St. James of Jerusalem
St. James the Just — a witness of the Resurrection, the first bishop of that pre-eminent Church of Jerusalem, and a martyr for the faith of Christ — had the misfortune or mixed blessing of being too closely related to the Lord. The church catholic has reached no consensus as to just how, or how closely, he may have been related to Jesus, but Holy Scripture has bestowed upon him the title, “Brother of the Lord.” We may be satisfied with that.
Be that as it may, St. James does not describe himself as a “brother,” but as a servant (or slave) of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. So also is he remembered with thanksgiving on this day, as a servant of Christ and of His Church. Even in that capacity, he has not been regarded with consistent appreciation. His Epistle has been denounced and applauded, depending on one’s point of view, as a correction of St. Paul. His oversight of the Jerusalem Council has been viewed as being either one of diplomacy or of compromise. And he is blamed, as it were, for the pressures of a Judaizing form of Christianity in opposition to the Gentile Mission. Only rarely has St. James been described, though appropriately so, as the Apostle of Faith. In any event, it was by faith, and for the faith, that he served and suffered in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It was not always so for James, the Brother of our Lord. For if Jesus was dishonored and rejected by His hometown on account of the fact that everyone knew His family, His own household and family at that point (including James, it would appear) could not honor Him for the Christ He was.
As so often is the case — and as James would later make plain in his Epistle — it was not a lack of knowledge, but a lack of faith and trust in the One whose power is made perfect in weakness. It is not hard to imagine that the brothers of Jesus and their hometown would readily have cheered and rallied around the “local boy” done good. But the scandal of Jesus is always that of His Cross. His wisdom and His miracles are offensive because they are of His Cross. They are the sort that bring hostility and persecution; which divide families, question prevailing opinions, and cost lives. It is therein, by the Cross, that one is either driven to despair or brought to faith.
So was James evidently brought from his one-time disbelief to faith in the One who was his Brother “according to the flesh,” but who was from all eternity his Lord and God, and who by the Cross and Resurrection became his Savior. What had been scandalous and offensive, namely the wisdom of the Cross, became for James the very source of all wisdom and all joy. The various trials and temptations that he witnessed in his Brother, Jesus, and those that James himself endured even to the point of martyrdom, were the crucible in which his faith was formed and tested and tried.
Where is that crucible in your life? Is it perhaps that you would prefer and be more comfortable with an exalted Lord and Savior, seated far above all heavens with the power to rock your world, but instead you are faced with a brother in the flesh who speaks your forgiveness and salvation from the Cross in unassuming frailty and weakness? Is it, perhaps, that you would really prefer to see some more tangible evidence of God’s generous giving, instead of being urged to rejoice in your suffering and to boast of your lowliness? After all, the Cross may have been fine for Jesus, especially as considered 2000 years on this side of the Resurrection, but wouldn’t you just as soon be a rich man here and now, and then receive your crown of glory hereafter besides?
The wisdom of Jesus befuddles us, as it befuddled His brothers. After His Bread of Life discourse, when most of those who had been following Jesus turned away from Him and followed Him no more, His brothers urged Him to go up to the Feast and strut His stuff before the world. Publicity and popularity are what they prescribed. For St. John tells us that even His brothers did not believe in Him. They knew the mighty works that He could do, but they did not believe in One who seemed so determined to alienate His own disciples and to set the world against Himself.
Be careful, then, what you ask for: this sort of wisdom for which you pray. It is the wisdom that comes from and with the Cross of Christ the Crucified. Hence the temptation to waver, to doubt, and to be tossed about like a wave by the wind. It is, indeed, a terrible paradox and a Catch-22 by the standards of the world. Your Lord and God and Savior, all joy and all wisdom, are found only in that Cross. As soon as you let go of the Cross and turn away from it in disbelief, you let go of all the rest and lose everything. Apart from faith, you receive nothing; just as the Lord did not do many miracles in Nazareth, because of their unbelief there. But the necessary faith is always faith in the Crucified One and His Cross, which turns everything inside-out and upside-down. Such is the faith to which you are called by His Word, through His servant James.
The lowly and the poor one are exalted; the rich man is humbled, even as the grass withers and its flower fades. It would seem that Brother James has learned to sing and preach the Magnificat with Mother Mary. No doubt he has learned it from the Cross in his own repentance and faith. So does the lowly brother boast in his new position — as a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ; as one who will be martyred; as one who has received the crown of life, which never fades away, from the Lord who loved him.
And if St. James has seen himself no longer as a brother of the Lord according to the flesh, it is interesting how frequently throughout his Epistle he addresses his readers — and you, his hearers — as his “beloved brothers.” For you are all sons of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. You have been born again of water and the Spirit by your Baptism into that scandalous and offensive Cross. All human ties of family, flesh, and blood have been superseded and replaced one-hundred-fold within the Church of Christ. You are children of one Mother — of which dear Mother Mary is the icon and Jerusalem the namesake. Within that Holy City, you are the brothers and sisters of Jesus, not by genealogy, but by faith, in the Holy Communion of His Body and His Blood, to Whom belongs all glory and honor and praise, both now and forever.
In the Name + of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit. Amen.