The Messiah's Secret - James the Brother of Jesus.

James became a follower of Jesus after Jesus’ death and resurrection. 
John the Apostle recorded the fact that James and the other brothers of Jesus did not believe that he was the Messiah during his ministry. 

“After this Jesus went about in Galilee; he would not go about in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him. ² Now the Jews’ feast of Tabernacles was at hand. ³ So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples may see the works you are doing. ⁴ For no man works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” ⁵ For even his brothers did not believe in him.” John 7: 1-5 

How hurtful it must have been for Jesus to hear these words coming from his brothers. They would send him into danger.

The resurrection of Jesus convinced his brothers of Jesus being the Messiah, we read that they joined the believers in the house at Jerusalem.  “All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.” Acts 1: 14  

James had a vision of the risen Lord. 1 Corinthians 15: 7. He was regarded as an apostle. Galatians 1: 19. James occupied a prominent if not the chief place in the church at Jerusalem, being the president of the first council.  Acts 15: 13. 

Lectionary Readings:  James Chapter 5.   John 3: 14-21.                                     

In James’s letter to the twelve dispersed tribes of Israel in Chapter 5 he put emphasis on some of the things that he has referred to earlier in his letter: they were showing in their attitudes towards each other no signs of the righteousness of God: They were making distinctions between rich and poor, there was jealousy and they were grumbling against each other, (unbridled tongues) and he reminds them of the consequences the judge was at the door.  

The problems about which he wrote we can compare with the incident on the Exodus journey, where the Israelites had to make a detour around the King of Edom’s territory which led to the Israelites to grumble and they complain to Moses over their diet; God had provided manna, quail and water, but still they moaned so God sent poisonous snakes among them and many died. Realising their sin they asked Moses to intercede to God on their behalf. God instructed Moses to make a replica snake and place it top of a pole so that every person bitten by a snake looked up at it would be healed. Numbers 21: 4- 9  

 In John 3: 14 Jesus spoke of the Son of man being lifted up like the brazen snake lifted up and placed on the top of a pole. Nicodemus and Jesus' disciples would not realise at the time that Jesus was referring to the cross. ^“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up,¹⁵ that whoever believes in him may have eternal life."

We understand that the serpent lifted up on top of the pole represented life over death. Jesus being lifted up on the cross, he was the final offering for sin. As a result he won the victory over the devil’s power over death. 

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸ He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God." John 3: 16-18 

James found out that his brother Jesus suffered and died for his unbelief and in that realisation the pain of repentance must I think have been tremendous and being saved by him must have impacted him greatly, he was able to write a letter so forthrightly to those who were implicated in storing up wealth and those Christians who were grumbling.  He knew more than anyone the cost to his brother. 

James was urging them to put their faith into practice so that their deeds could be seen as being of God: to go and  feed the hungry.  To pray for the sick anointing them with oil. 

The prayer of faith will raise up a person from the depths to which they have sunk: doubts, fears, divisions and sickness.  

Praying not to an object like the bronze snake but to Jesus at God’s throne of grace, where he intercedes with God for us.   

For approximately 9 centuries the Jewish people kept Moses’ serpent on the pole, but we read in the course of time they offered incense to it as an object of worship.  

  

“King Hezekiah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David had done. He removed the high places, and broke the pillars, and cut down the Ashe′rah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had burned incense to it; it was called Nehush′tan.”   2 Kings 18: 4  

The serpent up on top of the pole had become a focus of worship.

The bronze snake illustrates when sometimes the Lord gives us a way forward which usually blesses us and we hold on to it (not as a form of worship)but as a result the means of our blessing becomes the focus of our attention rather than on where the Holy Spirit is leading us to next.

The Christians who James wrote to had been blessed, but they had not moved on from receiving their salvation. They were still looking at Jesus on the cross, holding on to worldly riches and attitudes. They had not entered into the new life of the resurrection which meant stepping out in faith which was and is essential to fulfil their commission and our commission.      

 "And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; ¹⁸ they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”  Mark 16: 17,18  

The Lord may choose to bless us in various ways as we step out in faith: the Alpha Course or another course or young people’s ministry, house groups or cells, through a ministry of healing or other gifts of the Spirit. 
However the Lord directs our path, may we be faithful and always ready to respond to the leading of his Spirit.