Baby name books and other resources are quite common nowadays. I remember pouring over names listed in a few of those books when our children were on the way. You don’t need one of them of course, but it is nice to see a comprehensive listing of all of the popular names out there. It’s funny how these names change over time. Some names were all the rage “back in the day,” but are pretty scarce now. Others have soared in popularity over the last decade or two. Here is a list of the top baby names of 2023 in the United States, according to BabyCenter:
Top ten girl names of 2023:
Olivia
Emma
Amelia
Sophia
Charlotte
Ava
Isabella
Mia
Luna
Evelyn
And here are the top male names:
Noah
Liam
Oliver
Elijah
Mateo
Lucas
Levi
Leo
Ezra
Luca
There are quite a few names on the male list from the bible, especially if you count the variations on Luke. It has always been popular in America to name baby boys after a biblical hero. You don’t usually get very many people that name their kid after a “bad” person in the bible. But there is one “good person from the bible” name that is suspiciously absent from the popular lists.
Where is Lazarus?
Ok, maybe you can’t count Lazarus as a bible hero, but you certainly can’t say many bad things about him. He is the subject of arguably the greatest of Jesus’ miracles. So why don’t we honor that by naming our kids after him? I checked on it. in 1960 only 1 in a million kids were names Lazarus. Today that is closer to 50 in a million. So the frequency is going up, but I bet it will be a while before you see very many people with that name.
You know the story of Lazarus, right? It is very popular around this time of year. Here is the whole thing from John’s gospel:
John 11:1-44
11 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, 7 and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
8 “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”
9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. 10 It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”
11 After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
12 His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” 13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
14 So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
16 Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
Jesus Comforts the Sisters of Lazarus
17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
28 After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” 29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.
32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
35 Jesus wept.
36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 “Take away the stone,” he said.
“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”
40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”
43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
The timing of this story is strange isn’t it? When Jesus is informed of his illness he doesn’t immediately go to see him. Rather he waits two days before making the trip. Why is this? Wasn’t time of the essence? Mary sure thinks so. She tells Jesus he could have prevented the death. So what is going on here? Why wait? One reason I suppose is that it wouldn’t have made any difference. By the time Jesus got there Lazarus had been dead for four days. And last I checked four days is greater than the two used up by the delay.
I did some digging on this one. It may all come down to when someone was considered dead by Jewish law. According to the Midrash a person was considered dead when the soul left the body. And the thought was that the soul liked to linger for a little while. This lingering was thought to take at least three days.
What do you think people would have said if Jesus arrived thirty minutes after Lazarus’ death and then resurrected him? They probably would have scoffed at it all. “He wasn’t actually dead,” they would proclaim. But if you resurrected him on the fourth day, that would be a “true” resurrection. In that sense Jesus actually got there as quick as he could.
Timing is a weird thing in the bible. The Israelites were slaves in Egypt for over 400 years. Why would God wait that long to liberate God’s people?
Timing is a weird thing for us too. Most of our technology has been created to save us time on tasks. We get upset when we don’t get an immediate response from our phone or computer. We complain if a medication dares to take half an hour to kick in. We have little patience as a society. And we don’t understand God’s timing at all. But here is the thing: God has never promised us an explanation for when things happen. Patience is a virtue for a reason. It isn’t easy. We want things to happen when we want them to happen. God doesn’t work that way. God does things when God wants to do them. We live in God’s time, not ours.
Martha didn’t understand that either, but in the end it turned out all right. It will for us too.
God Bless