Jesus own brother believed and was transformed!

One of the strongest evidences of Jesus being who He said He was is the transformation and testimony of His brother James. James, Jesus’ oldest stepbrother, like the rest of Jesus’ siblings, did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah. They knew that He was an effective teacher, that people were being healed, that crowds followed Him everywhere He went and even encouraged Him to leave Galilee and go to Judea where He could become ‘famous’, but ‘even His brothers didn’t believe in Him.’ (John 7:5)

Can you imagine being the stepbrother of Jesus? Jesus is healing people left and right. Jesus is teaching huge crowds of people. Jesus is feeding the multitudes. There are stories circulating about Jesus; calming storms, walking on water, casting demons into pigs and these are just the stories we know about. John, one of the Apostles and an eyewitness, writes that there were MANY things that Jesus did that were unable to be put to writing and that ‘the whole world could not contain the books that would be written.’ (John 21:25)

James’ stepbrother Jesus is the one doing all these things and yet James does not believe that His brother can be the chosen one, the Messiah, the Son of God. It is not until after the crucifixion, burial and then the resurrection of Jesus from the dead that James is transformed.

The Apostle Paul says that: “He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, He was seen by more than 500 of His followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then He was seen by James and later by all the apostles.” (1 Corinthians 15:5-7 NLT)

Once James saw His brother, the one that He saw crucified, pierced in the side, confirmed dead by professional executors and then buried, alive from the dead…his life was changed. It was so radically changed that he spent the rest of his life as a leader among those who became part of the ever expanding spiritual organism called the ‘church.’

In AD 62, less than 30 years after the death, burial and resurrection of his brother Jesus, James was brought before the Jewish Sanhedrin, (the supreme court of their nation), and was given the chance to recant his belief in his brother Jesus as the Messiah. Instead, standing on the top of the Temple, he declared that Jesus "Himself sits in heaven, at the right hand of the Great Power, and shall come on the clouds of heaven." At this declaration the Jewish leaders pushed him off the temple and he hit the ground below where his death was finalized by stoning. His death was so impactful that it was written about by Josephus, Hegesippus, Clement and others.

The life, transformation and martyr of James, Jesus’ brother, is one of the great testimonies as to the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, the Messiah! The faith we live out is not based on myth or fairytales. It is based on real history!