Jesus Our Brother

7th June 2021

It all began at the very dawn of History. Just outside the garden of Eden were two brothers, loved by their parents. When Cain realized that he was not accepted by God, but on the other hand his brother Abel was accepted by God, he was filled with anger and killed his brother. So much for brotherly love. Then, we have Jacob, whose twin brother, Esau was loved by his father. Jacob manipulated and cheated his twin elder brother of his birth right and the paternal blessing. The ten elder brothers of Joseph plotted and sold their younger brother, who was greatly favored by their father,  as a slave to the Midianites. It appears that there is always more rivalry between brothers than brotherly love. History is filled with brothers who had fought with each other for the throne of their father. In India we have so many cases  of brothers fighting with each other and sometimes resulting in one of them being murdered,  all to gain possession of their parents property.

Then we have others who by their infamous, notorious, reckless , immoral and lawless lifestyle bring shame and dishonor to their family. And their own brothers disown them and refuse to identify themselves as their brother .Their brother, is not worthy to be acknowledged as a brother. In the story of the unconditional love of a father (Luk 15:11-32) , we see the reaction of the elder brother on the return of his younger brother. The younger brother had spent the family wealth in adultery and reckless living. The elder brother was not willing to celebrate the return of his infamous younger brother and this is what he told his father “when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’  Here was a brother who was both ashamed and jealous of his brother.

So we have these two cases, when the brother is famous or highly favored, jealousy leads to hatred and rejection and when the brother is poor, infamous and notorious, shame leads to hatred and rejection. Yet Bible instructs us in Heb 13:1 Let brotherly love continue. Where can we find a role model of true brotherly love. A brother who loves us devoid of jealousy, devoid of hatred , devoid of rivalry and devoid of the shame we bring to him. Yes, there is one such brother and His name is Jesus.

Who is Jesus ? Jesus is the uncaused cause of all that exists. Jesus is the eternal self-existent God.  Jesus is inherently Holy, so Holy that no evil is found in Him. On the contrary who is man ? Man is a created being and inherently evil. There is an infinite chasm that separates Jesus from man. Even Adam in all his perfection, created in the image of God, was never equal to Jesus. Adam was a created being, owing his very life to the life giver, having limited power in comparison to the omnipotence of Jesus. But Jesus in order to become our brother and to love us with a true brotherly love took on flesh and blood . Heb 2:17  Therefore he (Jesus)  had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. Jesus had to propitiate or appease the wrath of God on sinful man by taking our sins on Himself on the cross. Thus God could adopt us as His own children making us the brethren of Jesus.  The risen Jesus today is not ashamed to call us His brothers. Heb 2:11  Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. Jesus is making us holy so that we can be conformed to His image. Rom 8:29  For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he (Jesus) might be the firstborn among many brothers.

We are co heirs with Christ . What an undeserved privilege. Oh!! how can we not but rejoice in the fellowship of Jesus our brother.