My Brother is GOD?

Just imagine what it would be like growing up with a brother named Jesus. Yes, that Jesus. James, one of the brothers of Jesus, believed enough in Jesus to wind up writing a book of the Bible. But it wasn’t an easy road to get to that point.

James had a large number of brothers and sisters, but the oldest of the bunch was Jesus, who claimed to be the Son of God. Bet that made for some interesting talk around the dinner table. And when Jesus began His ministry around the age of 30, most of that talk would have been negative.

James has an amazing conversion story!

Think about it from the family’s perspective. We’ve got a son and brother here claiming to be the Son of God. I’d be skeptical. Wouldn’t you? If someone claimed to be the Son of God, I think we might go as far as calling the guys with the straitjackets.

The family of Jesus, including James, the rest of the brothers, and even his mother even went so far as to feel like Jesus may have “lost his senses.” Remember in Mark 3:21, His family was so convinced that Jesus had lost His mind that they showed up when He was teaching the crowds “to take custody of Him.”

The Stand to Reason website says Jesus’ brothers rejected His message, criticized Him openly, and refused to follow after Him. Remember in John 7:2-4, when they told Him to go up to Judea? His brothers knew the Jews were seeking to kill Him when they said, “Leave here and go into Judea so that your disciples may also see the good works you are doing. For no one does anything in secret when they are trying to be known publicly.”

That feels kind of cold-blooded, doesn’t it? John 7:5 continues with, “Not even His brothers were believing in Him.”

So, what happened? How does someone like James go from an open skeptic encouraging his crazy brother to risk open danger to suddenly writing a book of the Bible? That’s quite a serious change! He became such a passionate disciple that James was called a “pillar” and a leader of the Jerusalem church.

Why the change? I believe we can find the answer in First Corinthians 15:7, a short verse that says (post-Resurrection) “Then he appeared to James, then all the apostles.” It’s interesting to me that of all the possibilities to mention by name in that verse, James is the only one specifically mentioned.

Imagine the fact that you just saw your brother killed in the most inhumane, cruel, and humiliating way that the Romans could imagine. Not only is your family shamed before fellow Jewish people, but your brother is dead. Then suddenly, here He is in front of you. He’s not injured, mangled beyond recognition, and in perfect health.

Then it begins to make a little more sense. Jesus claimed to be the Son of God and lived a pretty exemplary life. In fact, as he looked back at it, James began to realize that Jesus led a righteous life. James knew his Old Testament, which says God is holy and righteous above anything else. The life that Jesus lived showed God’s holiness in action.

James was in the best position of all to know for sure if Jesus was righteous. If you grew up with siblings, you know firsthand about the sins they’ve committed, many of which you may have participated in. Me and my brothers could tell you some stories.

But if that sibling you got in trouble with died and rose again, you’d know for sure they weren’t God because of the way they lived.

The resurrection of Jesus and the very persuasive power of a sinless life. It must be powerful to take James from a skeptic encouraging His brother into dangerous situations to earning the name “James the Just” as a leader of the early church.

He wrote an amazing book containing wisdom on living as a Christ follower

James was one of the more than 100 disciples to receive the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Less than ten years later, biblestudytools.com says the Apostle Paul visited Jerusalem and met with two elders: James and Peter. He refers to James as “one of a select few to have seen the risen Christ.”

James became the head of the Jerusalem Church and wrote a self-titled epistle in the Bible, one of my favorites. One of the biggest passions in the life of James was justice for the poor. There was a lot of favoritism based on wealth back then, something James found abhorrent.

He traveled the known world, teaching and preaching Jesus as Savior and Lord. His influence became so strong that the Jewish people living in Jerusalem, where James led the church, became an angry crowd that confronted him. The writings of historian Eusebius Pamphilius say that James confessed his brother as Savior and Lord, enraging the crowd.

Pamphilius says the Jews, unable to “bear any longer the testimony of a man who, on account of the virtue and piety he exhibited in his life, was esteemed by all as a just man,” took him to the top of the temple and threw him off. But it did not kill him.

He rose up on his knees and began praying for the crowd, asking the Lord to forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” A local priest begged the crowd to stop, saying, “The Just man is praying for you. Stop!”

A local launderer took the club he used to beat out the clothes he worked on and struck James on the head, ending his life.

James believed that his brother was the Messiah, the divine Son of Man, and a co-equal to the God of Israel. That’s a long way to come from a monstrously skeptical start. He dedicated his life to proclaiming that Jesus was the Messiah, even to the point of his death.

How does someone change that much in the space of a lifetime? He saw something that changed the course of his life, and it takes something powerful to make that drastic of a change. I’d say it’s a safe assumption that he saw the risen Lord.

Jesus changes lives. There is proof everywhere you look. He wants to change yours too! It’s a free gift.