Faith.In.Life
Doff Thy Name
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty.’ Serve me faithfully and live a blameless life. 2 I will make a covenant with you, by which I will guarantee to give you countless descendants.”
3 At this, Abram fell face down on the ground. Then God said to him, 4 “This is my covenant with you: I will make you the father of a multitude of nations! 5 What’s more, I am changing your name. It will no longer be Abram. Instead, you will be called Abraham, for you will be the father of many nations. 6 I will make you extremely fruitful. Your descendants will become many nations, and kings will be among them!
I once heard a fascinating talk from Donald Miller who says that Shakespear in writing Romeo and Juliet had to have Christianity in mind while he is writing it due to the historical background of his day. While Shakespear may not speak to Christianity directly by speaking the name of Christ, there are parallels non the less. The play script begins as follows:
Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
We know that by Genesis 3 humanity falls from Eden into sin and shame. The New Testament says that we are enemies of God in our brokenness as we who are anything but holy cannot stand in front of an all holy God. God’s holiness demands our worship, and yet by our very humanity we are unable to live up to this expectation. This is the ancient grudge, but any time we sin, and especially when we as a people follow our own way to create a name for ourselves through sinful actions and ultimately trying to worship idols.
God establishes a covenant here with Abram once more, reiterating his promise that we have seen before. Within the bounds of a convenant is sealed through typically each party cutting their hands and shaking on the agreement with the unspoken vow that If either party breaks their end of the covenant, then it is there blood that will be spilled - and over and over again whenever the covenant is re-established between God and his people it does not take long for we as fallen vessels to break our end of the covenant - and the price required of us is in fact our own civil blood that is spilled, which oddly, is the very genetics that makes us unclean. It is a viscious circle, where we are enemies of God being unable to live up to his expectations, while equally we turn and curse God for the very ground and womb that do not produce in the way they were originally meant to as designed by God before the fall.
We are then reminded of the scene we all probably know better than teh rest of the script for Romeo and Juliet, in which Romeo comes to call on Juliet in what has long been known as the balcony scene, which partially goes in this way:
JULIET
O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I'll no longer be a Capulet.
ROMEO
[Aside] Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?
JULIET
'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.
ROMEO
I take thee at thy word:
Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized;
Henceforth I never will be Romeo.
To which we should stop here for a moment. Abram and Sarai are the names given from their parents that ultimately connects them back to Adam and Sarah. It represents the enemies we are to God, and the ongoing war that wages between humanity and God. God essentially beckons Abram much like Juliet beckons Romeo. God says if you deny your very family and take on my name, the name above all names, and serve me faithfully and live a blameless life then I will guarantee my devotion back to you. Or in other words, if it wasn’t for your name - o, be some other name! - So Abram would, were he not Abram call’d…without that title. Room, doff thy name, and for that name which is no part of thee - Take all of Myself - from hence forth you will be known as Abraham and later God says something similar to Sarai - doff they name, and hence forth you will be known as Sarah.
Abram, we are told, fell face down on the ground, and in doing so, affirms Romeo’s own response - I take Thee at thy word: Call me but loved and I’ll be new baptized; henceforth I never will be Romeo.
The incredible aspect of it all, is then God says that my covenant is with you: I will make you a father of a multitude of nations - and later on to the people of Israel God says this promise is for you, for your children, and for your children’s children. That is, it absolutely blows my mind that when God had Abram first look at the stars and say that for as many as the stars you can count, so numerous will your descendants be - that God might have looked at the numerous stars in the sky, only to be thinking of each and every one of us.
But to this point I have intentionally left out a portion of what Juliet says, when she says “retain that dear perfection which he owes,” do which for however attractive Romeo may have been, one has to wonder what perfection Shakespear is talking about - for even Romeo and Juliet’s love affair will (spoiler alert) end in tragedy.
That is when we flash forward to Galatians 3:16-18, where Paul says
16 God gave the promises to Abraham and his child. And notice that the Scripture doesn’t say “to his children,” as if it meant many descendants. Rather, it says “to his child”—and that, of course, means Christ. 17 This is what I am trying to say: The agreement God made with Abraham could not be canceled 430 years later when God gave the law to Moses. God would be breaking his promise. 18 For if the inheritance could be received by keeping the law, then it would not be the result of accepting God’s promise. But God graciously gave it to Abraham as a promise.
And in Romans 9:8 Paul says
8 This means that Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. Only the children of the promise are considered to be Abraham’s children.
You see, we are all enemies of God, and it is our very names that we all inherit the sin of Adam (and we sin because we are sinners), but while we were still enemies of God, Christ, the singular offspring and child died for us as the perfect sacrifice, and I believe is the most valuable part that may be missing in the Romeo and Juliet scene - that is the perfect bridgroom that says to the bride once and for all:
What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain my own dear perfection which I offered once for all
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.
The question, his will respond as Romeo does by saying:
ROMEO
I take thee at thy word:
Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized;
Henceforth I never will be Romeo.
And in our baptism, we die to ourselves, and we each receive brand new names, that is the name of “Christ”-ians - and are made new being born into Christ’s own likeness, perfection, and ultimately, His Resurrection.