The Value of Trials

Introduction

I want to show you a picture. What do you see?

Is it a rabbit (two weeks too late for Easter)? Or it is a man with a bushy mustache?

You are right!

This is an example of the problem of “perception.” It is what we see in what is there and how we arrange the pieces to make sense of things.

This series deals with the letter written by James. It deals with a simple idea. What do you expect the Christian life to be?

We bring expectations which color our experience. Some believe that, once we get to be a Christian, we have a bed of roses. We will have money, ease, and admiration.

So it is frustrating when it may lead to poverty, problems, and persecution.

Let’s open this letter and get a grasp on it as we move into this first lesson.

Discussion

The Book

The book opens with these words of introduction:

James 1:1 ESV

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.

Who writes it? Who reads it?

The Author

It says it is “James” but since that’s a common name, which James?

From what we hear from the early church fathers, this James is one of the brothers of Jesus. We know that Mary and Joseph had other children. Matthew tells us briefly about them.

Matthew 13:54–56 ESV

and coming to his hometown he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?”

The certain identity of this James is still a mystery. Yet, the best evidence seems to point to James the brother of Jesus. We are told he had a brother named James who was a doubter while Jesus was alive. After the resurrection, he took a U-turn and became a Christian leader.

It is fascinating that James says that he is nothing but a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn’t try to gain status and standing by sticking his fingers in his lapels and say, “Oh, and by the way, did I tell you that Jesus was my brother.” He betrays a humility which should show through in all Christians.

That’s not to say he was unimportant.

Apparently, while Jesus was alive, he was a skeptic. After all it is hard to believe that your older brother is that special!

But apparently after the resurrection, he became a believer…and more…a leader in the early church. We hear his name sprinkled throughout the New Testament, especially in connection with the apostles in Jerusalem.

We read how he was instrumental in the Jerusalem council in Acts 15 where they were trying to untie the Gentile knot in the church's rope. We find Paul in discussions with him when he goes to Jerusalem.

1 Corinthians 15:7 ESV

Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.

And Paul gives us a little more of a tidbit. He calls him “the Lord’s brother.”

Galatians 1:19 ESV

But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother.

He appears to be a spokesman for the traditional Jewish population of Christians. He also never left Jerusalem.

James had reputation for his deep faith. In fact, his nickname was “Old Camel Knees.”

A writer named Hegissipus who lived just shortly after John the apostle's death. He calls him "old camel knees." Camels spend a lot of time resting on their knees. Therefore, the knees grow large callouses due to constant contact with the ground.

[James] alone was permitted to enter into the holy place; for he wore not woolen but linen garments. And he was in the habit of entering alone into the temple, and was frequently found upon his knees begging forgiveness for the people, so that his knees became hard like those of a camel, in consequence of his constantly bending them in his worship of God, and asking forgiveness for the people.

He believe in Christianity in action, not as high theology. He practiced the faith.

There could be no better spokesman for Christianity put into daily life.

The Recipients

Just as mysterious as the author is, so too is those who would read this letter for the first time.

It is written to “the twelve tribes of the Dispersion.”

The Dispersion meant many things. When persecution erupted in Palestine 150 years before Christ under the Syrian tyrant Antiochus Epiphanes IV, Jews scattered to the four winds for their protection.

We read of the result of that scattering in the listing of Pentecost.

Acts 2:9–10 ESV

Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome,

But, there were other scatterings.

In 53 A.D., the Roman Emperor had enough of the Jews in Rome, so he cast expelled them and they wandered to new locations.

The Jewish historian Josephus says:

The Jews, on the other hand, I bid for their part not to agitate for more than they have previously enjoyed, and never again to send two embassies, as though they lived in two separate cities—the like of which has never happened before. Moreover, they must not engage in contests for such posts as gymnasiarch or games director, but should rest content with what belongs to them by right and enjoy an abundance of all good things in a city which is not theirs. They must not bring in or invite Jews who sail in from Syria or Egypt; this is the sort of thing which will compel me to have my suspicions redoubled. Otherwise I will proceed against them with the utmost severity for fomenting a general plague which infests the whole world.

Many of those Jews were Jews who had become Christians. We find in their number Aquila and Priscilla who settle in Ephesus.

But persecution would continue, which is what this book has much to say about.

Not long after James was written, the Christian Jews fled Jerusalem when its destruction occurred. Again, they became homeless living in Petra, in modern day Jordan.

These were probably Jewish Christians who were enduring great persecution and pressure.

The Book Itself

The letter faced tough sledding in the early church and struggled to get into the approved list of books called the canon.

It had too Jewish a tone, resembling Old Testament wisdom literature.

Jesus is only mentioned twice, once in the introduction.

The letter omits the great themes of the cross, resurrection, or the Holy Spirit.

But it brings a theme all men desperately need to confront. If you say you believe, why don’t you act like it!

So James brings Christian reality to the teaching. He wants lives to betray confessions.

And in this first lesson, he tackles on the hardest things for us to handle.

Trials

James in this lesson wants to reframe the subject of “trials.”

For most people life’s difficulties are a curse. Many see them as God expressing his anger. And, we should avoid life’s troubles when we can because they have no value.

James draws a new frame around that idea.

But to introduce it, let’s get down to cases.

I want to introduce you to a young man named David Sanchez. David is energetic and loves to play basketball. That is until the pain from his sickle cell disease renders him helpless. He lives a painful life and it may end it early.

The question to ask David Sanchez is: If you could choose not to have sickle cell, would you do that? It’s a real question asked to a real boy named David Sanchez.

Or, if you want to get Biblical, here is another question.

Would Joseph had been Joseph had he not been sold into slavery, falsely accused, and thrown into prison?

Is there any value in the trials of life? Are they wasting our time and simply afflicting pain for no reason? That might be how those who are suffering for faith might see it?

The question that sits with suffering people is “why.”

My best friend in the whole world died of pancreatic cancer the day we went into lockdown last year. There was no funeral. All I got was a voicemail.

I had known him since 8th grade. His parents had both died when he was less than 12, leaving him to go live with an aunt. Adults know that’s best, but kids don’t grasp any good in being left an orphan.

We were baptized together. We roomed together in college. I performed his first wedding, a marriage in which his wife left him for a cheap affair.

I remember one night, we were talking and he turned and asked a tear-stained question. “Why did all of this have to happen to me?”

What would you have told him?

The problem with the Bible is it doesn’t always give us the answers we want but always gives us the perspective we need.

We want easy answers and it simply says, “let’s think about it from God’s perspective? It’s like spiritual castor oil. It’s good for you but tastes bad anyway.

He dives in the second verse of the book.

James 1:2 ESV

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,

Joy? What is that anyway and why use it in connection with trials?

It is fascinating that in America we search for happiness, which is dependent on circumstances. Enough money, the right house, the great job and healthy family. That’s how you get happiness.

But joy…that’s an inside job. Its about seeing life as a blessing even when you are stuck in a storm. Joy is something you have, not that you find. You look through eyes of joy. They are lenses to interpret the world.

But James say a lot about trials.

It’s a word that generally means “testing.” Anything that tests you, that examines you, that uncovers who you really are is a test. For some it is an illness. For others, the past year has been a test. Generally, testing has the same feeling as a senior taking the SAT after not sleeping well. Its tense, tough, and hard.

Why does James say, “count it all joy?” How can you turn your head around and think about it from the perspective of joy?

And yet, in that opening salvo, James gives an answer. You can think differently about the trials. Thinking about them, gaining a new perspective provides you with the deep-seated appreciation for what trials are doing for us.