Acts 15:13
And after they had held their peace, James answered saying: Men and brethren hearken unto me
Once again, I bring you back to that crucial event in church history, that intense - and no doubt dramatic - meeting we have come to know as the Council of Jerusalem. The Council where the elders of the infant Church, in AD 49 deliberated on their future direction. They were faced with a fundamental choice; should they continue as a Jewish sect or should they open themselves up to the wider world, beyond the realms of Judaism and the constraints of the Mosaic Law? Should they remain a small closed group or take that step to become a faith for everyone, for both Jew and Gentile?
With hindsight, we know how this question was finally settled, and how the seeds of the Church were sown. But before we consider the debate further – and – I think given the fierce arguments and strength of feelings aroused we should perhaps say it was more of a ‘dispute’ rather than just a ‘question’, before we move on then, I’d like to draw your attention to an interesting detail in today’s short text.
And after they had held their peace, James answered saying: Men and brethren hearken unto me
Acts 15:13
James answered them.
If we read further on, we learn that James is the Council’s presiding elder; he is acting in a leadership capacity. ‘Men and brothers,’ he says ‘hearken unto me’. These words are not a desperate plea from somebody on the fringe of that meeting, but rather the authoritative words of someone who is centre stage and very much in command of the proceedings.
So, who is this James?
We can rule out the apostle who was known as ‘James the brother of John’. That James was one of the 12 disciples and we know that he suffered an early martyrdom in Jerusalem in AD 44. His death is recorded in the Acts of the apostles 12:1-2
Now about that time Herod the King stretched forth his hand to vex certain of the Church. And he killed James the brother of John.
This verse goes on to tell us that Herod’s actions pleased those Jews who opposed the followers of Christ and, with this endorsement, Herod went on to arrest the apostle Peter as well.
So, to be clear, we not talking about James-the-brother-of-John.
Rather, we are talking about James, the brother of Jesus. Yes, Jesus had a brother – in fact not just one brother because, according to Mark’s gospel he had several brothers, and sisters as well. The text from the Gospel of Mark 6:3, reads:
Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, Josiah and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us and they were affected at him.
This is interesting because here we do get a sense of the family dynamics, a sort of close-up of what Jesus had to face throughout his ministry. These words from the Gospel of Mark: “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James …”
We get this disbelief from those who think they know him. Well surely, they do know him, being brought up in the same village in Nazareth. They know this young man, a familiar figure - Jesus the carpenter, no more than thirty years old, and now holding forth in a very radical way in the local synagogue. Who does he think he is?
William Barclay tells us of a similar occurrence in the East End of London in the 1920’s. He writes:
There were people who were deeply offended when Will Crooks become Mayor of London – in a crowd one day a lady said, with great disgust “They’ve made that common fellow, Crooks, Mayor, and he’s no better than a working man. Hearing her comments, a man in the crowd, Will Crooks himself – turned round and raised his hat. “Quite right, Madam”, he said “I am no better than a working man!”
Barclay went on to write:
The people of Nazareth despised Jesus because he was a working man. To us that is the glory, because it means that God, when he came to earth, claimed no exemption. He took upon himself the common life with all its common troubles.
Years ago, when I went to Salvation Army Sunday School, I knew a man called David, who was originally from a Roman Catholic family. He had had a reputation for being a bit of a hard man, worked on building sites and had been fond of the drink. But then his life changed: Christ came into his life and he joined the Salvation Army. Soon afterwards he visited his parents’ house wearing his army uniform, only to be rejected and told not to come to the house again. You see, we often read things in the Bible but we cannot see the context or the relevance it may have for us.
Jesus also has some words about the relationship between a Christian and his family. Words that, on first reading, appear to be very harsh. In Matthew 10:37 we read:
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me
On the face of it, it seems a shocking thing to say, like encouraging someone to wilfully walk away from their family and their children and to disown or to show disrespect to their parents. But we have to remember that Jesus was a faithful Jew who knew and followed the law:
Honour thy father and mother that thy days be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Exodus 20:12
What Jesus it talking about here is a new level of commitment. It’s a point he makes over and over again. Just as David had to choose whether to hold with his new-found faith and lose his family, or to quit the Salvation Army and return home, we have to make our own choices. Where do our priorities lie?
What Jesus presents us with in that verse from Matthew is not a guilt trip but a real assessment of what is required of a disciple.
Family, wealth, power – we have tough choices.
We read that a rich man has less chance of entering the Kingdom of Heaven than a camel has of passing through the eye of a needle (Matt 19:24). And then in Paul’s letter to Timothy, there is the clarification that it is not having money but loving money that is the root of all evil (Tim 6:10).
The real question is this – what are your priorities, what really motivates you?
In the sermon on the mount Jesus says:
“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”. Matt 6:21.
What do we treasure? What do we value most deeply? Like human beings everywhere we have basic physical needs, but once these are met, what do we need, not just to survive, but to truly live? Jesus tells us that we ‘cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’.
Jesus offers us a true freedom when he tells us to pray for the little we need for today – our daily bread – and not to worry about tomorrow. Use today, he says, to seek the Kingdom of God, to hear the word of God, and all the other things will be added unto you.
So yes, we strive to live the spiritual life, to be people of the Spirit, and also to keep body and soul together and make our way through this world. And many of the toughest choices we have to make will involve other people. Jesus never asks us to live without other people, but rather to make our absolute priority our commitment to God. He gives us a great example this in practice, how he himself gave priority to God over even his own family.
I’m not saying he rejected his family; he continued to love them and to honour his mother, but God came first. The story comes in Mark’s gospel. Jesus is preaching in a house, and has been absolutely besieged, mobbed by the crowds of people who wanted to hear him or to be healed by him. He is told, unexpectedly, that his mother and his brothers and sisters are outside. They are clearly very concerned for his welfare. In fact, they thought he might be insane – the phrase in the bible was that he was “beside himself.” We can read about this in the Gospel of Mark 3:31-35.
And the multitude stood about him, and they said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And he answered them saying, Who is my mother or my brethren? And he looked round about on them which sat about him and said, behold my mother and my brethren. For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother and my sister and mother.
So here again we touch on Jesus’ relationship with his family. It’s complicated but Jesus puts it like this.
He reminds us that:
A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country and among his own kin and in his own house. Mark 6:4
And in the Gospel of John 1:11 we are told “He came to his own and his own received him not.
No wonder he could say:
Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath nowhere to lay his head. Luke 9:58
You see, we are often told that ‘blood is thicker than water’ and, that being the case, we would expect that Jesus would find a solid base of support in his own family. But the scriptural evidence shows this was not so.
‘The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head,’ said Jesus. Even amongst his closest kith and kin he received no comfort, no respite, in fact, far from it. In many ways it was an experience of disbelief, anxiety and even contempt. When he plans to go into Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles – an annual autumn festival, his brothers, who would be aware of the dangers this would involve, cynically encourage him, saying:
Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples may see thy work that thou doest. John 7:1-3
In a way, they are saying “OK, have it your own way, but don’t say we didn’t warn you!” His brothers had no confidence in him or his message. The Gospel of John is clear about this.
Those brothers, who had known him all their lives and had been brought up with him in the same household. Once again, Jesus’ words “A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country and among his own kin and in his own house’.
So, back to our text from the Acts of the Apostles 15:13, here we have the brother of Jesus, James, at the Council of Jerusalem, any time between 15 – 25 years after the crucifixion, here we have James his brother, very much in command of the situation, saying “Men and brethren, hearken unto me. Listen to me!
I mean, you would have thought that it would have been Peter, the leader of the original twelve apostles who would have been the ruling adjudicator. But no, it was James, the brother of the Lord. What a change! What a transformation.
How do we deal with such contradictions, such sudden about turns from a position of denial, even contempt and disbelief to total belief and the preparedness to proclaim those beliefs to the world?
Jesus’ message had not changed, but James and the rest of the family had been unable to see its truth – familiarity had bred, if not contempt, a certain amount of deafness and blindness.
Perhaps the truth is sometimes so blindingly obvious that we cannot see it.
Paul in his Letter to the Romans wrote that the spiritual aspects of God are not visible, but that God has made himself visible to us all through his creation.
And yet, people can still be blind to God. Remember how Jesus was asked by his disciple Philip to show him the Father – and Jesus said, ‘Philip you’ve been with me for such a long time. How can you ask me ‘show me the Father?’ Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.’
‘Men and brethren hearken unto me’, said James. James at the Council of Jerusalem speaks with authority. This James, who, in many ways knows Jesus more intimately than anyone there, knows the human side of Jesus in an ordinary Jewish family. He knows too how Jesus had patiently endured the disbelief of his sisters and brothers, and yet still continued to love them. James knows too the agony of losing a brother, and the devastation to his family that followed Jesus’ execution on the cross.
And then, after the death and the resurrection there came about for James, that great reconciliation, that truly wonderful revelation as described by Paul (1Cor 15:3-7)
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received. Know that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. And that he was buried and that he rose again on the third day according to scripture. And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve. After that he was seen by about five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that he was seen of James, then of all the apostles.
I hope that what I have said and the illustrations taken from scripture have been helpful to you, giving some context to the Council of Jerusalem and to the circumstances surrounding James’ eventual role in the early church and to his spirit-led decision, which guided and laid the foundations of our faith today. For this, we give thanks to God. Amen.
