Without a Name...You're a Nobody

There may be nothing more valuable to you than your name. I watched a movie recently called “The Stanford Prison Experiment.” This was a real study sponsored by the Psychology department at Stanford University back in 1971.

On campus, over summer break they turned some empty classrooms into a mock prison and recruited volunteers to play the part of prisoners and guards. They were promised to be paid $15 and told that the experiment would last 2 weeks. The purpose of the experiment was an attempt to investigate the psychological effects of the struggles between real-life prisoners and prison guards.

The first thing that happened is the prisoners were stripped down and given was a gown to wear with a number on it. And once the experiment began prisoners were not identified by name but by their number. The use of ID numbers was a way to make prisoners feel anonymous and to take away their sense of individuality.

Long story short, the experiment ended after six days as the guards took their role way to seriously and became demeaning and sadistic. And the prisoners became too fearful and depressed to continue.

It was strange watching this movie where every one of these mock prisoners were tagged with a number and their names became irrelevant. It made me realize just how important our name is to us. It may be our most precious earthly possession. Because without a name, who are you? 

You’re a nobody.

A name helps you identify yourself. But it is more than that. Something about you is revealed when you tell someone your name. 

Sometimes names have meaning. My name, James, means: "he grasps the heel". It is a form of the Old Testament name "Jacob" who followed his twin brother Esau out of the womb while holding on to his foot. Later in life, Jacob became quite the artful deceiver. The meaning of his name is how the phrase: "you're pulling my leg" was coined. (And no, I am not joking. This is true.)

Other times, names often can tell a person where you’re from. Surnames like Grabowski means you’re probably Polish. Smirnov, you’re Russian and Wang, you’re from China.

A name can also tell people what it is that you do. In the British Isles, names like: Baker, Butler, Carpenter, Miller or Smith. These were all occupations that became surnames.

Other times, mostly in Scandanavia, names told people who’s your daddy was: Anderson, Carlson, Wilson and so on.

The point is, without a name it’s hard to get a grip on who a person is, where they’re from or what they’re like.

Perhaps this was the struggle Moses faced when God revealed himself to him at the burning bush. Moses took off his sandals, standing on holy ground. He knew he was being spoken to by God. But he just had to ask: "What is your name?” Moses wanted a tag or a label to attach to God so that the Israelites could know something specific about who sent him.

This is the first time in Scripture that God actually identifies himself by name. And he does so by saying my name is: “I AM”. It’s a strange name. It sounds more like a broken sentence. A fragment. I am…what? Well, there is no “what”. God just is.

It’s like when your kids asked when they were little: “Why is the sky blue?”

Did you answer them by explaining all the complicated atmospheric variances? Did you tell your kids about the Tyndall Effect? Or Raleigh's scattering of inversely proportionate molecules? 

No. When your kids asked you if the sky was blue, what did you say? You probably said: “It just is.” Why? Because explaining the complex reason behind why the sky is blue is too much for a 5-year old to handle. This is the same reason why, when Moses asked God what his name was, God said, my name is: “I AM.”

In other words, God is too complex, too majestic to be explained within the confines of a a single name. The fact is, there are over 900 different names in the Bible, all trying to describe an indescribable God.