St. James gained an importance he had not expected.

Monday, 7/25/16

Today we honor the Apostle James, the brother of John. They were such a fiery pair that Jesus nicknamed them, “The Sons of thunder.” James was the first of the apostles to die, while his brother John lived the longest.

King Herod, on a whim, had James seized then put to death by the sword. When that gained him the applause of the ruling class, he went on to put other Christians to the sword.

James had been such an ambitious young man, that he got his mother to plead with Jesus to give him and john positions of importance.

Jesus said that the importance that would come to him was not of the sort he dreamed of. He was honored by becoming the first to follow Jesus in giving his life for his beliefs.