Though he is only identified as the brother of James, in reality Jude was the half-brother of Jesus. In Mark 6:3 his name is listed together with James, Joses, and Simon. That means that Mary was also his mother and he grew up in the same home as Jesus in the small village of Nazareth. Yet what is remarkable about these first words is not so much the hint at family ties between Jude and Jesus, but the way in which Jude speaks about Jesus. He calls himself a servant, a slave of Jesus Christ.

These words from Jude signify that a big change has taken place in his life. For most of Jesus’ life on earth Jude did not think that his brother was very important or special at all. When he heard Jesus talk about being the Son of Man and saw him go off into Capernaum to spend time with his fishermen friends, he really thought his brother was crazy (Mark 3:21). At the end of Mark 3 Jude and his brothers try to go and fetch Jesus to bring him back home before he hurts himself and brings shame upon them. The fact that Jude sat down with Jesus at the dinner table and listened to his jokes means that he was so familiar with all the ins and outs of his brother’s life, he simply could not believe him to be God in the flesh.

But then he saw and heard about the miracles. The 5,000 fed with a few loaves of bread, the storm that stopped at the command of his voice, the rumours about Lazarus having been raised from the dead. Slowly but surely the evidence grew to confirm there is something special about this Jesus. Yet the clincher must have been the resurrection. We do not know if Jude was with his mother to see Jesus being crucified—probably not—but certainly he must have heard the news of his resurrection. And though we are only told about Jesus appearing to his brother James (1 Corinthians 15:7), it is very likely that Jude and the rest of the family were also present.

Seeing your brother raised from the dead would certainly change the way you think about him. All those outrageous claims are no longer so far fetched. And the result of this was that Jude not only came to change his view of Jesus, but he put his faith in him. He trusted that through Jesus’ death and resurrection, God was calling him to live a new life in relationship with the Father. A life characterised by mercy and love. A life in which the guilt of sin has been removed so that there is peace with God. The greatest privilege of Jude’s life then was not the fact that he grew up in the same home as our Saviour or shared his DNA, but that God the Father set his love upon him, called him, and by his Spirit made him part of the royal heavenly family.