Keeper of Keys

Most people do not get the chance to choose their name.  But I had a friend who had that chance to choose a new name.  It was something our crew of friends prayed about.  In the process we all started sharing the meaning behind our names.

My one friend shared that her name means “who is like God.” However, her parents didn’t like that the word hell was in her name.

I quickly looked up the meaning of my first and middle names.  The meanings?  LAME! Of the island of Brittany and keeper of keys.  I guess I keep the keys to the island.

When I asked my parents why they named me keeper of the island keys, “It was just a name.  It sounded good.”

We ended with shame defining and God redefining. God literally redefined Adam’s wife.

You see in Genesis 2, we find God calling the man he created Adam. He realizes that Adam is alone and from the man, He creates a woman (v.21-22).  From that creation and through the duration of the fall, we see this woman referred to only as that:  woman.

Look at how God addresses them during their punishment:

16 To the woman he said,

“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
    with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
    and he will rule over you.”

17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

Genesis 3:16-17 (NIV) emphasis mine

Adam and the woman.  She has no name.  It is only after the Fall, after sin that the woman was named Eve.

Shame defined and damned the woman as just that - no name.  God redefines her into Eve meaning living.

I think the name living is powerful since all of creation happened through the life of Adam and Eve.  Wouldn’t exist without them multiplying.  From the woman named life came life.  But I think there is something so much more.

Let start with that from the woman named life came Life.  From the lineage of Adam and Eve, came Jesus - the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:16).  But there is something more there.  

From the lineage of Adam and Eve came death through sin.  But from sin, only because sin exists, comes Life. See it was out of sin, that the woman was named life.  It wasn’t before - it was out of sin and repentance.

Isn’t that how Life comes too?  We don’t have Life just because we exist.  We find Life out of and in spite of our sin when we repent.  Repentance leads us to true identity (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Eve was the first redefined after her sin.  We see another literal name change after His resurrection before His ascension.  A man named Saul - known as the Christian killer - was on the road to Damascus.  On that road, on his way to find others to kill, he encounters the Risen Savior.  The recorded conversation is short but the transformation was long-lasting.  After that encounter Saul becomes Paul (Acts 9).  Paul, the man of many letters.  Paul, the man captured and tortured for his faith in Jesus.  Paul, the man killed for his commitment to God.

Saul the killer into Paul the redeemed.

Less dramatic but we see the identity of the disciple Peter.  I often relate to the disciple Peter the most.  He loved Jesus so much but he questions so much. But Peter was so committed.  We see this in the scene along the Sea of Galilee.  Jesus asks His disciples who people say He is.  They shout out the answers.

Jesus changes the subject back on them again:

15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

And Jesus responds to Peter so sweetly:

17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”

Matthew 16:15-18

It’s right after this encounter that Jesus first predicts His death. And after some time, He tells Peter that he will deny Him.  Betrayal.

But Jesus prophesied his identity - after your denial, in spite of your denial - My Church will be built on you. You, the wavering in faith, will become the unwavering foundation of My Church.

In spite of sin, murder, and betrayal, new identities.  We see again the broken way giving way to abundant life.