What is the name 'which is above every name'? It is the name Jesus. It
is to be noted that Paul scarcely ever uses that simple appellative.
There are, roughly speaking, about two hundred instances in which he
names our Lord in his Epistles, and there are only four places, besides
this, in which he uses this as his own, and two in which he, as it were,
puts it into the mouth of an enemy. Probably then, some special reason
led to its occurrence here, and it is not difficult, I think, to see
what that reason is. The simple personal name was given indeed with
reference to His work, but had been borne by many a Jewish child before
Mary called her child Jesus, and the fact that it is this common name
which is exalted above every name, brings out still more strongly the
thought already dwelt upon, that what is thus exalted is the manhood of
our Lord. The name which expressed His true humanity, which showed His
full identification with us, which was written over His Cross, which
perhaps shaped the taunt 'He _saved_ others, Himself He cannot
save,'--that name God has lifted high above all names of council and
valour, of wisdom and might, of authority and rule. It is shrined in the
hearts of millions who render to it perfect trust, unconditional
obedience, absolute loyalty. Its growing power, and the warmth of
personal love which it evokes, in centuries and lands so far removed
from the theatre of His life, is a unique thing in the world's history.
It reigns in heaven.
But Paul is not content with simply asserting the sovereign glory of the
name of Jesus. He goes on to set it forth as being what no other name
borne by man can be, the ground and object of worship, when he declares,
that 'in the name of Jesus every knee shall bow.' The words are quoted
from the second Isaiah, and occur in one of the most solemn and majestic
utterances of the monotheism of the Old Testament. And Paul takes these
words, undeterred by the declaration which precede them, 'I Am am God
and there is none else,' applies them to Jesus, to the manhood of our
Lord. Bowing the knee is of course prayer, and in these great words the
issue of the work of Jesus is unmistakably set forth, as not only being
that He has declared God to men, who through Him are drawn to worship
the Father, but that their emotions of love, reverence, worship, are
turned to _Him_, though as the Apostle is careful immediately to note,
they are not thereby intercepted from, but directed to, the glory of God
the Father. In the eternities before His descent, there was equality
with God, and when He returns, it is to the Father, who in Him has
become the object of adoration, and round whose throne gather with
bended knees all those who in Jesus see the Father.
The Apostle still further dwells on the glory of the name as that of the
acknowledged Lord. And here we have with significant variation in strong
contrast to the previous name of Jesus, the full title 'Jesus Christ
Lord.' That is almost as unusual in its completeness as the other in its
simplicity, and it comes in here with tremendous energy, reminding us of
the great act to which we owe our redemption, and of all the prophecies
and hopes which, from of old, had gathered round the persistent hope of
the coming Messiah, while the name of Lord proclaims His absolute
dominion. The knee is bowed in reverence, the tongue is vocal in
confession. That confession is incomplete if either of these three names
is falteringly uttered, and still more so, if either of them is wanting.
The Jesus whom Christians confess is not merely the man who was born in
Bethlehem and known among men as 'Jesus the carpenter.' In these modern
days, His manhood has been so emphasised as to obscure His Messiahship
and to obliterate His dominion, and alas! there are many who exalt Him
by the name that Mary gave Him, who turn away from the name of Jesus as
'Hebrew old clothes,' and from the name of Lord as antiquated
superstition. But in all the lowliness and gentleness of Jesus there
were not wanting lofty claims to be the Christ of whom prophets and
righteous men of old spake, and whose coming many a generation desired
to see and died without the sight, and still loftier and more absolute
claims to be invested with 'all power in heaven and earth,' and to sit
down with the Father on His throne. It is dangerous work to venture to
toss aside two of these three names, and to hope that if we pronounce
the third of them, Jesus, with appreciation, it will not matter if we do
not name Him either Christ or Lord.
If it is true that the manhood of Jesus is thus exalted, how wondrous
must be the kindred between the human and the divine, that it should be
capable of this, that it should dwell in the everlasting burnings of the
Divine Glory and not be consumed! How blessed for us the belief that our
Brother wields all the forces of the universe, that the human love which
Jesus had when He bent over the sick and comforted the sorrowful, is at
the centre. Jesus is Lord, the Lord is Jesus!
The Psalmist was moved to a rapture of thanksgiving when he thought of
man as 'made a little lower than the angels, and crowned with glory and
honour,' but when we think of the Man Jesus 'sitting at the right hand
of God,' the Psalmist's words seem pale and poor, and we can repeat them
with a deeper meaning and a fuller emphasis, 'Thou madest Him to have
dominion over the works of Thy hands, Thou hast put all things under His
feet.'