Then he appeared to James
Article by Dan LeRoy
Ask James — he’ll tell you it is life changing.
History records that some 30 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Christians in Jerusalem were causing so much uproar with their life-changing message that a group of Jewish leaders came to James. They acknowledged how well respected and influential he was in the city and asked him to address the people, assuring them that this business of Jesus being the divine Messiah was not true. They put James up high on the temple wall during Passover and called the people to attention.
When they gave James the opportunity to speak, he declared with force and conviction that Jesus was indeed the risen Lord and was their only way to salvation. Enraged, the leaders threw him off the high ledge into the valley below. The fall did not kill him, and struggling, he gathered himself up on his knees and prayed for the forgiveness of his persecutors. This even further enraged them, and they began stoning him. He was dispatched from this life to the next when a man stepped up and crushed his head with a vicious swing of a wooden pole.
Tradition says that when James’ family and friends retrieved his battered body and began to prepare it for burial, they discovered enormous callouses on his knees. He had spent so much time in prayer, his knees looked like the knees of a camel.
