James, James, James, James, or James?
AM: Psalm 119:145-168 • Jeremiah 11:18-23 • Matthew 10:16-22
PM: Psalm 122, 125 • Isaiah 65:17-25 • Hebrews 12:12-24
Today the Episcopal Church commemorates St. James of Jerusalem, described in our lectionary as “Bishop and Martyr.” According to New Testament scholars, there are at least five, and possibly up to eight, Jameses named in the New Testament. So who, of all the possibilities, is this particular James?
Two of the better known Jameses were among Jesus’ chosen twelve: James the son of Zebedee, sometimes called “James the Greater,” brother of John the Apostle; and James the son of Alphaeus, about whom we know little. Our James of Jerusalem is not one of those. Almost surely the half-brother of Jesus, or at least a cousin, he has been known by many epithets through the centuries, James the Just, James the Righteous, even James the Brother of God in Eastern Christianity. Despite the lack of proof about his blood kinship to Jesus, my favorite is James “the Brother of the Lord.”
You’d think being the brother of Jesus, James would have been a believer from the beginning. But then, maybe not. Although we can imagine Jesus performing little miracles at home and in his village as a boy to show his gradual self-recognition as the Messiah, to his brothers he was perhaps just that little showoff who impressed the scholars in the temple and then worried his mother and father sick by not following the rest of the family back to Nazareth. In fact, the Gospel writer John actually claims that even Jesus’ brothers didn’t believe in him, and it seems to have taken a special appearance by the risen Lord, as mentioned by St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians, to convince James that he had been a part of the very household of God’s promised Messiah.
But following that Resurrection visit by Jesus, James was ever after a firm and faithful follower and was head of the church in Jerusalem when the Council of Jerusalem (about 50 CE) was called to decide if Gentile Christians would be held to the Mosaic custom of circumcision, as insisted upon by the Judaic Christians. The conference, led by Peter and James, decided the issue in favor of Paul and Barnabas, missionaries to the world outside Jerusalem, who came to present the objections of the Gentile-born Christians at Antioch in Syria. From then on, the Gentile Christians would not be bound by the ceremonial regulations of the Jews, except concerning some dietary rules. It seems this latecomer to the faith, James the Just, Brother of our Lord, joined with Peter, another Judaic Christian, to give the deciding vote that declared Jew and Gentile equal in the sight of God and solidified peace and unity in the early church.
Grant, O God, that, following the example of your servant James the Just, brother of our Lord, your Church may give itself continually to prayer and to the reconciliation of all who are at variance and enmity, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever. Amen.
Written by Kay DuVal
Kay holds a PhD in English Literature and enjoys imagining the stories passed down by Jesus’ siblings to their children and grandchildren about that strange and exciting household in Nazareth, with its mixed parentages, visits by archangels, and a virgin birth.