The close union, and subsequent separation by this martyrdom, of that
pair of brothers is striking and pathetic. They seem to have together
pursued their humble trade of fishermen in the little fishing village
of Bethsaida, apparently as working partners with their father Zebedee.
They were not divided by discipleship, as was the sad fate of many a
brother delivered by a brother to death. If we may attach any weight to
the suggestion that the expression in John's narrative, 'He first
findeth _his own_ brother, Simon,' implies that 'the other disciple'
did the same by _his_ brother, James was brought to Jesus by John, and
new tenderness and strength thereby given to their affection. They were
closely associated in their Apostleship, and were together the
companions of Jesus in the chief incidents of His life. They were
afterwards united in the leadership of the Church. By death they were
separated very far: the one the first of all the Apostles to 'become a
prey to Satan's rage,' the other 'lingering out his fellows all,' and
'dying in bloodless age,' living to be a hundred years old or more, and
looking back through all the long parting to the brother who had joined
with him in the wish that even Messiah's Kingdom should not part them,
and yet had been parted so soon and parted so long.
Ah! may we not learn the lesson that we should recognise the mercy and
wisdom of the ministry of Death the separator, and should tread with
patience the lonely road, do calmly the day's work, and tarry till He
comes, though those that stood beside us be gone? We may look forward
with the assurance that 'God keeps a niche in heaven to hide our
idols'; and 'albeit He breaks them to our face,' yet shall we find them
again, like Memnon's statue, vocal in the rising sunshine of the
heavens.
The brothers, so closely knit, so soon parted, so long separated, were
at last reunited. Even to us here, with the chronology of earth still
ours, the few years between the early martyrdom of James and the death
of the centenarian John seem but a span. The lapse of the centuries
that have rolled away since then makes the difference of the dates of
the two deaths seem very small, even to us. What a mere nothing it will
have looked to them, joined together once more before God!
IV. Lastly, James and James. In his hot youth, when he deserved the
name of a son of thunder--so energetic, boisterous, I suppose,
destructive perhaps, he was--he and his brother, and their foolish
mother, whose name is kindly not told us, go to Christ and say, 'Grant
that we may sit, the one on Thy right hand and the other on Thy left,
in Thy kingdom.' That was what he wished and hoped for, and what he got
was years of service, and a taste of persecution, and finally the swish
of the headsman's sword.
And so our dreams get disappointed, and their disappointment is often
the road to their fulfilment, for Jesus Christ was answering James'
prayer, 'Grant that we may sit on Thy right hand in Thy kingdom,' when
He called him to Himself, by the brief and bloody passage of martyrdom.
James said, when he did not know what he meant, and the vow was noble
though it was ignorant, 'we can drink of the cup that Thou drinkest.'
And all honour to him! he stuck to his vow; and when the cup was
proffered to him he manfully, and like a Christian, took it and drank
it to the dregs; and, I suppose, went silently to his grave. But the
change between his ardent anticipations and his calm resignation, and
between his foolish dream and the stern reality, may well teach us
that, whether our wishes be fulfilled or disappointed, they all need to
be purified, and that the disappointment of them on earth is often
God's way of fulfilling them for us in higher fashion than we dreamed
or asked.
So, brethren, let us leave for ourselves, and for all dear ones, that
question of living or dying, to His decision. Only let us be sure that
whether our lives be long like John's, or short like James', 'living or
dying we are the Lord's.' And then, whatever be the length of life or
the manner of death, both will bring us the fulfilment of our highest
wishes, and will lead us to His side at whose right hand all those
shall sit who have loved Him here, and, though long parted, shall be
reunited in common enjoyment of the pleasures for evermore which bloom
unfading there. 'And so shall we ever be with the Lord.'