Prologue
I found it difficult to put up a case for him. So I put on hold for quite sometime and prayed about it. The answer finally came. “Heureka! Heureka!” (I have found it!) I will write about his relationship with Jesus, his half brother.
Prologue: James, the half brother of Jesus
Jesus grew up in a sizable family that included four half brothers—James, Joses, Simon and Judas (who would later write the epistle of Jude)—and sisters, at least two (Matthew 13:55-56). James did not seem involved in Jesus’ ministry and yet became a prominent figure in the early New Testament church. He is most likely the author of the Epistle of James. He appeared a somewhat indifferent and even a skeptical, condescending sibling to Jesus. So why was he chosen as another leading witness for the risen Christ Jesus? Here is his own account (as read and constructed mainly from the Scriptures, some historical references, and my own understanding).
James’ narrative account of his relationship with Jesus
One of the men, a brethren, from the Jewish counsel came last night, and told me urgently that the Jewish religious leaders have decided my death sentence secretly, and they are coming to take me for stoning soon. Strange to say, I am at ease and have peace and joy in my heart. As my last farewell, I would like to talk about my relationship on earth with Jesus.
I am James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Many of you already know that I am also the younger half-brother of Jesus (Yeshua). I was born after my parents returned from Egypt with Jesus, who was five years my senior. As you probably know, there is little record of me in the four gospels of Jesus Christ. And all the records therein about me (as a family members) did not show a close relationship between us (his half-siblings) and Him. As you also probably know by now, having read my letter to the twelve [Hebrew] tribes [scattered abroad among the Gentiles] in the dispersion, I am a man of few words, and am careful with my tongue.
The age gap between Jesus and the rest of us was not a barrier in our sibling relationship. But it means that Jesus had to undertake more responsibilities for the family. Our parent(s) were very pious and made sure that at five years old one was fit for the Scripture, at ten years the Mishnah (oral Torah, interpretations) at thirteen for the fulfilling of the commandments, and at fifteen the Talmud (making Rabbinic interpretations).
Jesus was full of the Spirit of God: full of wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, might, and the reverential fear of the Lord. We always know He is special and unique. And He was gifted and anointed in teaching. As required of all Jewish boys, He learned a trade in addition to teaching the Scripture. My father Joseph has taught Him all about our family trade: stone masonry and building construction. At thirteen, He started working with my father and traveled daily to work on large building projects in the capital city of Sepphoris, about an hour’s walk from Nazareth. At twenty he decided to continue the vocation with my father, who became frail and frequently ill. My father died when Jesus was twenty-five and he handed over the legacy to Jesus.
However, when Jesus reached the official maturity age of thirty for authority (able to teach others) He handed over the family business to me and became a full time teacher. Although my desire was to be a teacher supervisor of a synagogue, I had to continue the family trade. Strictly speaking, according to my mother Mary, I am the first born of Joseph and have the right to Joseph’s legacy.
My mother told us much later about the prophecies from two godly prophets at the temple when my parents took the baby Jesus to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord. A just and devout man named Simeon confirmed that Jesus would bring salvation to all peoples. And a prophetess, Anna, also confirmed that Jesus would bring redemption. My mother too, was a woman with few words, and she kept all the things about Jesus in her heart. She taught us to respect Jesus as the eldest and much older sibling in the family. And we observed that He was very different from us from young.
When Jesus taught, He showed the kind of authority that no one did. He was anointed. He even taught the religious teachers themselves (the pharisees, scribes, and teachers). I saw the miracles and divine healings He performed. I was at the Cana wedding where He turned 180 gallons of water into the choicest wine. Any sibling of such a powerful person would have expected Him to get rich quick and bring the family to a life wherein we each could choose to pursue our own desires. But, alas, He stayed aloof and away from the family.
What we could not understand and accept was that He chose to travel most of the time, followed by an ever increasing multitude of all sorts of people. He did not appear to bother about His own care, like having proper meals and rest. We were doing well in our family business and had our own house and the women could cook and clean for him. He could have led a comfortable respectable teacher’s life at home. But He seemed to forget that He even had a family. My mother was especially upset at one time when He rejected our looking for Him and offer to take Him home for food and rest. He looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him, and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother.” We just could not understand Him.
Mary, my mother however, did not give up. She joined a few women and followed Him whenever He was nearer home. Later, she joined the group of women, and followed Him to Jerusalem and saw Him to the end. She got to know Mary Magdalene, Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herold’s steward, Susanna, Mary the mother of James, and many others who provided for Jesus from their substance. Jesus indeed had many mothers and sisters and brothers. They took good care of Him. Our worldly concern for Him was proven unnecessary.
I did not follow Jesus physically. I tried to occupy myself with the family business while trying to live a normal life with normal expectation. By then I knew Jesus had not ambition to be a ruler of the Jews. I have kept updated of His teachings as many have heard and circulated them by word of mouth. I heard of all the good deeds and compassions he had shown to the multitudes. I had done a lot of thinking. Either He had lost His mind or He was just bluffing. But I knew Him from young, and I knew He was neither. Whilst I could not accept His claim that He was the Son of God, because that was against what I had learned from the Jewish religion, I could not deny that He was an honest, upright, just, moral, and righteous man of utmost integrity. His life was His proof. His teaching and His work were those above any human.
I skipped going to Jerusalem on that fateful holy week. I did not believe or expect that it would come to much despite the rumors going around about the people wanted to make Him king. Yet, the most important history for mankind was written that week by my half-brother, Jesus. He was arrested and sentenced to be crucified. And he resurrected on the third day and appeared to many people, all in all, the eleven remaining apostles, 500 disciples, those who knew Him personally and could witness for Him.
I was told later that while looking down from the cross, Jesus entrusted my mother to His apostle John, a faithful young brethren, who followed Him all the way to the crucifixion, and witnessed the empty tomb later, after the resurrection of Jesus on the third day. Why not me? Because I was not there? I was ashamed. I not only missed witnessing the crucifixion of Jesus and the earth shaking resurrection, I also missed HIs last words on the cross. Later I knew deep within Jesus did not do anything without His Father’s instruction. I accepted the Lord’s decision. I must say that John had treated her as his own mother, also named Mary. The two women became like blood sisters keeping each other company for many long years.
Jesus looked for me and called me out. Yes. After I knew of His death and burial, I sat alone in darkness, mourning for a brother I deeply missed. I no longer cared for worldly riches, status and political power. I was not disillusioned because He chose a sacrificial path instead. Why did I ever doubt Him? On one hand I wanted to believe and trust Him. On the other hand I doubted. I was like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. I kept listening to His enemies, those proud, religious hypocrites with whom I have associated myself. I have sent people to warn Him about their scheme. But He did not listen.
Jesus came to me when I was in despair. The resurrected Jesus, my Lord the Christ. He revealed to me, not as a ghost, but someone with flesh and bones I could touch and He showed me His hands and feet as well. He opened my understanding, that I could comprehend the Scriptures, and realized that all things that were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning the Messiah had been fulfilled in Him. He asked me to bring the whole family to join my mother and all the other apostles and disciples to wait in Mark’s mother’s big house in Jerusalem for the out pouring of the Holy Spirit.
And I did. We all did. We obeyed and waited. The rest is history. Jesus, the Son of God, proved exactly the Scriptures about Him are all true, and He is the long waited Messiah of Israel, the Christ for all mankind.
Here ends my farewell, James, a born again man of faith, humility, and prayer.
Kainotes, 2021-04-27
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Notes: Not long after writing his epistle, James was martyred in Jerusalem in A.D. 62. According to the first-century Jewish historian Josephus, James was accused by the high priest and condemned to death by stoning (Antiquities of the Jews, Book 20, chap. 9, sec. 1). Eusebius, a fourth-century church historian, adds details of James’ death. He states that the scribes and Pharisees took James to a public place, the top of a wing of the temple, and “demanded that he should renounce the faith of Christ before all the people . . .” But, rather than deny Jesus, James “declared himself fully before the whole multitude, and confessed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, our Savior and Lord” (Ecclesiastical History, 1995, pp. 75-76).
James 4:7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
