Greater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 594. The Appearance to James

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Greater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 594. The Appearance to James


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The Appearance to James



1. It would seem as if this were among the last of our Lord's appearances during the forty days. The place cannot be determined. It may have been Galilee; it may have been Jerusalem. If James was not in Jerusalem at the Passover, the place was probably somewhere in Galilee, possibly Nazareth. This appearance to James is the only one not made to a known believer. Had any rumours of the resurrection previously reached James? Had he learned that Jesus had appeared to His disciples in Jerusalem? Did his mother inform him that Jesus had indeed risen from the dead and had spoken with the Twelve? Had his doubts begun to give way? Had they vanished, or was he still in perplexity? Whatever his state of mind, he soon received personal confirmation of the resurrection. His Brother appeared to him. Only the fact is recorded. What would we not give for even a few fragments of the conversation then held? How gentle the blame with which our Lord censured His brother for his unbelief! How deep that brother's self-reproach and shame!-that he of all others should not have recognized the Messiah! that kinsmen and strangers should have had keener spiritual discernment than himself! that he should have been deaf and blind to the evidence that persuaded them!-and such evidence! If he had only weighed it as he should! The interview dispelled for ever his own conception of the Messiah, and rendered him thenceforward a whole-hearted and energetic Christian.



I looked at life with all-unseeing eyes,

Unable to discern the deeper thing

Or dive below the surface to the spring,

Until thou camest as a glad surprise.

And now to me the smallest bird that flies

Twitters a song which seraphim might sing;

While roadside flowers a sacred message bring,

And teach those truths that make the angels wise.

I cannot tell thee how thy passing touch

Had power the underlying thought to show

Till all the world was changed because of thee:

Nor do I care to measure overmuch

The why and wherefore: this one thing I know,

That I, who once was blind, now clearly see.1 [Note: E. T. Fowler, Verses Wise or Otherwise, 162.]



2. Some apocryphal writings have supplied details of the appearance of our Lord to James.



The Gospel according to the Hebrews, which Lightfoot speaks of as one of the earliest and most respectable of the apocryphal narratives, is quoted by Jerome (de Vir. ill. 2) to the following effect: “The Lord after his resurrection appeared to James, who had sworn that he would not eat bread from the hour in which he had drunk the cup of the Lord till he saw him risen from the dead. Jesus, therefore, took bread and blessed and brake it, and gave it to James the Just, and said to him, My brother, eat thy bread, for the Son of Man has risen from the dead.” There are other versions of the same story, in which the vow is dated, not from the Last Supper, but from the crucifixion. Possibly the reference to the Last Supper may have arisen from the fact that James shaped his vow after the Lord's words spoken at the Supper, “I will not drink from henceforth of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come.”



3. How natural that a brother standing beneath the cross, having heard of the words spoken at the Last Supper, should then at length have thrown in his lot with Jesus and resolved, whether in despairing remorse or with some faint dawning of believing hope, “I too will no more eat bread nor drink wine till the kingdom of God shall come”! How natural also that one of the earliest appearances of the risen Lord should have been made to His repentant brother, and that that brother should from that day forth have united himself to the company of the Apostles, and been chosen by them to preside over the Church in Jerusalem, while they proceeded to carry out their Master's last charge, to preach the gospel to every nation!



4. It is necessary to assume, in the light of subsequent events, that James's conversion was complete and thoroughgoing, and led him to throw himself heart and soul into the service of the Master. He cannot have been a half-hearted disciple. He must have been one of the most zealous, active, and devoted of them all to secure the position which he ultimately held.



Principal Dale said he always divided men into two classes-those who nipped life and those who gripped it. One of the laws of success was that they must be earnest.1 [Note: British Weekly, June 6, 1907.]