A New Name

INTRODUCTION

We are here to remember, to honor, and to give thanks to God for the life of Benjamin Bauman. We gather as a community of faith. We come together to bear one another’s burdens and be encouraged in the hope of the Gospel.

There is something very important about a name. Names connect us to our heritage and our families, and sometimes, the very life someone lives can reflect the meaning and the significance of the name. And of course, the name Benjamin is a name from the Bible. And as we reflect on the life of our Benjamin, we find that his own story is deeply connected to the story of the very first Benjamin in the Bible, which is found in the book of Genesis. It is a story that begins in sorrow but ends in a declaration of honor and hope. It is a story of a new name.

And that is the truth that gives us our unshakable comfort today, and this big idea we hold onto: Though our lives are touched by sorrow, God gives us a new name and receives us into glory.

NAME GIVEN IN SORROW

The story of the first Benjamin begins on a difficult journey. In Genesis chapter 35, Jacob and his family are traveling. They have just come from Bethel, and God Himself appears to him and reaffirms His promises of blessings and a future for the family of Jacob. Everything seems good.

However, the journey is suddenly interrupted by tragedy. Jacob’s beloved wife, Rachel, goes into a difficult labor. The struggle was real, and in her final moments, as she breathes her last, she gives birth to a son. With her last ounce of strength, she gives him a name that reflects the bitter reality of that moment. She names him Ben-oni. In Hebrew, that name means “son of my trouble.”

So, Ben-oni is a name born of trauma; it is a name steeped in pain. In that moment, Rachel’s entire world was pain, and so her son became, to her, the son of her pain.

And this is the moment that gives us the courage to be honest about the sorrows and troubles of our lives– the Ben-onis of our lives. While we know that our Benny’s life was filled with strength and love, his life was marked by deep and persistent pain and suffering. Benny knew the pains of a difficult childhood and faced, quite literally, a lifetime of sicknesses and health struggles. There wasn’t a part of his body that didn’t know pain. Benny’s life, in many ways, was a “Ben-oni” life, a life touched by many troubles.

I have to be honest with you. When I reflect on Benny life, I think to myself, “If I went through everything that Benny went through, would I have kept the faith?” And honestly, I don’t know. But what I do know is that, Benny, as imperfect as his life might have been, held on.

For many people in this world, that is where the story ends. They are defined by their pain, forever living under the name “son of my sorrow.”

But praise be to God, that was not the final word for the first Benjamin, and it is not the final word for our Benjamin Bauman.

The story doesn't end with the mother's sorrow. Jacob steps in and speaks a new word, a word of hope. Because though our lives are touched by sorrow, God gives us a new name and receives us into glory.

A NEW NAME GIVEN

What happens next in the biblical story is unique and powerful. In the Jacob family, it was typically the mothers who named their children. Leah named her sons; Rachel named her first son, Joseph. But here, in this moment, Jacob intervenes. The text says, “But his father named him Benjamin.”

Perhaps Jacob called him Benjamin immediately after Rachel said Ben-oni, or maybe some time passed; no one knows. However, what we do know is that Jacob overrides the name of pain and bestows a new name, a new identity, on his newborn son. He names him Benjamin, which in Hebrew means “son of my right hand.”

This is not just a nicer-sounding name. Of course, Benjamin sounds 1000 times better than Ben-oni. Benjamin is a name of honor and blessing. Benjamin means “son of my right hand,” and in the Old Testament, the “right hand” was the ultimate symbol of strength and authority. The right hand was the hand of power that shattered God’s enemies. To be seated at the king’s right hand was the highest possible position of honor. It was the right hand that was used to confer the primary blessing.

When Jacob renamed his son, he refused to let his identity be defined by the tragedy of his birth. He looked at this child of sorrow and called him a “son of strength, honor, and blessing.”