Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Write for the BIOGRAPHICAL Genre (12/04/14)
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TITLE: His Life from Brother to Brother | Previous Challenge Entry
By Linda Gage
12/11/14 -
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“James, it doesn’t have to end like this. Remember we were all taught the same. We know the Law. Together we await the coming messiah. Right?”
James remembered his first time in the temple as a young boy. It was scary and wonderful. Soon, it became all he wanted to do. He and his brothers spent hours learning about God and the Law.
“Well?” questioned the high priest, “Deny him now and this is over.”
James thought about ‘him.’ His big brother, Jesus. He thought about the day their parents took them to temple but Jesus did not return. Joseph and Mary were so worried. And when Jesus finally showed up, he didn’t even get so much as a reprimand. It was always like that with him. He got away with so much when they were kids. Jesus this and Jesus that. James’ could feel that old sibling rivalry bitterness arise, but it was interrupted by his own voice.
“No.” though quiet, the crowd heard.
A barrage of stones flew. They pelted his body but felt like mere insect bites. Maybe he could handle this.
“James the Just?” the accuser mocked. “How ‘right’ are you? You deny your father’s heritage, yet you won’t deny this heretic!”
He signaled the crowd to cast more stones. James toppled to the ground as they pummeled his arms, legs, back and head. Blood appeared on his tunic.
No one loved his heritage more than James. A pain from the inside hit his stomach as he remembered criticizing his brother. Back then it confused and angered James, because if Jesus was who he claimed to be, he should have been able to help their father, his father; Joseph. But according to Jesus, his ministry was bigger than their family. James may have agreed with his accusers then, but that was long gone.
James stood up, “Never.”
The crowd became unruly, spouting taunts and rushed the battered man. The leader stopped them.
“James! You who grew up in Jewish tradition. You who turned against your knowledge, heritage and teaching of the Law. You who had the gall to remain in Jerusalem thus causing others to turn away and follow this man that you grew up with in a carpenter’s home. Deny him, right here and now!”
James fell to his knees. The knees that were calloused from long hours of praying for the very people with rocks in their hands. Pain was shooting from every inch of his body, head throbbing and blood pooling under him.
“James, you can save yourself! Just deny that your brother Jesus is the Son of God, Messiah, Savior!”
James’ body was faltering and his mind was foggy, but his spirit strengthened. Yes of course, Jesus is his brother; biological brother because they have the same mother, Mary. But after he had seen Jesus die on a cross he Him alive and well. Jesus had risen from death, just as he said he would! That day James’ eyes were opened and he knew Jesus was telling the truth and had always been telling the truth. James’ spirit was awakened and he became Jesus’s spiritual brother because he believed. The man who he grew up with him in the carpenter’s home is the Son of God, Messiah and Savior!
In that renewed strength he shouted, “I am James, son of a carpenter, lover of the Law, brother of Jesus Christ, Son of God, who came not to obliterate the Law but to fulfill it. He is my Savior. He is your Savior.”
The masses could not be contained and rushed toward him hurling stones and insults. James looked up beyond the man who leaned over him and heaved the boulder that smashed his head. Everything went black and simultaneously the light that the crowd could not see shined on James.
James body was lifeless and covered with his own blood.
James spirit lives on because he is covered by the blood of Jesus.
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