Congratulations to all our friends at “Faith and Football”
“I Sing This Song Of Love For You” featuring Lucy Stimpson- Maynard from the album ” I Look Up To The Heavens” recorded and produced by John Hodgkinson
Before having a look at what happened to the disciple James may I first congratulate my friends Linvoy Primus and Mick Mellows, co- Directors of the charity, Faith and Football that will be presenting Risen!- The Musical with us at the New Theatre Royal, Portsmouth this coming November. Linvoy has been awarded an M.B.E and Faith and Football have received an MBE equivalent -the Queens Award for Voluntary Services. So many richly deserved congratulations!
Risen!- The Musical features five of Jesus’ disciples – Judas, Peter, Thomas, John and James. Judas was discussed in blog of April 16th Thomas in blog April 9th and Peter last week.
In blogs April 30th and May 7th I discussed the disciple John, but what about his brother James, also named in by Jesus in Mark 3:17 as a Son of Thunder? By the way this James is not to be confused with James the brother of Jesus or another disciple, James son of Alpheus. To help (or to add to the confusion) James brother of John is sometimes known as James the Greater, whereas James son of Alpheus is known as James the Lesser or Younger.
The Bible (Matthew 4:21) tells us that James was a fisherman, the brother of John and the son of Zebedee. We also know that together with John and Peter, James was part of Jesus’ “inner circle” and for example was with Him at His transfiguration (Matthew 17:1) and in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:33.) From Acts 12: 2 we learn that King Herod (that is Herod Agrippa 1 grandson of Herod the Great) had him put to the sword i.e. beheaded. Anything else we know of James is from tradition rather than from Biblical accounts- one tradition being that after seeing the courage and un- recanting spirit of James, his executioner was so convinced of Christ’s resurrection, that he was executed with him.
James is the patron saint of Spain and Portugal. According to one legend, his remains are held in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia. (The name Santiago is the local Galician evolution of Vulgar Latin Sanctu Iacobu, “Saint James“.) The traditional pilgrimage to the grave of the Saint, known as the “Way of St. James“, has been the most popular pilgrimage for Western European Catholics from the Early Middle Ages onwards. It was the focus of the film “The Way” starring Martin Sheen, Emilio Estevez and James Nesbitt.
In Risen!- The Musical James sings the songs- “Judas I Don’t Understand,” “Jesus Lord of Lords” (in the newly revised script) and “Bathe Me In Your Light.”
So what about the other disciples? Next week I will look at traditions that surround other disciples Matthew, Andrew, Bartholomew, Philip, James son of Alpheus, Thaddeus (probably also known as Jude) and Simon the Zealot.