We can be so quick to judge. Which is more valuable - a handful of coins or a handful of notes? The notes have a higher monetary value, but the coins weigh more and last longer. The 'value' depends on the purpose. What makes someone a more important apostle? Some of Jesus' friends once had an argument about that and it doesn't seem to have gone away.
If you had been one of twelve people who started an organization that went global and turned the world upside down, how justified would you have felt if you'd known that you'd go down in history as 'The Lesser'. It doesn't quite seem fair, does it. James, son of Alphaeus was one of Jesus' first 12 apostles. He was on the first missionary trip that Jesus sent anyone out on, healing the sick, casting out demons and preaching about the Kingdom of God. He took part in sharing out a 12th of five loaves and two fish to feed something like 1,000 people, and later a 12th of seven loaves and a few fish to feed maybe 800 people. He was a guest at one of perhaps the most intimate times with Jesus ever - the last supper - as an equal with all the other 11 apostles. He was in the room when Jesus first appeared to his group of apostles after rising from the dead. He was in the room when the Holy Spirit was first poured out with tongues of fire and a mighty rushing wind, in fulfilment of Joel's prophecy. And so we could go on. Finally, like the other apostles, he almost certainly ended his life in some part of the world far from Jerusalem, having taken the gospel there and probably was killed in return for his message of love, although we don't know where.
Admittedly he wasn't in the core three of Jesus's team, who witnessed a few things that the others didn't, but he was one of 12 people chosen out of the whole world over all time to be one of the closest companions of the Son of God while he was on Earth as a human. I don't think that 'lesser' is a good description of anyone in that position. 'James, Son of Alphaeus' seems fine, doesn't it? It makes it perfectly clear whom we're talking about.
The problem arises because, in addition to mentions of this James in the lists of the 12 apostles, one of women who stayed with Jesus when he was on the cross and visited the tomb was called Mary the mother of James. In one account she is referred to simply as that, Mary the mother of James, in another the mother of James and Joseph, and in the third, the mother of James the younger and Joses. Now the wife of Zebedee, probably called Salome, was at the cross as well and she was the mother of the brothers James and John, who were apostles. So there's no reason to doubt that this Mary could have been the wife of Alphaeus and, therefore, the mother of the James who was one of the other apostles. Therefore, tradition has stuck with a lot of the church that James the son of Alphaeus is James the younger. This may well be true. 'Younger', though, is also sometimes translated 'shorter' or, more unfortunately, 'less' or 'lesser', which equally seems to have stuck but gives the wrong message.
Everyone is important in God's eyes: the man called 'The Lesser' by the Church helped turn the whole world upside down!
I'm sure Jesus didn't call him over by saying, "Oh, James the Lesser, could you come over here please?" Jesus doesn't think of any of us as lesser. Of course, now that he's in Heaven I'm sure that it doesn't make any difference to James if we call him lesser, greater, son of Alphaeus, or anything else for that matter. It seems, though, that somehow the church can feel justified in calling one of the greatest Church leaders of all time 'The Lesser'.
What do we know about him other than what he did collectively with the other apostles? Unhelpfully, nothing - we don't even really know if his mother was Mary. Interestingly, some people suggest that he is the same James who went on to lead the church in Jerusalem and write the New Testament letter of James, although that seems quite unlikely; in that case, though, 'lesser' would obviously be completely out of place. All that is certain is that he is listed as one of the 12 apostles and found towards the end of the list. That fact has led some people to say that he was less important - top of list, important, bottom of list, unimportant. So to continue our conversation above: "Oh, James the Lesser, could you come over here please?"
"Why do you always call me 'lesser', Jesus?
"Because you're less important than James the son of Zebedee; isn't that obvious?"
No, James the son of Alphaeus wasn't less important. He seems to be one of those who got his head down and did the job. He wasn't the one who was inspired to declare that Jesus was the Messiah. Equally, though, he didn't deny Jesus publicly, start an argument about if he was greater than any of the other apostles, end up being rebuked for wanting to call down fire on a Samaritan village or for trying to persuade Jesus not to let himself be killed. He just got on with preaching, healing, casting out demons and perfoming other miracles as required.
If you had chosen a team of just 12 people to start a global movement with you, do you think that it would be sensible to consider one of them less important? God has no favourites. He spends more time with some, if we give him more time, but do you think that the adulteress whom Jesus saved from being stoned felt that Jesus thought her less important, or Jairus whose daughter he healed, or the Samaritan women with whom he talked at a well and then stayed there for two days? The possible examples are endless, but no one who has an encounter with Jesus needs to feel less important than anyone else. Don't allow yourself to tell you that you are. Don't allow anyone else to do that. Don't let society imply it to you. You are as loved as James 'the greater'.
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