St. James
Meaning of the name: James is actually Jacob – don't ask me why the translators changed it. Jacob means “holder of the heel” or “supplanter.” At some sense he can be seen as such – when Jesus comes to Peter's home, it was Andrew who accompanied the Lord (together with James and John). Yet, later on, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John, forming the triumvirate of the leadership in the Church (we already talked about humility and absolute lack of vengeance on Andrew's side).
Also, he and his brother John (Johanan) had a nickname “sons of thunder” (see on St. John). It can be a sign of reverence toward God or a character feature (or a bug). Honestly, I don't think it should be an “either... or” choice. His passion can be a helpful tool for the advanced discipleship (see on the Letter of James) or an emotion that leads to destruction (see on Samaritan village).
Life story: He is born to the family of Zebedee and Salome. Turns out, Salome was Mary's sister, which makes James [and John] to be a cousin of Jesus. Since he is always mentioned first in a pair with his brother, it would be safe to assume that he was the oldest one.
He was called to follow Jesus together with John, after Andrew and Simon (Peter). He was very active with his father's fishing business, but at Jesus' invitation he leaves everything behind (to his dad's supervision) and becomes a disciple. As a part of triumvirate – Peter, James, and John – he experienced the most of Christ's ministry, witnessing all of Jesus' miracles (even more than we know about – see John 20:30-31 and 21:25), healing of Peter's mother-in-law (Mark 1:29-31), Jairus's daughter (Matthew 9:18-26), and Transfiguration (Mark 9:2-8).
There are few instances that he is way more involved that the rest of the group (yet, before the glorification of Jesus his brother always accompanied him). First, fire on Samaritan village (Luke 9:51-56). Following the second prediction of Christ's death and resurrection, John sees a man casting out demons by the name of Jesus, but not being a part of the group. Jesus tells him: “do not stop him, for the one who is not against you is for you” (Luke 9:50). Then they come to the Samaritan village and the villagers obviously reject Jesus – James and John' pride for their Master kindled in a split of a second: Lord, do you want us to tell the fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” (Luke 9:54). We don't know the exact words Jesus used to rebuke them but the village was spared. This tells us that James is a good, rule-obedient disciple. He likes order, he wants people to respect the Christ and (later) the Church (see on his Letter).
The second interesting story is when James and John asks for positions or special offices after resurrection (Mark 10:35-45). After the third prediction, James and his brother finally got it – Jesus is going to rise in glory, rule the world, and – therefore – he'll need a prime-minister and some kind of another minister (let's say Secretary of State). Jesus does not openly denies their request, He stars with a question about drinking a cup of Jesus, and being baptized with His baptism. They eagerly say “yes, we can,” not thinking of Gethsemane – for it is in the Garden of Gethsemane the true nature of messianic life was shown – the cup of suffering (the one that even Jesus asks to avoid, Matthew 26:39) and the bloody baptism of the Cross (Luke 12:50).
We also should see here their misunderstanding of the Trinity. They accepted the divinity of Jesus, but the intricacy of the relations between the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit is beyond them at this point. It is Jesus Who sits at the right hand of the Father, therefore, one of the disciples (unknowingly) pretended to take that seat, right? That's why Jesus tells them that it is not His prerogative to be in charge of the sitting at the Marriage Feast of the Lamb (Mark 10:40).
The willingness of James to drink the Cup of Jesus turned him into the first martyr apostle (note that THE first martyr is Stephan, Acts 7). Acts 12 tells us very briefly that at the time of Passover king Herod killed James the brother of John with the sword. Commentators believe the was beheaded... (possible). But what is more important is the reference to Passover (feast of Unleavened Bread) and brotherhood of John. Let's start with the last – we know he is the brother of John. Luke can say that to distinguish from another James (James, son of Alphaeus, Matthew 10:3) or … he could've create a parallel between the beheaded James and John the Baptizer (now they are brothers-in-arms). Also, we need to see the sacrifice of the Paschal Lamb as a background of the story. Originally it was Jesus, now it is the one who said that he is ready to drink the cup of Jesus becomes the initial sacrificial lamb of the Church.
The death of James is an important time pointer for the writing of the Letter of James. Regardless of the detailed timeline of Luke in the Book of Acts, we understand that the death of the apostle came relatively soon – way before Jerusalem council (Acts 15). This means that James sends a letter to the 12 tribes in dispersion early in the church history. All of the apostles were mission minded people: some traveled, some sent letters... Also, think about Jacob addressing the 12 tribes – how symbolic is this? Sounds like a blessings of the patriarch to his sons in Genesis 49. I am not going to search to deep parallels – but in his letter James insists on the order and obedience to God (James 1:12-15; 4:1-3, 10; 5:7-8).
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