Acts 12: James Drinks from Jesus' Cup.

Acts 12 begins this way:

It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword.  When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. 

Then Luke proceeds to tell us about a divine intervention, which accomplished Peter’s miraculous escape from an almost certain death at the hands of Herod Agrippa, and then Luke ends this a particular episode with the death of Herod Agrippa.

The death of James serves only as a preface to the narrative; the central characters are Peter and Herod Agrippa. The death of James alerts us to the malignancy of Herod Agrippa, and answers the question whether God will ever intervene on behalf of his people when violently opposed by state actors. He delivered Peter in no less a dramatic fashion as He had delivered Israel from Pharaoh’s army on the shores of the Red Sea.

But we are left to puzzle over the death of James, John’s brother. In his case, there was no angelic deliverance. No miracle. He was executed. And Luke gives us no paean and no elegy for James. He died, simple as that. His death seems like a big elephant in the room to me.

Herod Agrippa died around 44 or 45 AD. So, James preached and taught the gospel of Jesus Christ for approximately 15 years, and that after 3 plus years with Jesus before his crucifixion, whereas his brother, John, lived to be an old man exiled on Patmos.

Mark, in the 10th chapter of his gospel, documents a very important exchange for us :

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus and declared, “Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask.” What do you want Me to do for you?” He inquired. They answered, “Grant that one of us may sit at Your right hand and the other at Your left in Your glory.” You do not know what you are asking,” Jesus replied. “Can you drink the cup I will drink, or be baptized with the baptism I will undergo?”

“We can,” the brothers answered. “You will drink the cup that I drink,” Jesus said, “and you will be baptized with the baptism that I undergo . . .”

[Note: in Matthew 20, their mother, Salome, asked Jesus for the same thing for her sons.]

We cannot really understand James’ execution without looking to these predictive statements by Jesus that James (and his brother John) would drink Jesus’ cup and be baptized with Jesus’ baptism.