If you missed Sunday’s message you can catch up by listening here or over at crosspointe.org/series/the-book-of-james
Reading: James 1:1-14
Whatever the trial or difficulty, consider it joy?
Imagine your brother walking up to your prison bars and saying from freedom’s side, “consider it all joy.” Imagine him texting this little phrase to you while you’re still in the funeral procession, or whispering it from the other bed in the hospital room after the doctor just used the word “terminal,” or saying it with one arm around your shoulder as you both watch your house burn to the ground, or writing it on the same envelope your spouse served your divorce papers in. Count it all joy.
The question isn’t whether or not you would punch him. The question is on which part of his face, and how many times. The only way you could feel remotely positive about this annoying bit of Dear Abby-ing is if your brother had the experiential authority to say it.
James was Jesus‘s brother, according to many scholars. Yet, instead of saying “James, the brother of Jesus Christ,” he refers to himself as a bond servant or slave of God, and of the Lord. And he chooses the Greek word “doulos” for slave – the lowest form of servanthood that carried with it the most derogatory connotation. James is more than in full association with Jesus; he’s in full submission. He knows who his half-brother turned out to be, and how the story of our difficulties can turn out if endured with him at the helm. James is completely sold out. He’s seen extreme familial and social tension work all the way out. He’s seen sickness completely reversed. He’s seen terribly difficult, evil people, become heroes. He’s seen persecution and pain become good and beauty. He’s even seen bloody crucifixions end in love and life for all.
On this experiential authority, our brother James, our mutual brother and bond servant of Jesus, it says, “whatever you’re facing, no matter where you are, trust me: ‘consider it joy.'” Not because he believes that being spiritual means adopting a Pollyanna view of real difficulty, but because he knows firsthand that in Christ, difficulties equal our growth and betterment, and that not even death itself has the last word.
“Though the fig tree does not bite and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails in the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.” – Habakkuk 3:17-18
How much do external circumstances determine your joy, your attitude, your kindness and hopefulness? How does trusting and enduring in the ability of James’s big Brother change things for you today? These are questions worth asking.
Allow God to draw your attention to all the ways you might want to run from difficulty, and how you unconsciously view a lack of ease with a lack of closeness with God. As those things come to mind, allow James’s words, and Christ’s life, to remind you that difficulty is the path to growth, no matter why that difficult thing happened. Allow God to remind you that often times the only way out is through. And that not even death has the last word anymore. Christ and Christ’s life do!