St. James, the Elder
Mark 10:35-45
7/25/21
You don’t
have to be a Bible scholar to recognize that Peter, James, and John held a
unique status within the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ. When
Jesus raised the little girl from the dead, he only took these three with him
into the room where the girl’s body was.
When Jesus
went up on the mountain and was transfigured revealing his divine glory, and
Moses and Elijah appeared with him, he only took along Peter, James, and John
as witnesses. And of course, on the night before his death, when Jesus prayed
so earnestly in the Garden of Gethsemane, only Peter, James, and John were
there.
We learn
that Peter, James, and John, along with Peter’s brother Andrew, were the first
apostles called by Jesus. They were partners in a fishing business at the Sea
of Galilee. We aren’t told why Andrew was not accorded this unique
treatment. James and John were brothers,
just like Peter and Andrew. But for some
reason, Andrew was not included as part of this inner group.
The name
“James” in the New Testament can easily produce some confusion because there
are three of them. There is the James
that we remember today, who along with John were the sons of Zebedee. There is a
second James, the son of Alphaeus, who was also an apostle. Because we hear more about James the son of
Zebedee, he is usually called “the elder” or “the greater,” while James the son
of Alphaeus is called “the lesser.” Then there is James, the brother of our
Lord who became a believer after Jesus’ resurrection and very quickly became a
leader in the Jerusalem church.
We call
James, “St. James,” but an examination of what Scripture tells us about him
reveals the fact that he certainly did not earn that title by his
behavior. Instead, he was a sinner like
we are, and we see our own sins in his behavior. Mark tells us that Jesus gave the name Boanerges to James and John, which means
“Sons of Thunder.” We are very familiar
with the impetuous nature of Peter, but from this name we learn that James was
no different. And Luke tells us about one event that illustrates this.
As Jesus was making his final trip to Jerusalem he sent messengers
ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make
preparations for him. However,
the Samaritan villagers did not receive him, because he and the disciples were Jews
making their way to Jerusalem. When
James and John saw this,
they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and
consume them?” Our Lord responded by
turning and rebuking them, and then they went on to another village. Like James,
at times we respond with anger as we seek revenge against others. We let our emotions take control and seek
payback instead of forgiving.
We hear about another instance in our
Gospel lesson. There Mark tells us about
how James and John, the sons of Zebedee, approached Jesus with a rather
preposterous request. They said, “Teacher, we want you to do for
us whatever we ask of you.” Imagine
your son or daughter approaching you in this way! Jesus ignored this fact and asked, “What do
you want me to do for you?” Then James and John said, “Grant us to
sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”
James and John were selfishly looking
out for themselves. They were seeking
the prime positions, and they were making sure that they asked for them before
anyone else could. Like James, selfish
motives that seek to put our desires ahead of others infect our actions all the
time. We look out for ourselves first,
and if that means stepping over other people or mistreating them – so be it.
In our Gospel lesson we learn that our
Lord responded to James and John by saying: “You do not know what you are
asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized
with the baptism with which I am baptized?”
Impetuously ambitious, the brothers had the audacity to reply, “We are
able.” Since we know about Peter’s
threefold denial of Christ, and the fact that James fled from Jesus along with
the other apostles at the Garden of Gethsemane, their answer is almost
humorous.
But then Jesus told them, “The cup
that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am
baptized, you will be baptized, but to sit at my right hand or at my
left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has
been prepared.” It is important to
recognize that immediately before our text, Jesus had said, “See, we are
going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief
priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death
and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him
and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he
will rise.”
Jesus describes his suffering and
death as a cup he must drink, and a baptism he must undergo. He tells Peter and
John, that they will indeed experience suffering and even death, but that the
positions they request are not something that can just be given to them.
We learn that when the other ten
apostles heard about the request made by James and John, they began to be
indignant. No doubt they were angry that
the brothers had asked to be placed over them.
Most likely, they were upset that they had not though of this
themselves!
Yet for Jesus, this was a moment to
teach about his mission, and what it means to be his disciple. Our Lord said, “You know that those who are
considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones
exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But
whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would
be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man
came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom
for many.”
James sinned. We sin.
Because this is so, Jesus Christ the Son of God gave his life on the
cross as the ransom for us all. He drank
the cup of God’s wrath against our sin.
He received the baptism of suffering and death on the cross. He did this to win forgiveness for us –
forgiveness for our every sin of anger, revenge and selfishness. Yet death was not the end of his saving
mission. As he had told the disciples,
on the third day he rose from the dead.
He defeated death and began the new life that will be ours.
James was among those who fled the
Lord Jesus at the Garden of Gethsemane.
He was with the apostles in the locked room on the evening of
Easter. He was there when the risen Lord
appeared in their midst and said, “Peace to you!” He was there when Jesus said to them, “Why
are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my
feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have
flesh and bones as you see that I have.”
James learned that the crucified
Christ had risen from the dead. He learned why this had taken place when Jesus
said, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the
third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and
forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all
nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these
things.”
James learned that he was
forgiven. He was now a witness of Jesus’
resurrection. He knew that sin was
forgiven and death had been defeated.
And James had been charged to proclaim this good news to others.
We live as those who have received
this message. We know that like James,
we are saints – we are holy in God’s eyes because of the death and resurrection
of Jesus Christ. Our sins are forgiven,
and we are prepared to stand before God on the Last Day. What is more, we know
that because of Jesus’ resurrection, death cannot separate us from God. Death
is a defeated enemy because Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. When our Lord
returns in glory, he will raise us with bodies transformed to be like his
resurrected body.
James became a witness to the
crucified and risen Lord. Our Lord had
told him that he would drink the cup that Christ drank, and that he would be
baptized with the baptism with which Jesus was baptized. Our Lord told James that he would experience
suffering, and even death. But even the
threat of death could not stop James from speaking the Gospel – the good news
about the death and resurrection of Jesus.
James was a witness to the risen Lord
all the way to death. In our first
reading from Acts we learn, “About that time Herod the king laid violent hands
on some who belonged to the church. He killed James the brother of
John with the sword, and when he saw that it pleased the Jews,
he proceeded to arrest Peter also.” In
41 A.D. the Roman emperor Claudius had granted Herod Agrippa I rule over all
the lands in Palestine – even those that formerly had been a Roman
province. He lived in Jerusalem, and
seeking to please influential Jewish leaders he had James killed.
James became the first martyr among
the apostles of Jesus Christ. He was willing to suffer and die – to share in the
suffering and death with Jesus – because he knew that Christ has risen from the
dead. He knew that his sins were forgiven.
He knew that the risen Lord had defeated death, and so there was no
reason to fear it. He gave the ultimate
witness to the death and resurrection of Jesus by dying – by being a martyr,
for the word martyr means “witness.”
In St. James we see that we too are
saints – forgiven sinners because of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross in our
place. We find that we too can take up
the cross as we share in Christ’s sufferings, because Jesus has risen from the
dead. Like James we must be willing to
drink from the cup that Jesus’ drank, and to be baptized with the baptism with
which he was baptized. We must be ready
to accept reproach, mockery and suffering int his world on account of Christ. We can receive this “cup” and “baptism,”
because we drink the cup of the Lord as we receive the Sacrament of the
Altar. There we eat and drink the true
body and blood of the risen Lord, given and shed for us for the forgiveness of
sins. We can endure these things because
we have been baptized into Jesus’ death and resurrection in the water of Holy
Baptism.
The assurance of forgiveness and
resurrection provided by these Means of Grace carries over as it shapes the way
we treat others. In the Gospel lesson, our
Lord says in response to the request by James and John: “You know that those
who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their
great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among
you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and
whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even
the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his
life as a ransom for many.”
Because our Lord Jesus has served us
in his death and resurrection, we now seek to serve others. We put their needs ahead of our own. We are given strength to do this by the Holy
Spirit as he works through our reception of the Sacrament and as we return in
faith to our baptism. We receive
strength to do this through the Spirit’s inspired Scriptures, for there we
receive the witness of St. James about Jesus Christ. He died as a martyr – a witness to Christ -
because Jesus has risen from the dead.
No comments:
Post a Comment