Hey, Jude

Being a kid brother is hard. But what if your big brother is Jesus. We’re not just talking about following in the footsteps of the best kid in the family, but the sinless Son of God! Put yourself in Jude’s place for just a moment. One of four brothers. According to Matthew and Mark, Joe the carpenter and his wife Mary had four boys. Jesus, James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas (Mt 13:55; Mk 6:3). Being the kid brother of Jesus would be tough enough. But one of your other older brothers ends up running the home office of the faith. James pastors the original mega-church in Jerusalem and writes a book of the Bible. If that’s not enough, your parents also gave you the same name (Gr. Ioudas) as the most notorious backstabber in the New Testament. That may explain why he now goes by the nickname Jude. Really, can you blame him? I mean how in the wide world of sports do you live up to all THAT?!?!

It would be easy to wallow in a pool of your own pity. But not Jesus’ kid brother. Not Jude. He places his trust in his Lord and Savior. That just happens to be the same boy you shared a bedroom with growing up in Nazareth. In many ways, this is one of greatest proofs of Jesus’ divinity in my mind. What would it take for you to think that your big brother was God? Yeah, see what I mean. Satan, perhaps. Certainly not God. And Jesus’ family wasn’t buying it in the beginning either. John tells us, “For not even His brothers believed him” (Jn 7:5). That would certainly include James and Jude. But in many ways, it was worse than that. Jesus’ family actually thought He was off His rocker. At one point, they tried to bring Him back home because, in their words, “He is out of His mind” (Mk 3:21).

But something changed. Something VERY big flipped the switch of faith for His family. We know that Jude, his brother James, as well as their mom Mary believed that Jesus was divine. Or should we say, IS divine. When Jesus walked out of the graveyard after His crucifixion and burial, it rocked James’ world. When you’re big brother is resurrected, it kinda changes everything. The Apostle Paul says brother Jim believed when he came face-to-face with the risen Christ (1Cor 15:6). The writers of the Bible don’t let us in on Jude’s conversion. Not hard to believe that happened after a chat with his brother Jim. 

You see, Jude isn’t trusting in Jesus his big brother. He’s trusting in the fact that He’s his Savior. He’s trusting in the fact that He’s his Lord. He’s trusting that Jesus lived the perfect life that Jude failed to live (again, who else is going to believe their big brother was perfect?!?). He’s trusting that Jesus died the brutal death for Jude’s sin that he should have died. He’s trusting that Jesus rose to a new life that Jude doesn’t deserve. 

Hey, Jude. Tell us about your big Brother.