When We Are Misnamed

Billy Minshall did a remarkable job with the sermon yesterday, talking about what it means to be a ‘quiet disciple’ like Thaddeus.

One of the things we talked about in the message is that when Matthew and Mark mention the list of disciples, Thaddeus is in it. But in Luke and John, Instead, it’s “Judas, son of James.” John even points out that Thaddaeus’s one line in all the Bible was by “Just, not Iscariot.” I imagine this poor buy being named “Judas Thaddaeus” and realizing later in life how many people would confuse him with the traitor who betrayed Jesus. So he changed it. Or maybe they did (they got too tired of calling him “Judas not Iscariot).

Have you been associated with a name you don’t appreciate? For some of us in the trans community, it could be a ‘dead name’ that we don’t use anymore. For others of us, it’s a nickname (I have a family member whose parents called him “Little Dick” into his 40s). For others of us it might just be the name ‘Christian’ or ‘Evangelical’ - because some much political weight goes into those terms.

If you’ve ever had desire to change your name or affiliation, why is that? What does it say about you or about the world we live in>