St. James of Jerusalem
Mt
13:54-58
10/23/22
During the course of our married life, Amy
and I lived several doors down from a man named “Bob.” Now Bob is not really
his name, but it will become obvious why I am not going to use it. I also found that it is hard to tell this
story without having a name, so we will call him “Bob.”
Bob had a brother who had gone into the
entertainment industry as a comedian. He
has been quite successful. He has appeared very regularly on TV. He lives in
the Los Angeles area and is worth ten to fifteen million dollars. So we are not talking about a mega-star, but
still he has done very well.
Bob also had the desire to be a
comedian. He had given it a try, but
things had not worked out. Bob was
intelligent, and now worked in a job where he made a good living. But as I said, Bob lived several doors down
from us, so needless to say he was not worth ten to fifteen million dollars.
I always wondered what it was like for
Bob. His brother had been very
successful in the occupation that he himself had wanted to do. His brother had acquired wealth that surpassed
anything Bob could hope to attain. His
brother lived a life that allowed him to do things that Bob never could.
I mention Bob, because in a similar way, I
have wondered what it was like to be one of Jesus’ brothers. Today we celebrate
the Feast of St James of Jerusalem. St James was the brother of Jesus, just as
in our text we hear about Jesus’ other brothers, Joseph and Simon and Judas.
Now in the
Church there has been a tradition that was well established in the medieval
period that Mary, Jesus’ mother, remained a virgin her entire life. The
passages that mention Jesus’ brother have been explained away by saying that
these were half-brothers or cousins. While strictly speaking this is not
impossible, it is also extremely unlikely. Under normal circumstances, there is nothing
about these texts that would lead us to read them in any other way than as
describing actual brothers of Jesus who had been born to Mary and Joseph in the
normal fashion. Instead, the attempt to
read them differently has been prompted by the desire to focus on Mary herself
in ways
that have proven to be false and very harmful.
So what was it like to be Jesus’ brother? Apart from Luke’s account of the trip to
Jerusalem when Jesus was a boy, we don’t learn anything else about our Lord
when he was growing up. At the end of that
account Luke tells us, “And he went down with them and came to
Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these
things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and
in favor with God and man.”
Certainly, his brothers
must have recognized that there was something different about Jesus. Jesus never disobeyed. He always acted in
perfect love towards everyone. For sinners like his brothers, Jesus was probably
a little annoying.
And then one day, everything changed. John
the Baptist began his ministry. Jesus
went down from Galilee to Judea and was baptized by John. When he returned to Galilee, Jesus began a
ministry of his own as he began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand.” He started performing miracles as he healed and cast out
demons. Matthew tells us, “And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in
their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom
and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.” Jesus’
fame spread and great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis,
and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.
So how did James and
the other brothers of Jesus respond to this?
The first thing we need to recognize is that they are never
mentioned in the Gospels as being followers of Jesus. Mark tells us that during Jesus’ ministry
some members of his family – we aren’t told specifically who was involved - wanted
to take hold of Jesus because they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”
In the previous
chapter, Matthew tells us, “While he
was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers
stood outside, asking to speak to him.”
Here, Jesus’ family is described as being on the outside. Our Lord replied, “Who is my mother, and who
are my brothers?” Then he stretched out his hand toward his disciples
and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the
will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
In our text we hear
about a visit Jesus made to Nazareth.
The hometown boy was religious celebrity, and so he taught in the
synagogue. Yet the response
of the people in Nazareth was to reject Jesus because he was familiar. They reacted by saying, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty
works? Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And
are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all
his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” We learn
that they took offense at him.
Jesus responded by
saying, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own
household.” And then we learn that he did not do many mighty works there, because
of their unbelief. The people of
Nazareth didn’t believe in Jesus. And while the Gospel of John tells us that
Mary was with Jesus at his crucifixion, it also tells us explicitly, “For not
even his brothers believed in him.”
Like the residents of
Nazareth, James and the brothers of Jesus did not believe in him. They were offended by the familiar nature of
Jesus. There is a warning here for us.
It is easy for us to become offended by the familiar nature of Jesus. We hear about Jesus and the forgiveness of
sins again and again. We take part in
the celebration of the Sacrament of the Altar Sunday after Sunday. Over time, we can begin to take this for
granted. In the midst of the challenges
and difficulties of life we start to ask, “Is this all there is? Doesn’t God
have anything more for us?” This is the
language of little faith – of faith that is weak. But if we continue in this way long enough it
can turn into what Jesus encountered at Nazareth – unbelief. It can turn into the attitude of James during
Jesus’ ministry.
We know from the Book
of Acts that James was a very faithful Jew.
When Jesus was crucified on Good Friday, James found the ultimate
confirmation that he had been correct to reject Jesus. Jesus claimed to be the Christ – the
Messiah. However, the Old Testament was
clear that the Messiah descended from David would be mighty and
victorious. The two most quoted verses
about the Messiah among Jews of this period where Psalm two and Isaiah eleven. Pslam 2 talked about the nations and said of
the Messiah, “You shall break them
with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.”
Isaiah 11 said, “and he shall strike the earth with the
rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the
wicked.”
What is more, after Jesus died by the
humiliating death of crucifixion at the hands of the Romans, James knew that
his brother had been cursed by God as a false prophet. After all, Deuteronomy said, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a
tree.” After Jesus died on Friday and
was buried, James went to bed on Saturday night knowing that he had been
correct in rejecting Jesus.
And then,
Jesus rose from the dead. We don’t know
precisely when James encountered the risen Lord. But Paul tells us in First Corinthians
fifteen, “Then he appeared to James.”
And it wasn’t just James. All of
Jesus’ brothers met the risen Lord. Luke
tells us that after his ascension, the apostles returned to Jerusalem. Them he adds, “All these with one
accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women
and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.”
In the resurrection of Jesus, James
learned that God had vindicated his brother as Lord. Jesus’ crucifixion had actually been God’s
saving work for us. Paul summarized this
when he told the Galatians using another passage from Deuteronomy, “For all who rely on works of the law are under a
curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by
all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.’” The law brings a curse on all who fail to do
it. It brings God’s judgment upon all
who sin in thought, word, and deed.
But the good news of
the Gospel is that God has redeemed us from the curse. He has freed us, and he did it through the
crucifixion of Jesus. The apostle went
on to say, “Christ redeemed us
from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us--for it is written, ‘Cursed
is everyone who is hanged on a tree.’”
Through Jesus’ death
we have been redeemed from the curse. And by his resurrection we have received
the assurance of eternal life and resurrection on the Last Day. James met his risen brother, and came to
understand that he is in fact the Son of God.
He learned that through Jesus the Christ we have received forgiveness
and victory over death.
This changed
everything for James and the rest of Jesus’ brothers. We learn from Paul in 1 Corinthians nine that
Jesus’ brothers went forth as missionaries who proclaimed Jesus as the
crucified and risen Lord. Very quickly,
James became the leader of the church in Jerusalem. In our first reading this
morning from Acts 15 we see the surprising fact that in the Council at
Jerusalem, James speaks the last word.
James, who did not
believe in Jesus during his ministry, became a leader in the church because of
the resurrection. He now believed in
Jesus and gave witness about him. He
gave witness in the ultimate fashion as he became a martyr for Jesus. We often
lack firm evidence for what happened to the apostles and early leaders in the
church. But that’s not the case when it comes to James.
The first century
Jewish historian Josephus reports that the Roman governor Festus – the same
governor who had sent Paul to Rome – died.
As you hear almost every year on Good Friday, the Jews did not have the
authority to execute a person. Only the
Romans could do this. Yet with Festus
dead, and the new governor Ablinus still on his way to Judea there was a power
vacuum. And so, the Jewish leader Ananus called the Sanhedrin together, and
Josephus tells us they had James the brother of Jesus stoned to death as a
breaker of the law.
James died because he
now believed so completely in his brother Jesus who had been crucified. He died because he had met the risen Jesus
and knew that death was not the end. Instead, those who believe in Christ have
eternal life, and our Lord will raise us up on the Last Day.
In St. James of
Jerusalem we receive a reminder that though Jesus Christ may seem familiar, he
never ceases to be the amazing and remarkable way that God has acted in our
world to give us forgiveness and victory over death. His resurrection turned James into a believer
who proclaimed the crucified Christ - something that was a stumbling
block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.
Because of the resurrection, James was willing to be a martyr – he was
willing to bear witness to Jesus by dying because of faith in the Lord.
The risen Lord who did this continues now
to come us through his Means of Grace. He is present trough his Word and
Sacraments. His Spirit gives us
forgiveness and strengthens us in faith so that we can bear witness to Jesus in
what we say and do. Jesus and his gifts
may be familiar, but because he is the crucified and risen Lord they never
cease to be what we need. They are the saving action of God, and are all we
will ever need as we look toward the time when we will stand with St. James
before Christ on the day of resurrection.
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