The name high over all

Editorial:

The name high over all

“…that you may know …what is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named…”                  Ephesians 1:18-21
 
Who’s to blame for our problems? Who is going to save us? Sometimes it’s the same person!
 
Twelve years ago, many evangelical Anglicans around the world were relieved and even quietly excited that one of their own, Justin Welby, had become Archbishop of Canterbury. After the fractious debates around women bishops and sexual ethics, and continued slow decline in numbers of people attending church in England and the other Provinces of the British Isles, here was the man, surely, who would turn it around. Fast forward to the beginning of 2025, social media was awash with comments pointing the finger at the man who had just resigned from the prestigious post, accusing him as the one personally responsible for all the problems in the church. No need to do careful analysis of the complex trends in society and culture, or historic failings by whole institutions – no it’s much easier and simpler to blame one person. And then, looking forward, as interest and speculation grows as to who will be the next incumbent of the hot seat, again the discussion is all about the name – who will be the one person who can smooth everything over, or even better, lead “our side” to victory?! 
 
It's the same in sport (from the journalists’ output, one would be forgiven for thinking that it was the manager’s triumph in the Europa League final, not the Spurs team). And politics of course. Boris was the name on everyone’s lips, the one who would “get Brexit done”, the loveable rogue who would cut through red tape and improve living standards for everyone. Two and a half years later he was gone, and like Welby, blamed for everything. The name of power can receive the highest praise, or rapid decline in devotees, as the current PM is discovering. On the bigger stage, we no longer talk about the USA, Russia, China, but the names, the leaders spoken of with admiration, fear or contempt but always in awe of their power. In terms of how people receive guidance for living their lives and forming opinions, there is a galaxy of minor names, influencing through the various channels, on the left or the right, regarded as wise or malevolent depending on your viewpoint, given an almost spiritual status.
 
Ancient sculpture
  
In the ancient world, there was a similar fascination with powerful individuals. The spiritual power associated with their names was explicitly associated with religious practice. The modern world, believing that science and human psychology removes any need for belief in an unseen spiritual realm, sneers condescendingly at the way that the statues and names of human rulers were praised and petitioned like gods, in temples next to ones built for the invisible gods and goddesses of war, love, death and the sun. The ancients were, as many peoples in the world still are today, polytheistic, in the sense of believing in a world populated by many named deities in hierarchies of power. These unseen principalities were seen as behind the economies and conquests of nations as well as the smallest issues of personal and family life, for good and ill. Calling on their names was an important feature of formal religion and folk magic.
 
Living among this diversity of tribes and tongues with their allegiances to their own named deities was a people who were different, who since the time of their ancestors had understood that there is one NAME that is higher than all the others, not in the way that Zeus was leader of the gods, but of a completely different order of magnitude. This name was revealed to Moses as YHWH, understood as “I AM” (Exodus 3:14) and usually translated “The LORD”. The books of the prophets show a constant temptation to turn away from YHWH and to other more popular, apparently accessible spiritual names, and to compromise with powerful human names. Who would save them? According to the inspired prophets, someone connected with their own heroic king David, but the one who was to come would be greater. So David, inspired by God’s Spirit, sings in Psalm 110:
"The LORD says to my Lord,
Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.
The LORD will extend your sceptre from Zion, saying ‘rule in the midst of your enemies!…
…You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek’”.

 
Who is the “Lord” to whom YHWH, the creator God, grants this power and status over the enemies of God, human and spiritual, and at the same time is identified as a priest-figure, one who stands between and reconciles God and humanity? As Jesus pointed out to the theologians of his day, it cannot be merely a mortal man. Rather, David was given an insight that this is the Christ, the second person of the Trinity, the Son enthroned in Zion whom all powers need to kiss (Psalm 2), the one to whom all authority in earth and heaven is given, into whose NAME believers should be baptised (Matt 28:18-19), the one at whose NAME in due course every knee would bow (Phil 2:10), the one “far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked…” (Eph 1:21).
 
ascension sky
 
This is what we, since the early church, have remembered and celebrated on Ascension Day. Jesus’ death was the sacrifice enabling forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God. His resurrection demonstrated victory and power over death and an open route to eternal life for mortal humanity. Jesus was then visibly being taken up to heaven, received in triumph and enthroned at the right hand of the Father, demonstrating his place in the one-ness and three-ness of YHWH. There, his NAME is to be praised for ever and ever.
 
So we need to be careful not to focus too much on human names constantly invoked by our media as the ones with power, whether by attributing hope, giving praise or maybe fear and cursing. Behind them, and the group psychologies associated with them, may lurk principalities and powers that are still in rebellion against God’s rule. Rather, as the author to Hebrews says, we should fix our eyes upon Jesus, the NAME exalted above every name. That way we can pray and work for the kingdom, not caught up in the world’s way of thinking, but with understanding and faith, knowing where ultimate truth, love and power really lie.