I wrote yesterday about the lure of celebrity, and Jesus’ response to his brothers’ advice that: 

‘No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.’

(John 7.4)

Not only was the brothers’ advice worldly and built on unhealthy motives; it was also deeply cruel. Only three verses previously John tells us that,

‘Jesus did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him’

(John 7.1)

So assuming the brothers knew the risks Jesus faced, their encouragement was tantamount to saying ‘we don’t care one bit if you live or die!‘

Ouch!

But this was not the end of the brothers’ stories. And it strikes me that at least one of Jesus’ siblings learnt some important lessons following that exchange, which led to a complete 180.

James the Just

The letter of James is widely accepted to have been written by one of these brothers, who later came to believe in Jesus, and went on to become a leader in the Jerusalem church, before being martyred in AD 62. 

His letter is full of warnings about the dangers of pride and the importance of humility. He writes about:

• Resisting temptation, and the danger of pursuing our sinful desires (1.13–15)
• The sins of favouritism, and discriminating against people according to worldly status (2.1–7)
• The importance of seeking the true wisdom from heaven, not earth, and resisting envy and selfish ambition (3.13–18)  
• Seeking things with the wrong motives, and being a friend of the world and thus an enemy of God (4.1–4)
• Humbling yourself, so that God may lift you up (4.5–12)
• Not being presumptuous about your own ability to make plans or make money, but to entrust yourself to God’s will (4.13–17)
• Resisting the lure of riches and the security they promise (5.1–6)

It’s almost hard to believe that these words were written by the same James who tried to provoke his brother to risk his life for glory and fame!

And yet reflecting on that remarkable 180, the final words of James’ letter hit differently. This was no generic parting platitude, but a plea born out of his own personal experience of restoration:

‘My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.’

(James 5.19–20)

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