Uncle Jesus
Jesus had four brothers and two (or more) sisters (Mt 13:55-56). One of his brothers, Jude, had children and grandchildren. In Jesus’ culture, we would expect that his other siblings had children as well.
A story from ancient church history relates events involving Jesus’ family fifty years after his death. The story is interesting because it invokes both the Messiah legend surrounding Jesus as well as the fallout of Messianic expectation from the Jewish Wars.
The text refers to the grandchildren of Jude, “who was said to be the Lord’s brother.” And the story concludes, “They ruled the churches because they were witnesses and were also relatives of the Lord.”**
It may be as simple as observing that Jesus’ great-nephews just continued the “family business.” I wonder, however, what they thought of the man and his life. Jesus was their great-uncle after all.
Did their father have a relationship with Jesus that he passed on to these boys? And by relationship, I mean, did they pass time together and share some common, human interests?
I can’t imagine that to his nephew(s) a pan-handling know-it-all would have been acceptable — an uncle who refused to get a real job. Case in point, when Jesus started teaching, his mother and brothers thought he had lost his senses (Mk 3:21, 31).
As we read stories about Jesus’ experience, it’s easy to bracket off other elements of life like extended family. The immediacy of our own experiences begs the question, however. What were the contours and texture of Jesus’ experience as we consider all of the elements of his life?
** Read the story of Jesus’ great-nephews at <http://newadvent.org/fathers/250103.htm>. Scroll down to 19-20. Eusebius (4th century) quotes Hegesippus (2nd century) in Historia Ecclesiae, Book III, ch. 19-20. Accessed: October 2013.