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| Icon of James (probably Byzantine) though obviously he would not have looked like this with crosses on his garment and a halo on his head and he would have written on a scroll, not in a book. Besides he doesn't appear to be rejoicing much here, does he? |
“Rejoice when you
encounter various trials…” These
words were written by Yeshua’s biological half-brother Ya’akov who is known to
most of us as James (thanks to the translators of the KJV who renamed all the Ya’akov’s
in the New Testament after their own King James). Kind of gives him more of a sense of being
Jewish to call him by his real name, doesn’t it? The same thing happens when we call Jesus
Yeshua, His own real name. It puts the
whole story back into a setting more in keeping with who they actually were.
That aside, what kind of trials do you think Ya’akov went
through to cause him to write such words about rejoicing? Knowing something of what the early
believers suffered, that’s quite a statement, isn’t it? Let me say it again: “Rejoice when you encounter various trials…” This
isn’t just a nice encouragement, this is powerful! This is Kingdom
other-world overcoming thinking. What did
he experience that he wants to be sure his own disciples see in the proper
light as believers in Yeshua? He was the
head of the believing community in Jerusalem when he wrote these words so he’s
thinking like a leader. It was Ya’akov who
issued the decree in Acts 15: 13-19 as to the inclusion of the Gentiles, that
they be accepted into the faith. He used words such as, “Brethren, listen to me…”
and “Therefore it is my judgment….” Obviously
he carried a good deal of authority.
We know little else about him other than that he was one of
Yeshua’s four brothers and there were at least two sisters according to
Matthew: “Is not this
the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary (Miryam), and His brothers,
James (Ya’akov) and Joseph (Yossef) and Simon (Shi’mone) and Judas (Judah – he is the writer of the book of Jude)? And His sisters, are they not all with us?” (Matt
13:55, 56). There is no Biblical nor cultural reason to think that Miryam had no other
children and that these 'children' were cousins, as some faiths believe. The only other time Ya’akov might have been
there is when it says that Yeshua’s mother and brothers came to fetch him, or at least to speak with
Him hoping to get Him to start acting sensibly (Matthew 12:47-50).
Let’s back up somewhat. Let’s get back to Ya’akov’s
reason for writing what he did. As we know that as Yeshua grew up “He kept increasing in wisdom and stature and
in the favor of God and man” (Luke 2:52) He must have been the best big
brother in the world. Ya’akov undoubtedly loved his older brother very much,
looked up to Him, asked Him for advice, and played with Him as a child and even
as teenagers; perhaps they learned together in their father’s shop. Likely they shared many things together as
brothers who loved each other. There was no reason to believe that Yeshua was anything
but a normal and godly young man as any young man who was raised in a godly
family.
But now suddenly this big brother is traipsing around the
country with a bunch of fishermen and, of all people, a tax collector. He’s
spending time with demon possessed and blind and lame people, who everyone knows are that way because God is displeased with them somehow. He’s basically homeless, and
He and His band of scoundrels are living off of what others give to them, or feed
them. I can just imagine Ya’akov saying,
“We weren’t raised like that. What does He think He’s doing?” Perhaps even
Miryam (Mary) thought, “What kind of way is this for the Messiah to act?” Even if she didn’t tell the rest of the
family what she knew, which is probably the case, it seems they all thought He
had gone mad.
Was Ya’akov angry at him when Yeshua refused to even see
them when he and his mother and other brothers came to rescue Him, or at least
talk with Him and a message comes back that He is not coming out to them and
it is reported to have said, “These
are my mother and brothers, those who do the will of God” (Matt 12:50). Were Ya’akov and his family hurt? Or angry by
that response? Maybe both. Did Ya’akov think,
“Who does He think He is? Does He think He’s some super spiritual healer? He’s embarrassing the whole family.” Did he at some point say to Him, “What in the world do You think You’re doing?” Did he exhibit anger toward Him in his
confusion and concern, while trying to restore some righteous thinking to Yeshua as
he raged at Him? Did Ya’akov think he
was the righteous one, and not His brother by all outward appearances? Did he think that Yeshua was being tempted by
evil? How could He be acting in any godly
way with the people he's with? He even got the priests angry with
Him. Who is He to challenge them? And so
much so that eventually they wanted to kill Him. And kill Him they did.
There could be no greater shame for a Jewish family than to
suffer the humiliation and torture of death at the pagan hands of the Romans in
such a horrible and degrading manner. That
the Romans would and could take a Jewish life was infuriating and
demeaning. How the Jewish people longed
for God to come and redeem them from the hands of the Romans. On a more
personal level, can you imagine your favorite sibling or someone you deeply
love going through that, and not understanding why He even put Himself in that
position when He didn’t have to? Oh, the
confusion… the rage… the fear… the despondency.
Where was Ya’akov all during Yeshua’s ministry? Was he uninvolved
entirely or on the sidelines hoping for some sanity to come to all this? Where was he from the time of His arrest
forward? Did he know what took place?
Did he only hear of it after? There’s no mention of him being there, though His
mother was. She had remained faithful to
Him, but evidently Ya’akov had not. Did
that cause a rift between Ya’akov and his mother when she followed Yeshua
around like the other crazy people? This
was all insane, in Ya’akov’s mind. And now Yeshua is dead. Horribly crucified like a common
criminal.
What anguish did Ya’akov experience thinking of the torment
of his own brother – not understanding why Yeshua seemed to have had such a
change of personality, going off and leaving the family and causing riots, even
in the Temple, with hundreds of people following Him around. What an ordeal that must have been for Ya’akov
to try and make sense out of it all. Perhaps he missed the brother Yeshua used to be
a great deal, or perhaps he was angry with Him for the way He was living. Or
both. But what did he feel when he heard that He had been crucified? What sense did he try and make out of it?
What words did he utter, or shout, or cry, in his angst, in his shock? How
hopeless did he feel when he knew Yeshua was dead and His life had uselessly
come to a horrible end? As many times as I read the stories, I cannot
imagine the grief those who loved Him had to have suffered.
But, a few days later while still in his misery over what
had happened, thinking he must now be mad, Ya’akov thinks he sees his Brother
standing in front of him, talking to him.
Was he going crazy? But no, He
really is there, He really is alive. How
could this be? How could this happen? But Yeshua is alive
and very alive at that! He begins to
speak to Ya’akov and tell Him what has taken place. And now Ya’akov has a new trial, but a
glorious one – he now has to grasp the reality, the truth that his Brother
Yeshua is the Messiah! When Yeshua leaves him, in his astounding joy
and incredible amazement, he now has to make sense of this.
The Brother he’s lived with all his life is the Son of God!! How do you wrap your head around that? We do
know that he had his brother Judah (Jude 1:1) to share this with. But what is
he now to do with everything he’s said against Him, thinking that he was the
righteous one and Yeshua wasn’t. He
worries that God is now angry with him and fear grips him for a moment, but
then he realizes Yeshua just brought the favor of God and His love and
acceptance to him.
There is so much to speculate, and of course all this is just
that, speculation. But as we know that Ya’akov
become the leader in the community of believers in Jerusalem, we wonder what
did it take for God to bring him to that place of trusting him with such responsibility? Likely he now saw that so many things that
had happened in his life that had taught him to trust in Yeshua as an older
brother were to teach him to trust in God!
No doubt he came to deep repentance and had much to re-evaluate – as relates
to what he “valued.”
When I read Ya’akov’s words, I hear them couched in his life
experience, as autobiographical (just as I read some of Paul’s the same
way.) Our experiences in life are what
give us the insights we share with others. Our deepest crises are often those
that become our life messages. I offer
you an opportunity to read through the book of James, originally written on a
scroll as were all the epistles, and consider why he is motivated to write the
words he writes, and how he came to these conclusions and values when he
writes, “Consider it all
joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials” (1:2). Did God give him the privilege of being a
brother to Yeshua who loved Him and knew all his life that he could trust Him,
until the three and a half year trial came about, so that, with renewed trust, he could transfer
that trust to God and in so doing write the scroll (book) that has imparted
this wisdom to Yeshua’s disciples for two thousand years? Did he realize that
while he was perhaps boasting (if even only to himself) about his own righteousness, Yeshua was out and
about healing the sick, causing the blind to see and the lame to walk and
bringing hope to the hopeless while Ya'akov did nothing for anyone except spout a
lot of words. Is that what is behind his words, “For just as the body without the
spirit is dead, faith without works is dead” (2:26)?
One wonders what transpired that required
significant perseverance before Ya’akov was trusted by God with leadership that
caused him to write to the younger talmidim
(disciples), “Blessed is a man who
perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the
crown of life which the Lord has
promised to those who love Him.” Was
he remembering his own judgment of Yeshua and realizing that what he saw as the
devil’s temptation wasn’t at all evil when he continued to write, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am
being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does
not tempt anyone” (1:12). We can
just imagine what might have prompted him to say, “ Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not
achieve the righteousness of God” (1:19,
20). Does that sound like a biographical
statement to you? This was not something
he read in a book or learned lightly. It was wrought in the refining fires of
sanctification in order to equip him for the task God had for him, despite how
he failed to recognize God’s work in his brother’s life earlier. How could he possibly
have known?
What we do know is that all of his trails resulted in Ya'akov coming into the joy of the Lord, so much so that his initial words to all who follow Yeshua are, "Consider it all joy...!" Despite the seriousness of his exhortations, read them as coming from a man who knows the joy of the Lord and consider them as wisdom for living in the fullness of His presence in great joy.
We often read Scripture as theology, as
principles, but these stories and letters were written by real people in real
life situations out of their own experiences.
I will leave it to you to read through the rest of the book of James to
see what God might show you, or what you might think would cause Ya’akov to
want to strengthen other believers through what he wrote to them. Perhaps it will give you thoughts as to what
you would like to impart to others that you have learned through your own
fires of sanctification. We all have them somewhere along the line. But oh, the
ways of God that we learn through them! Consider
when you read through the Bible that these are our brothers and sisters who
went through trails in order that we might glean wisdom and knowledge of God’s
ways through what they tell us of their experiences. May God bless you and strengthen you and turn
all of your weaknesses to opportunities to strengthen others, in Yeshua’s
name.
