From My Heart To You

JAMES ~ The son of Alphaeus


The son of Alphaeus, sometimes called James the Less, is listed as
an apostle in Matthew, Mark, Luke and the Acts. But beyond
this he receives no further mention. Nevertheless his importance
in the early Church was considerable. He had charge of the church
in Jerusalem, and it was he who pronounced the decision at the
so-called Council of Jerusalem that Jewish laws would not be
imposed on Gentile converts. Early historians testify to the high
pepute in which James was held by Christian and Jew alike.
The Jewish historian Josephus, for instance, calls him "the most
righteous of men."

Hegesippus, a historian of the second century, gives a vivid
account of the martyrdom of James. Apparently the scribes and
Pharisees, intending to use James for their own ends, set him on
a pinnacle of the Temple and urged him to deny that Jesus was
the Messiah. Instead James proceeded to deliver a rousing
vindication of Christ, and his hearers began to chant their praise
of Jesus. Furious, the scribes and Pharisees cast James from
the Temple. Finding that the fall had not killed him, they began
to stone him. As they did so James prayed for his persecutors.
Eventually he was beaten to death with a fuller's club, and was
buried at the place where he died.

How admirably James followed the example of his divine Master!
Jesus, on the cross, prayed for those who crucified Him. James
prayed for his murderers while they beat him to death.

Though few of us are called to the great spiritual heroism
shown by James, every Christian must strive to follow Jesus'
example of love and forgiveness.

Mark 3:17-19

And James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of
James; and he surnamed them Boanerges, which is, The
sons of thunder:

And Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew,
and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus,
and Simon the Canaanite,

And Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed him: and they
went into an house.

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