We are left to conjecture what the brothers and sisters of Jesus thought
when he went down to the Jordan to meet the Baptist. We know that “Mary
kept all these sayings, pondering them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). Mary
had seen the dawning messianic consciousness when Jesus was only twelve
(Luke 2:49). The reply of Jesus to his mother’s hint about the wine at
the wedding of Cana implies that they had talked over his messianic task
(John 2:4). But the brothers accompanied Jesus, his mother, and the
small band of six disciples to Capernaum after the miracle at Cana, and
the group remained together for some days (John 2:12). They may have met
at Nazareth after the wedding at Cana and thence proceeded to Capernaum.
It is possible that the brothers, not being at Cana and not knowing the
secret between Jesus and Mary, may not have grasped the significance of
the events connected with the baptism of Jesus and his entrance upon his
messianic career. The presence of the band of “disciples” (learners at
the feet of the new Rabbi) argues that the brothers must have known
something about the wonderful claims of Jesus, their brother. At any
rate, it is pleasant to see them all here together in Capernaum in
fellowship and friendliness, “a proof of the closeness of the ties
uniting our Lord and them. No shadow of estrangement had as yet fallen
upon their relations.”[14] Godet thinks that Mary and the brothers came
on to Capernaum, eager for more miracles like the one at Cana, and may
have been keenly disappointed because Jesus wrought none. This is
possible but hardly as probable as the idea that it was a friendly group
in frank fellowship in Capernaum.
We are left in the dark as to the real attitude of the brothers of Jesus
when he began his great work. They may have looked upon him as a sort of
irregular rabbi or a mild enthusiast carried away by the new teaching of
John the Baptist. There would be natural pride in his work while it
succeeded, without necessary belief in his claims. Certainly Mary must
have had at first the utmost faith, tremulous with expectation, in the
messiahship of Jesus. Perhaps the brothers were at first only mildly
interested or even skeptical of the qualifications of one out of their
own family circle. The brothers may not have been free from the jealousy
sometimes seen in home life.
It was not long before hostility toward Jesus sprang up in Nazareth
itself, according to the vivid narrative in Luke 4:16-31; it probably
was soon after the return of Jesus from Judea and Samaria to Galilee,
certainly after the miracle at Capernaum (Luke 4:23), as told in John
4:46-54. James may have shared with the rest the first wonder at the
words of grace (Luke 4:22) and the quick flash of wrath as the pride of
the town was pricked (Luke 4:28). Henceforth in Nazareth, despite his
growing fame elsewhere, Jesus was _persona non grata_. His brothers felt
this atmosphere of hostility very keenly.
The curtain falls on the family life in Nazareth till toward the close
of the Galilean ministry, after the second general tour of Galilee by
Jesus (Luke 8:1-3). The tremendous work of Jesus had created a wonderful
impression. The multitudes in amazement asked if Jesus were not the son
of David, the Messiah (Matt. 12:23). The Pharisees in anger and chagrin
replied that he was in league with Beelzebub (Matt. 12:24). The
excitement was intense. Jesus could not eat (Mark 3:20). News of all
this came to “his friends” (Mark 3:21), who are explained in Mark 3:31
as “his mother and his brothers.”
Probably already vague rumors were afloat that Jesus was out of his
head. Once people said of Jesus that he was “a gluttonous man, and a
winebibber” (Luke 7:34), but now he is so queer! In the inner circle at
Nazareth Mary had watched and heard it all. What could it mean? Perhaps,
Mary argued, his reason has been temporarily dethroned by the strain and
the excitement. She will go and bring him home where he can have quiet
and rest. It was easier for the brothers to see it so, since they had
not accepted him as Messiah. Perhaps one may have said, “I told you so.”
At any rate, “they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is
beside himself” (Mark 3:21).
Jesus is in a crowded house in Galilee near the lake when they come
(Mark 3:19) and readily understands why they have come when he is told
that his mother and brothers are standing without and wish to speak with
him (Mark 3:31; Matt. 12:46; Luke 8:19 f.). It is a tragedy of life,
pathetic beyond words. The ecclesiastics have long ago made issue with
him and are now violently assailing him. Many of the people are
following the lead of the Pharisees. And now his own mother and brothers
have come and wish to take him home so as to avoid the scandal and shame
of his further public ministry. The Pharisees say he has a demon and is
in league with the devil. The “charitable” construction, therefore, is
that he is a lunatic. But Jesus does not go out to meet his own mother
and brothers (James among them). He had come to know one of the
bitterest of human sorrows, a pang to the very heart—to be misunderstood
“among his own kin, and in his own house” (Mark 6:4).
It is not surprising, therefore, that Jesus found consolation in the
fact that many did understand him. “And looking round on them that sat
round about him” (Mark 3:34) when the message came, “he stretched forth
his hand towards his disciples, and said, Behold, my mother and my
brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven,
he is my brother, and sister, and mother” (Matt. 12:49 f.). Mother and
brothers and even his “sisters” (note “and sister”) had failed in the
crisis to comprehend Jesus. But the Father in heaven had not veiled his
face from Jesus. It is not clear that James heard this pathetic rebuke
from Jesus, as he may have remained standing outside the house. Many
have come into spiritual fellowship with Jesus who thus have the
peculiar privilege of taking the place made empty in his heart for the
time by mother and sister and brother. With Mary it was a temporary
eclipse, and she was loyal at the end as she stood by the cross (John
19:25).
Jesus made another and a last visit to Nazareth (Matt. 13:54-58; Mark
6:1-6). There was a revival of interest in him which crystallized into
hard skepticism, so that Jesus “did not many mighty works there,” and
even “marvelled because of their unbelief.” He was a “prophet without
honor” in Nazareth as he left for the last time the city of his
childhood and early manhood.
The tide at last turned against Jesus in Capernaum (John 6:22-71) and in
Galilee generally. For six months he remained away, save for a brief
visit that met with the united hostility of Pharisee and Sadducee (Matt.
15:39 to 16:4; Mark 8:10-13). The brothers of Jesus meanwhile seemed to
grow in this spirit of dislike toward the elder brother. Six months
before the death of Jesus they ridiculed him for his being a virtual
refugee from Galilee and for his secretive methods, quite inconsistent
with his claims of messiahship (John 7:2-5). James as the oldest of the
brothers was probably the spokesman on this occasion. The “advice” was
of an extremely irritating nature, with the implication that Jesus was
seeking to gain credit “in public” while doing his work “in secret.” It
is not surprising, therefore, that Jesus did precisely the opposite, for
he went up to Jerusalem, “not publicly, but as it were in secret” (John
7:10).
John explains the motive of the brothers (7:4 f.), “for even his
brethren did not believe on him.”[15] They had reached the point when
they were willing to attack Jesus. They belonged to the world and did
not understand Jesus (John 7:6 f.). It is not necessary to say that
James was actually a Pharisee, still less an Essene. The use made of his
name by the Judaizers in the controversy with Paul does not prove this
to be true (Gal. 2:12). But certainly he was now in general sympathy
with the hostile attitude of the ecclesiastics from Jerusalem (both
Pharisee and Sadducee). The cup that Jesus must drink at Jerusalem has
this added bitterness in it.
It is not particularly surprising, when all things are considered, that
at his death Jesus commended his mother to John, the beloved disciple,
rather than to any of his brothers or sisters. They were all completely
out of sympathy with him and with her. At such an hour sympathy counted
far more than blood relationship alone. Besides, the brothers may not
have been in Jerusalem at this time, for they still lived in Nazareth.
It is possible, of course, that James may have been at the Passover,
which was so generally attended by the Jews. Certainly he was at
Pentecost later (Acts 1:14).
We do not know whether Jesus appeared to James in Jerusalem or in
Galilee (1 Cor. 15:7), though Paul mentions it after the appearance to
the more than five hundred, which was in Galilee. Mary needed immediate
attention, and Jesus died upon the cross with James and all his brothers
and sisters utterly out of touch with him. “Doubtless their very
intimacy with our Lord blinded them to his real greatness.”[16]