“Hey Jude, what’s this we’re hearing about your brother Jesus? Some say he’s become a rabbi?! Some say he’s healing the sick?! Some even say he claims to be Messiah?! What’s going on?”<\/p>\n
Jude, James, Joseph, and Simon heard such questions regularly. After Jesus returned to Nazareth after his baptism, the hometown people asked: “‘Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary and aren’t his brothers and sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?’ And they took offense at him.” (see Matt 13:54-57)<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, Jude and his brothers were also skeptics. During the Feast of the Tabernacles, they gave Jesus some sarcastic advice: “‘You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the miracles you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.’ For even his own brothers did not believe in him.” (Jn 7:3-5)<\/p>\n
But something changed for Jude. Maybe Mary explained the truth… or maybe it was the Resurrection… or maybe the Holy Spirit convicted a hard heart… whatever happened, Jude became a follower. He wrote a letter to warn Christians of false followers. In his day (as in ours), some “change the grace of our God into a license for immorality” and some “deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.” Jude reminds readers of Old Testament stories recounting foolishness, selfish pride, and sexual sin. Jesus taught that false teachers could be identified by examining the fruit of a life. Jude uses similar words: “They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees without fruit and uprooted – twice dead.”<\/p>\n
Despite these important warnings, there is an interesting ‘mercy’ emphasis in Jude’s writing. “Mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance.” “Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear – hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.” Jude knew he had received mercy. He remembered he had doubted. He realized he had been snatched from the fire. He must have also remembered his Brother’s beatitude: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” Mercy takes a sad song and makes it better. We can thank Jude for a reminder.<\/p>\n
“But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you eternal life.” Jude 20-21<\/p>\n
“To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy – to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.” Jude 24-25<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“Hey Jude, what’s this we’re hearing about your brother Jesus? Some say he’s become a rabbi?! Some say he’s healing the sick?! Some even say he claims to be Messiah?! What’s going on?” Jude, James, Joseph, and Simon heard such questions regularly. After Jesus returned to Nazareth after his baptism, the hometown people asked: “‘Where […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jesus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=880"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1472,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880\/revisions\/1472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}