Digging Deeper for such a time as this: ***Part 1 of 2*** JAMES THE LORD’S BROTHER BEFORE THE RESURRECTION Other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord’s brother.—Gal. 1:19. IT is one of the signs of the inimitable truthfulness and power of Scripture, that again and again, by a few simple touches, it enables us to realize the characters of those of whom it speaks. There are many whose lives, as recorded in Holy Writ, would occupy only two or three verses, whom, nevertheless, from the inspired power with which they are delineated, we are enabled to represent to ourselves in their distinctest personality. Still more is this the case when we also possess some of their utterances and writings. And such a picture we can paint of James, one of the “brothers of the Lord.” I THE BROTHER OF THE LORD The phrase “brother of the Lord” is used by St. Paul (Gal. 1:19), and was probably the designation by which James was best known. The first question connected with James’s life is to ascertain the force of this phrase. 1. Three theories have been held as to the “brethren of the Lord.” (1) According to Helvidius they were the children of Joseph and Mary, born after Jesus Christ. (2) They were, according to Jerome, the sons of Alphæus, the cousins of our Lord, loosely called “brethren.” (3) According to Epiphanius they were the sons of Joseph by a previous marriage. The weight of opinion is now in favour of the first of these theories. The chief objections to it are that Jesus commended His mother to the care of John, not to one of the brothers; that their conduct in trying to control Him implies that they were older; that tradition favours the theory of Epiphanius as early as the second century; and that it is repugnant to Christian sentiment to suppose that, after the birth of Christ, Mary became the mother of other children. This feeling, so real to us, cannot be attributed with certainty to Jews of the first century. It is uncertain when, or to what extent, Joseph and Mary realized the mystery of the Incarnation. 2. As there was nothing in the announcement made to them which could enable them to realize the astounding truth that He who was to be born of Mary was Very God of Very God, so there is nothing in the subsequent life of Mary which would lead us to believe that she, any more than His Apostles, had realized it before His resurrection. It is hard enough even now to hold together the ideas of the humanity and the divinity of Christ without doing violence to either; but to those who knew Him in the flesh we may safely say it was impossible until the Comforter had come and revealed it unto them. As to what should be the relations between the husband and wife after the birth of the promised Child, there is one thing we may be sure of, viz., that these would be determined, not by personal considerations, but either by immediate inspiration, as the journey to Egypt and other events had been, or, in the absence of this, by the one desire to do what they believed to be best for the bringing up of the Child entrusted to them. We can imagine their feeling it to be a duty to abstain from bringing other children into the world, in order that they might devote themselves more exclusively to the nurture and training of Jesus. On the other hand, the greatest prophets and saints had not been brought up in solitude. Moses, Samuel, and David had had brothers and sisters. It might be God’s will that the Messiah should experience in this, as in other things, the common lot of man. The natural meaning of the language used in the New Testament is that the “brethren” were the children of Joseph and Mary. ¶ Jesus was a son to His mother, an eldest son, too, and maybe, rather likely, of a widowed mother, who leaned upon her first-born in piecing out the small funds, and in the ceaseless care of the younger children. He was a brother to His brothers and sisters, a real brother, the big brother of the little group. He was a neighbour to His fellow-villagers, and a fellow-labourer with the other craftsmen. ¶ The typical human institution of marriage, round which all social existence turns, is transfigured by Christ’s appearance. He finds in it the symbol and law of His own relation to man, and so raises it to a higher power, and endows it with a finer force, and a more valid stability, and a deeper significance. And out of this exaltation of marriage there rises a new fabric, a new wonder—the Christian home, with its exquisite ideal of firm and beautiful order, in which all the several parts are given their full value, and the man is at once master yet servant, and the wife is endowed with grace out of her very weakness, as the curse of pain that lay on child-bearing is transmuted by the sweet honour that belongs to it, since she who was highly favoured became a maiden mother. And the children are made holy, even as the type from which we learn how to enter the Kingdom of Heaven by becoming what they are, whose angels behold the face of their true Father who is in heaven. II THE HOME AT NAZARETH 1. According to either view, James was the son of Joseph, and almost certainly was brought up with his Divine Brother in the humble home at Nazareth. The life of the household in which he was brought up was one of the utmost simplicity and frugality. The furniture, the meals, and the dress of all the members were of the plainest kind. Luxury was unknown, just as poverty was equally unknown. The necessaries of life were much cheaper in Galilee than in Judæa, and a moderate income sufficed to maintain a family in comfort. Food, clothing, and a house were readily procured by any man prepared to work. Joseph, it may be taken for granted, was diligent in business, and his trade of village carpenter or wright, though doubtless yielding him only a modest competence, was amply sufficient to supply the wants of his family. The sons and daughters of the home would be brought up to assist their father and mother from their earliest years, and the boys would be set to work as soon as they left school. ¶ The circumstances of Eastern life take away all the sting from the condition of the industrious poor. The wants of life are there reduced to their simplest elements. There is no wasteful luxury, no extravagant display. A little bread, a few dates, a spring of water, a humble cottage, a single change of raiment, are enough to support the honest labourer in dignity and contentment; and these he can earn with ease and certainty. Where there is no envy in the heart, where restlessness and ambition are under due control, such a state of life is not only tolerable, it is endowed with special elements of happiness. There must, we may be sure, have been many who sat around our Lord as they listened to the Sermon on the Mount who could understand from happy personal experience the beatitudes pronounced upon the poor who were also poor in spirit. 2. Whatever means of instruction were within reach of the home at Nazareth, would, we may feel certain, have been eagerly taken advantage of by all its inmates. While accepting, therefore, the view which seems to be best supported, that Jesus and His brothers usually spoke Aramaic, we are surely not bound to suppose that, with towns like Sepphoris and Tiberias in their immediate vicinity, with Ptolemais, Scythopolis, and Gadara at no great distance, they remained ignorant of Greek. In the eyes of the scribes they might “never have learnt letters,” since they had not attended the Rabbinical schools at Jerusalem; but the ordinary education of Jewish children and the Sabbath readings in the synagogue would give sufficient start to enable any intelligent boy to carry on his studies for himself; while the example of Solomon and the teaching of the so-called “sapiential” books held up the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom as the highest duty of man. ¶ The love of knowledge is a passion which, once in possession of the mind, can hardly ever be extinguished; it is noble in its nature too, and like other noble passions elevates itself into a kindred with all the virtues of the character. 3. James’s father, as St. Matthew tells us (1:19), was a “just” or “righteous” man, like the parents of the Baptist (Luke 1:6); and this was the title by which James was known during his lifetime, and by which he is still constantly known. He is James “the Just.” The epithet, as used in Scripture of his father and others (Matt. 1:19, 23:35; Luke 1:6, 2:25, 23:50; Acts 10:20; 2 Peter 2:7, and in history of him, must not be understood as implying precisely what the Athenians meant when they styled Aristides “the Just,” or what we mean now by being “just.” To a Jew the word implied not merely being impartial and upright, but also having a studied and even scrupulous reverence for everything prescribed by the Law. The Sabbath, the synagogue worship, the feasts and fasts, purification, tithes, all the moral and ceremonial ordinances of the Law of the Lord—these were the things on which the just man bestowed a loving care, and in which he preferred to do more than was required, rather than the bare minimum insisted on by the Rabbis. It was in a home of which righteousness of this kind was the characteristic that James was reared, and in which he became imbued with that reverent love for the Law which makes him, even more than St. Paul, to be the ideal “Hebrew of Hebrews.” For him Christ came “not to destroy, but to fulfil.” Christianity turns the Law of Moses into a “royal law” (James 2:8), but it does not abrogate it. The Judaism which had been his moral and spiritual atmosphere during his youth and early manhood remained with him after he had learned to see that there was no antagonism between the Law and the Gospel. ¶ New England literature is essentially a product of the Puritan spirit, though of the Puritan spirit touched, liberalized, transfigured by new thought and cosmopolitan culture. Now, all the great New England writers were men of Puritan ancestry; and this fact enables us at once to account for their splendid moral fibre, the strength and nobility of their characters, the religious element which is so prominent in their works, and their insistent—often, indeed, over-insistent—didacticism and preoccupation at all times with ethical themes. 4. It is certain from the custom prevailing among the Jews of his rank in life that James would be taught a trade, and it is quite probable that tradition is correct in saying that he became a carpenter, like his father. It may also be supposed that he was married. Marriage was regarded as a duty among the Jews, and St. Paul says (1 Cor. 9:5) that the brethren of the Lord took their wives with them when they went to visit the churches. That it was a beautiful household in which he was brought up, well governed, happily trained, we may well believe. She who was honoured above all women by being privileged to be the mother of Jesus, and to train Him in His childhood, must have been a good mother to all her children. The presence of her sons, on more than one occasion, with her seems to indicate that the domestic ties were close and warm, that it was a happy, united household till an awful tragedy temporarily scattered it. But more we cannot say. That the influence of the Perfect Child shed a radiance of unseen joy and an atmosphere of purity all around Him wherever He went is what we should all have expected. And yet the family may have been slow to perceive its rare significance. Evidently there was nothing outwardly abnormal about His life and action. The foolish legends of apocryphal gospels are quite out of harmony with the probability suggested by the silence of the authentic records of Christ’s life. Something that abode endued With temple-like repose, an air Of life’s kind purposes pursued With order’d freedom sweet and fair. A tent pitch’d in a world not right It seemed, whose inmates, every one, On tranquil faces bore the light Of duties beautifully done, And humbly, though they had few peers, Kept their own laws, which seemed to be The fair sum of six thousand years’ Traditions of civility. ¶ Embosomed among soft grey swells, Nazareth was shut out from the world, and offered a sweet seclusion, than which nothing could have been better fitted for the early years of our Lord and His brethren. There was nothing to distract or disturb in the idyllic isolation of the little valley. The young child could not see beyond the heights around it, but when the years brought growing vigour and curiosity, He would only need to wander to the top of the village hill to have a wondrous panorama before Him. The great plain of Esdraelon lay at His feet, to the south; then, no doubt, rich in varied growths, to the far-away foot of the Samaritan hills and the range of Carmel. To the west His eye would sweep, over the sinking fringe of the hills of lower Galilee, to the “Great Sea,” where the promontory of Carmel plunges down into the Mediterranean waters. In the east He had before Him the great wooded cone of Mount Tabor, then crowned by a stronghold, but covered on its sides, we may be assured, as it is to-day, with rich growths of varied green. The caravan track from Damascus to the coast had run for ages, as it still does, along Esdraelon, two hours from Nazareth; and over it, when old enough to stray as far as the heights looking down on the plain, He would see long strings of camels, each tied to one before, and all following the humble ass of the turbaned driver, leisurely pacing east or west, to or from distant Syria, laden with the wheat or oil or other produce of Western Asia, or bearing back the varied commodities of Phœnicia, the great trading mart of those ages. There are no signs of any highway ever having led up from the great plain to the tableland of Nazareth, and even now one has to let his native horse climb the steep cliff as it best can. Indeed, the ascent is only possible to a creature bred in the country, twisting and winding between rocks, or forcing its way up slopes distressingly near the perpendicular. III THE UNBELIEF OF THE BROTHERS In the Nazareth home, then, James did not come to have any very abnormal idea of his elder Brother. Even after He had emerged from privacy, and right through His public ministry, when many hailed Him as a Prophet, and some few secretly acknowledged Him as the Messiah, James with the other brothers stood aloof. 1. John, in speaking of the brethren of Jesus, records that they did not believe on Him, which can mean nothing else than that they did not believe Him to be the Messiah; and though the statement is made in connexion with a particular event, whose chronological place in the life of Christ is not certain, it may fairly be concluded from it that they continued in the same state of unbelief throughout the period of His ministry. It is hardly to be wondered at that such should have been the case. That Jesus made a great impression upon His younger brothers during their boyhood life in Galilee cannot be doubted. They must have grown up with an unbounded affection and admiration for Him. And yet the very intimacy of their association with Him, and the simplicity and naturalness of His life in the home circle, would make it difficult for them to see in Him the Messiah; and much as they loved Him, and confident as they must have been of His honesty and purity of purpose, they could hardly think of one of their own number, who was of humble extraction like themselves, and had passed with them through all the simple and homely experiences of boyhood and youth, as the great Messiah of God, as the Chosen One who was to deliver Israel from the yoke of the oppressor and to establish the kingdom foretold by the prophets. All those difficulties which hindered His townspeople and fellow-countrymen from recognizing Him as the Messiah must have acted upon them with double force. The words, “A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house,” were spoken by Jesus out of His own experience, and no other experience was possible in the circumstances. ¶ There is a famous story told concerning James Russell Lowell. In the days of his youth he spent one memorable summer vacation in the White Mountain district. One day when enjoying a stroll through the Franconia Notch, he became absorbed in conversation with a man who was in charge of a sawmill. The man chatted on, feeding his mill with logs the while. Presently the poet asked his new acquaintance if he could direct him to a point from which he could obtain a good view of the “Old Man of the Mountain.” “Dunno” replied the man, “never seed it!” Lowell immediately expressed his astonishment that any one living so near such a marvellous spectacle, which people came from long distances to see, should never have taken the pains to gaze upon it. “And how far have you come?” asked the man. With evident pride the poet answered that he had come from Boston. “D’you tell?” exclaimed the countryman. “I’d like to see Boston. Why, just to stand for once on Bunker Hill! You’ve been there often, likely?” And James Russell Lowell confessed with shame and confusion of face that he never had! 2. It is not simply that Jesus’ brethren did not believe in His Divinity. Nobody, not even Peter or John, did that during His lifetime; they did not believe in Him; did not believe that He was the Christ, or even that He was a prophet, a teacher sent from God. They must have known Him too well to have shared the theory of the Jewish authorities—in which they could scarcely have honestly believed—that He was an impostor. But they thought He was a self-deluded dreamer, needlessly courting danger, who ought to be saved from Himself. So they said once that He was “beside Himself,” either actually imagining that He must have been out of His mind, or wishing to shield Him from the consequence of His dangerous utterances by intimating that He was not responsible for them; and, on another occasion, they sent a message through the crowd from His mother, as well as from themselves, asking Him to come to them, with the evident intention of rescuing Him. They failed in this act of well-meant but really impertinent interference; and the result was that, apparently, He disowned them, claiming all who did God’s will as His brethren, His very nearest relations. The reply was more than a rebuke for the moment. It flashed out a new far-reaching principle of the Kingdom of Heaven. There are ties even closer than blood-relationship. ¶ The man who believes in Christ, who has the spirit of Christ in him, who shows in his life the fruits of that spirit, who, denying himself and taking up his cross, is following Christ in toilsome but loving labour for the salvation of men—he is my brother, and nothing shall hinder me from offering him the right hand of fellowship. I do not care what name they call him by, whether he is a Churchman or Quaker, Universalist or Roman Catholic, he who is united to my Master shall not be divided from me. And when such a man has found a company of people who love him, not because of any brilliancy of wit that has dazzled them, nor because of any tricks of sensationalism that have amused them, but just because of the Christ life that is in him—and want him to live among them and show them how to serve and follow Christ—and when he asks me to come and help to join him in loving bonds as pastor to this people, I shall go, every time! My blessing is not worth much, but, such as it is, God forbid that I should withhold it! And if anybody bids me be cautious, I answer, Yes, I will be very cautious lest I hinder in his work a true servant of Jesus Christ! I will take great care always lest I exalt the letter above the spirit, the dogma above the life. For I would rather make two mistakes on the side of charity than one on the side of bigotry. 3. Any faint hopes which they may possibly have cherished that He might prove Himself to be the Messiah were shattered by the crucifixion. His death was the verdict of God on His claims. However highly they honoured His character, however keenly they resented His unjust sentence, they could not but consider it impossible to hold now that He was the Messiah. The faith even of the Apostles was shattered by His execution, how much more that of the brothers who had never owned His claims! Moreover, the notion of a resurrection was still more foreign to the minds of the brothers than to those of the Apostles. There are moments when life’s shadows Fall all darkly on the soul, Hiding stars of hope behind them In a black, impervious scroll; When we walk with trembling footsteps, Scarcely knowing how or where The dim paths we tread are leading, In our midnight of despair. 4. They were not with Him during the last scenes: they were not at the Last Supper; they were not in the Garden; they drew no sword for Him; they did not follow Him to the Hall of Caiaphas; they did not defile themselves for the feast by entering the Prætorium; they did not stand beside the cross; they did not, so far as we know, visit with sorrowing gifts His tomb. Yet, strange to say, when next we meet with them they have thrown themselves heart and soul into the struggling fortunes of the Church! It is after the Ascension. The Eleven have returned from the Mount of Olives, and go to the Upper Room, which is their regular place of meeting in Jerusalem; and in that Upper Room are not only the Eleven, but also Mary the mother of Jesus and His brethren. From that moment, as a body they disappear, and we hear no more of either Joses or Simon. But Jude lived to travel as a Christian missionary, and to write the Epistle which bears his name; and James lived to furnish the nearest approach to a bishop which is to be found in the Apostolic Age, and to be for twenty years a main pillar of the persecuted Church. Whence came this marvellous change? We have no account of it, we have no means of even conjecturally explaining it, unless the explanation lies in three words of the Apostle Paul. In his relation of the appearances of Christ after His resurrection, he says that He was seen of Cephas, then of the Twelve, then of more than five hundred brethren at once; “then he was seen of James.” James came to believe at last, and was a great personage among those who confessed that Jesus was the Christ. He too discovered how great our Lord was. He does not presume to describe himself as the brother of our Lord, though other men so described him. He is “the servant, the slave, of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ.” ¶ By picturing to ourselves the religious history of James, we come to understand the conflicting impressions made upon him by the life of Jesus, his brother. The personal sanctity of that life, drawn from habitual communion with God, no doubt attracted and satisfied him. But those exorbitant pretensions, that arrogation of the title of one sent from God to fulfil the prophecies and bring in the Kingdom of Heaven, must have seemed to him signs of over-weening self-exaltation, and even of madness. ¶ That extreme nearness retards perception is a matter of daily observation. It is just as true of our perception of things as of our perception of persons. One would suppose, for example, that the habitual dwellers in a scene of rare beauty would be peculiarly alive to the attractions of physical nature. The reverse is the case. These are of all people the least responsive to the beautiful. If a stranger comes in among them, he is transfixed, dazzled, by the splendour of the scene; but his enthusiasm rather surprises them. We should suppose, again, that the constant inhabitants of a city would know more about that city than those coming into it from other places. Yet it often happens that a traveller learns more of a town in a week than many of its population learn all through their lives. We should suppose, once more, that those living continuously in a salubrious atmosphere would be free from all illness arising from atmospheric causes. Yet this is not the case. The unvaried presence of one climate is like the unvaried application of a somnolent drug—it loses its effect. A change of air will eventually be found beneficial, even though the new air be less balmy than the old. The mind must co-operate with the body to preserve the health of man. It is not enough that an atmosphere is genial; I must feel it to be genial. It must enter into me not only as a draught, but as a joy. And if this joy is to be felt, it must not be an unvaried possession. It must be interrupted to be known; it must be withdrawn to be appreciated; it must be supplanted by a shadow to be valued as a light. Hastings, J. (Ed.). (1916).The Greater Men and Women of the Bible: St. Luke-Titus. Edinburgh: T&T Clark. - via Logos 5
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