many cultures, that’s how it goes, right? Whether it’s the father’s family name, or a combination of the mother’s and the father’s names in Spanish-speaking cultures, for example, the meaning is the same. When someone puts their name on us, it means they’ve claimed us. They thought that we were someone worth having. They gave us their name and they made us want to live up to that name. It’s a gift every child needs;—a good name to stand on and to live up to. And when it’s missing, or when the family name brings, not gratitude, but regret or guilt or shame, kids will try to find someone or something else that will claim them.
That’s the idea behind street gangs. Greg Boyle, a Roman Catholic priest who served as a pastor for 20 years in urban Los Angeles, the street gang capital of the world, in his book, Tattoos on the Heart, Father Greg says that in the soul of nearly every gang member he knows, “there is a hole … in the shape of his dad.”i
A former gang member explains how his father walked out on them;—on his sixth birthday. “We had a cake and everything,” he said. “I waited for my dad to come home. I waited and waited. Nighttime came. He never did … I cried till I was nine … I don’t cry anymore. I just hate him. I wish I never knew his name.”
Maybe, deep down, we’re all just kids, looking for someone to claim us, for a name to stand on, to live up to, to embroider in the fabric of our lives or tattoo on our hearts. I’m speaking to you as someone from the family claimed and named by Jesus from Nazareth, the Son of God, who is called Christ. I’m a Christian. That’s my people. That’s my family. Years ago, some followers of Jesus, my parents included, baptized me. As Jesus had commanded, they baptized me in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. They put God’s Name on me.
I still have other names I’m called by;— Mike, Michael, Mikey, Zeigler, Ziggy, sometimes just Z. I’m called “American,” after an Italian explorer; I’m called a “Saint Louisan,” after a French Catholic King; I’m called “Lutheran,” after a German pastor. All these names are part of my story, but they are all under the Name Jesus. And I’m speaking to you in his Name.
Jesus is a Hebrew name. In Hebrew it’s pronounced Yah-shua. And there’s a Name inside His Name. “Yah,” is a shortened version of the Name of God revealed in the Old Testament of the Bible. It’s the same “Yah” in the word “Hallelu-Yah,” a Hebrew phrase that means “Praise Yah.” Yah is the shortened version of God’s personal Name.
No one knows for sure how to say His full name, though, because the ancient Jewish people so revered God’s Name that, at some point, they decided never to say it out loud because they were afraid of misusing God’s Name and falling under God’s judgment. So, whenever they saw the Name written, they would just say, “Adonai,” which means, “the Lord.” This is where the confusion comes when you hear God’s Name pronounced “Jehovah.” Jehovah is a mixed-up pronunciation of God’s Name.
See, ancient Hebrews wrote their language in an abbreviated form. They only wrote the constants, no vowels, probably to save space on the scroll. So, when the scribe read the scroll out loud, he had to mentally fill in the vowels from memory. Later in history, scribes made little dots and dashes under the consonants to indicate vowel sounds, to help jog the memory. But whenever they came to the consonants for God’s Name;—because they’d never say God’s actual name out loud;—they wrote the vowels for the word that means “Lord”;—”Adonai.” And instead of saying God’s personal Name, they’d just say, “the Lord,” out of reverence.
Then, sometime in the Middle Ages, a monk in Europe, trying to decipher these ancient Hebrew scrolls, he saw the consonants for God’s Name, plus the vowels for “Adonai,” and came up with this pronunciation, “Jehovah,” which only added to the confusion over how to say God’s Name. Hebrew scholars today think the name was probably pronounced “Yahweh.” We know the first part because of the “Yah” from “Hallelujah,” which means “Praise Yah,” but we don’t know for sure how to say His full Name.
I once tried to explain this confusion over God’s Name for my church in St Louis. I explained all the bits about the Hebrew vowels and consonants. And to help them get it, I tested them with the word Hallelujah, because it’s one Hebrew word that many people know. But, I didn’t tell them it was Hallelujah, but I was pretty sure they could guess it. So, on the big screens at our church, I projected the following consonants: H-LL, Y-H. I said, “Okay, here are the consonants for a word you know. Try to fill in the vowels.”
The whole congregation sat silent, staring at the letters on the screen, H-LL, Y-H. Finally, Judy, an elderly woman raised in the city, shouted, “Hell, yeah!” Which, I suppose, could be an urban expression for “Praise the Lord.” So much for my lesson on God’s Name.
Nobody really knows how to say God’s Name, anyhow. The ancient Name God spoke to Moses at the burning bush, the Name that means, “I AM WHO I AM,” the Name of the One who is a consuming fire, whose Name scribes and sages were too frightened to speak aloud, that pronunciation has been lost.
We lost God’s Name, but God found us, and He gave us the name He’s always wanted us to call Him by: Jesus;—Yah-shua. “Yah” is the first part of God’s Name. And “shua” means “saves.” That’s what Jesus’ Name means;—Yah saves, the Lord, God, Adonai, saves. Saves from what? Saves from guilt and regret and sin and shame and death and hell? Yeah, from all of that, Hallelujah, for all who trust in His Name and call on His Name and stand on His Name and, by God’s grace, live up to His Name.
The Bible tells how we lost God’s Name, and how we tried to make a name for ourselves. God created us. Not because He needed us, but because He decided we were worth having. God;—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in community and conversation, overflowing with the eternal joy of simply being together, God created. And God claimed us, and He stood ready to do all things that would make us want to live up to His Name. But just a couple of pages into the story, humankind got caught up in the wrong gang;—led by the devil, a fallen angel, a creature hell-bent on rebellion against God. And that’s why the world looks the way it does and feels the way it does today;—shamed, guilty, orphaned. Because we’ve been following the wrong lead. We’ve been trying to make a name for ourselves, doing whatever we think it takes;—posturing, performing, manipulating. So, God sent His Son, Jesus to save us, to call us back to where we belong.
But when Jesus came, people were threatened by Him, people just like us, even God’s people felt threatened. So, we had Him crucified. We left Him hanging there and ran to salvage what little reputation we thought we had left. But God stayed committed. God the Father raised His Son from the dead to prove to us that to Him, we are still sons and daughters worth having. Jesus rose from the dead to give us His Name.
And just before Jesus ascended back to His Father’s side in heaven, after He promised His first followers that He would be with them until He returns to raise the dead and renew all things, after He promised to send His Holy Spirit in His Name, after He commanded them to baptize all nations and put His Name on them, just before He ascended, Jesus lifted up His hands and blessed them.
Now, we don’t know for sure what He said, but it is possible that He blessed them with the same words we say on this program to end every episode: the ancient blessing God gave to Moses to give to the people to bless them, the blessing recorded in the book of Numbers 6. There, God said, this is how you are to bless My people. And when you bless them, you will put My Name on them and I myself will bless them.
Stay with us to the end, and I’ll speak that blessing over you. I’ll do as God commanded me and put His Name on you and tell you whose you are. Whether you’re close to Him or far from Him, His Name is for you. Whether you’d forgotten or you’d never been told before, His Name is for you. Whether you’re trying to do the right thing or just need a place to start over, His Name is for you. Jesus’ Name, spoken over you in Baptism, stitched into your baggage, tattooed on your heart. He died and rose and will return to claim you. He did what even the best parents could never do, and what gangs can only imitate, because He loves you. You know that His face lights up when He hears you calling. When you come into the room, He looks up. When He sees you, He smiles, because to Him, you are a son, a daughter worth having.
And if you’re under His Name with us, then we get to devote our lives to living up to His Name. And when we fail, He still claims us. Go read the book of Numbers, where that old blessing is found. The people fail. Again and again, they fail. And God keeps saving them because that’s what God does. That’s what His Name means: Yah-shua, the Lord saves. Jesus does. He saves us when we’re embarrassed of Him or upset that we didn’t get the thing we wanted, or when we’ve made an embarrassment of ourselves. Jesus still saves and blesses. So, we bless others. We talk about what Jesus does. We do what He does. We give others a name to stand on, and to live up to.
Pastor Greg, that priest I told you about, who works with youth in Los Angeles, he offers an example of how. In his book, Tattoos on the Heart, he shares a story about a 25-year-old former gang member named Cesar. Cesar had just gotten out of a four-year stint in prison. And if you’d seen him on the street, you probably wouldn’t realize that he feels like an embarrassment. You’d probably steer clear from him, this huge hulking ex-con, his expression menacing, his muscles swollen from lifting weights all day in the prison yard.
But Pastor Greg sees him on the street, he sees 11-year-old Cesar, when he was part of the church parish. Pastor Greg had taught Cesar the Christian faith. He’d blessed him; he put God’s Name on him. He was part of the family that offered Cesar something like the parent-child bond that tells the fatherless that they’re loved.ii
But Cesar had gone looking for an imitation in a local gang, which caused a lot of excitement initially, but soon enough, stopped working. And now, at 25, he’d spent more of his life locked up than not. He was a picture of failure.
So, fresh out of prison, Cesar calls up Pastor Greg. He says, “Hey, I’m staying with a friend in his apartment, away from the projects and the hood and the homies, and you know what;—I don’t got no clothes! My lady, she left me. She burned all my clothes, you know, in some anger toward me, I guess. So I don’t got no clothes. Can you help me?”
“Sure, son,” Pastor Greg says, “I’ll pick you up after work, at six o’clock.”
They go to JCPenney. Pastor Greg buys him 200 dollars’ worth of clothes. In the checkout line, they notice people staring at Cesar. “Dang, G, do I look that scary?” he asks. Pastor Greg shakes his head, no, and says, “Yeah, pretty much, dog.” Later, when just the two of them are talking, Cesar becomes quiet and vulnerable, frightened, like an orphan. “I just don’t want to go back,” he says, “I’m scared.” He turns to Pastor Greg. “I gotta ask you a question. You know how I’ve always seen you as my father;—ever since I was a little kid? Well, I have to ask you a question.” Cesar pauses. And the gravity of it all makes his voice waver and crumple. “Have I … been your son?” Pastor Greg answers with an urban expression: “Oh, hell, yeah,” he says.iii And Cesar hears that he’s someone worth having, and lets out a sigh that sounds something like, “Hallelujah.”
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
i Gregory Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart (New York: Free Press, 2011), 91.
ii Ibid., 92.
iii Ibid., 28-31.
Reflections for September 21, 2025
Title: Someone Worth Having
Mark Eischer: You’re listening to The Lutheran Hour. For FREE online resources, archived audio, and more, go to lutheranhour.org. Now Dr. Zeigler welcomes Professor Reed Lessing, the Edwin and Esther Laatsch Chair of Old Testament Studies at Concordia University in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Mike Zeigler: Thank you, Mark. Welcome to the program, Reed.
Reed Lessing: Good to be here.
Michael Zeigler: Reed, you’ve got a new book out. It’s titled Hope in the Wilderness: Practical Insights from the Book of Numbers. So, I’m going to start with the obvious question, Reed. What made you think anyone would want to read a book about numbers?
Reed Lessing: Yeah, (laughs) it is a book for accountants and CPAs and statisticians, right? And for the rest of us it’s probably kind of an uphill climb. I would imagine that anyone who has started a reading program through the Bible would enjoy Genesis, parts of Exodus. Leviticus, it starts to slow a little bit, lots of sacrifices and the Day of Atonement. But wow, when you get to Numbers, it feels as though your gas tank is leaning toward empty, right? How am I going to stay with this? How am I going to apply all of this? The reason why I wrote the book and the reason why I think it’s helpful for Christians would be right there in the book’s title: Hope in the Wilderness. In the wilderness. So, biblical authors are going to describe their lives as waterless, as formless, as feeling lost, as wondering where God is, asking God, “Where are You leading me?” So, this “in the wilderness” certainly is going to apply to really everyone’s life. And those who are in Christ Jesus understand that a lot of life is going to be lived “in the wilderness,” as we march toward our heavenly promised land. And I want to give people hope, right? Hope in the wilderness journeys of their lives.
Michael Zeigler: In the book, you describe this wilderness period as “in-between” times. You say that Moses has written a survival guide for us for in-between times. How does Numbers help us reframe or see those in-between times in a new light?
Reed Lessing: A lot of life is spent in-between. And what I experience is that I’m impatient during the in-between times. I love to start things. We start and we are like a hot knife through butter, right? There’s great enthusiasm. And then, when we end things, oh my gosh, I just finished this degree or this project. What do we do if we’re not beginning and we’re not ending? There’s all kinds of temptations during the in-between times, to get bored, to get aloof. So much of life is going to be lived, not with the sizzle of the start and not with the euphoria of the finish, but just plodding along. And so, that’s what the book of Numbers teaches us-what to avoid, how to learn from Israel’s failures and successes, and keep our eyes on the Lord of Numbers who faithfully guides us through pillar of fire, pillar of cloud, which points finally [to] God’s real presence in the pillar of fire, pillar of cloud, points to the Author and Perfecter of our faith. So, Jesus begins and He also finishes. That’s Hebrews 12.
Michael Zeigler: You mentioned these temptations that we face in the in-between, and you see these temptations assaulting the people of Israel. And I love the way you describe it in your commentary. There’s this problem of “when-and-then” thinking. They can be looking back, when we were in Egypt, things were so much better, or when we finally get there, things will be great. So, tell us more. How did you come up with that “when-and-then” thinking, and what does the book of Numbers have to say about that?
Reed Lessing: I think both. You kind of nailed it, is a number of times the Israelites think about the days when [they] ate leeks and onions by the Nile, right? And so, they tend to idealize and romanticize their slavery in Egypt. Like those were the good old days! They get caught living in the past. And, of course, they can’t wait to get to Canaan, right? After just three days on the journey, in Numbers 11, they’re grumbling, they’re complaining, they’re protesting, they’re lamenting, all of which is to say there are a number of verses in the Bible that invite us to live fully, really present today. Give us this day our daily bread. This is the day the Lord has made. Psalm 95: “Today, if You hear His voice, don’t harden your heart.” So that’s the great temptation, to be living in the past or the future. And then, kind of just a zombie, a computer chip-I’m just kind of going through the motions today. I don’t want to do that. And God doesn’t want that for us, either. So, the “when-and-then” thinking is stinkin’ thinkin’.
Michael Zeigler: We had the message today on that beautiful blessing from the book of Numbers 6, and this is right at the beginning, before all the trouble. And speaking of being fully in the present, that God’s blessing is not for the future. It’s right now–the Lord bless you and keep you, right now, make His face shine on you, right now.
Reed Lessing: Exactly. Yes. Yes. And Numbers 13:2 says our God turned the cursing into a blessing. Once God places His blessing upon us in Christ Jesus, we are “un-curse-able,” right? And this is a wonderful gift of God. In fact, this prepares us for the curse of the cross, Galatians 3:13, which has turned into the absolute blessing of forgiveness and resurrection promises on Easter. So, we could say that this Aaronic blessing is part and parcel of the whole book of Numbers.
Michael Zeigler: Thank you so much. You’ve helped dispel some false beliefs about Numbers, that it’s just boring, [or] for people interested in intermediate algebra. But it’s actually quite practical. It speaks to us in these in-between times. Thank you, and we will have you back and we’ll talk more about Numbers, going forward.
Music Selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.
“Crucifer” by Sydney H. Nicholson, arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.
“Seek Where You May to Find a Way” From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House) Used by permission.