The last person, whose change to Christianity is difficult to understand without the resurrected Jesus, is Jesus’ earthly brother – James.
In the Gospel of Matthew, we are told the names of Jesus’ brothers. They are James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas. In fact, Jesus also had sisters.
Did Jesus’ brothers believe Him to be the savior before His crucifixion? Not at all! In the Gospel of John, it says that Jesus’ brothers said to Jesus that he should show himself to the world as no one who wanted to become a public figure acted in secret.
It does not sound very friendly, does it? Jesus’ brothers did not show any regards to Jesus’ works or teachings. Instead, they thought that Jesus just wanted to “become a public figure”. The Gospel of John plainly said that “For even his own brothers did not believe in him”.
Jesus’ crucifixion should convince Jesus’ brothers that Jesus was as ordinary as anyone else as they had always known. His tragic death was a natural consequence of opposing the Jewish religious authority. Now Jesus was dead, and that was the end of their poor brother. Jesus’ brothers would just live their life as usual as they had always been.
No, life is not as usual for them. It definitely is not for James.
In the Book of Acts, the book after the four gospels of the New Testament, we see that at least some of Jesus’ brothers actually joined the disciples of Jesus and became Christians shortly after Jesus’ death! The Book of Acts says that the Christians “all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers”. In Paul’s letter to a church, he said that “Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas (Peter) and stayed with him fifteen days. I saw none of the other apostles – only James, the Lord’s brother”. Here we see that Paul considered James as an apostle. It implies that James was one of the leaders of the church in Jerusalem.
Why did Jesus’ brothers believe in Jesus only after Jesus’ death, but not before when Jesus was alive? Paul, whom we discussed previously, gave us the answer. The resurrected Jesus appeared to James.
After about fifteen years of Jesus’ death and resurrection (if we are convinced that Jesus resurrected), James wrote right at the beginning of the Book of James that, “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ…”.
To James, Jesus was no longer the one who just wanted to “become a public figure”. James humbly called himself a servant of God and his brother Jesus, whom was his “Lord Jesus Christ (the promised savior from God)”.
What changed James?
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