⁶ “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.”

Atoning was what the religious leaders tried to do to Jesus when He “manifested” God’s name to them. To manifest something means to bring it out into the open, to make it known. Jesus’ brothers wanted to force Jesus’ hand, albeit in a somewhat mocking way: “For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” (John 7:4). It was not yet Jesus’ time or the method by which He would fully reveal himself.

We begin to see glimpses of Jesus manifesting God’s name in John 9:3. When His disciple asked about the cause of a man’s blindness, Jesus responded, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” Jesus’ healing of this man was designed to display God’s work, in a tangible, real way. Although the name of God, ‘Yahweh,’ was not used in this incident, the meaning of His name certainly is evident in the display of God’s being active in the man’s life.

In fact, earlier in John 8, Jesus actually uses the name of God in reference to Himself, where three times He verbalizes the unique, startling phrase, “I am” without any predicate (by predicate, we mean “I am _____” like the door, bread of life, etc.). Here the phrase “I am” stands alone. The most well known of these occurrences is, “Truly, truly I say to you, ‘Before Abraham was born, I am’ ” (John 8:58, see also John 8:24, 28). That was very much non-standard Greek grammar. It was startling and unmistakable to the Jewish ear. Such a phrase in their Old Testament Scripture was attributed to and used only of God, where the “I am” is identified with the name of God, “Yahweh.” The play on words first spoken from the mouth of God, now are being spoken from the mouth of Jesus. The Pharisees wasted no time in picking up stones to execute Him for blasphemy, and rightly so if Jesus were only just a man.

But He wasn’t just a man. He was God incarnate, showing in human form that God was not silent, He was not inactive. As His name indicates, God was actively working on behalf of His people in whatever way they needed. Their greatest need was forgiveness and healing. And the greatest manifestation of God’s name was about to take place, as Jesus would soon make the perfect, satisfactory, substitutionary sacrifice for the sins of the world.

Lord, You are not a god invented by human minds, but are the real Creator of the universe; and You are active in this world—in my world, in my life. Thanks.