Name dropping

Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ: - Jude 1v1

Yesterday I had the privilege of meeting Uachtarán na hÉireann, the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese at a function. Since I am a quiet kind of guy I didn’t mention it to anyone but meekly went on my way. I didn’t really want to make a big deal about it, so this is the first anyone will know.

Of course, that is not true. As soon as I could find a corner where I had mobile phone coverage I Facebooked my status as ‘Roger Parrow just met the President of Ireland’ so that all of my Facebook friends would know!

To an extent we all like name dropping. It gives us a special feeling to know that if we can’t be important, at least we can meet someone who is.

Jude could have been the ultimate name dropper. He was after all the brother of James, who in Galatians is called ‘the brother of the Lord.’ That would make Jude Jesus’ brother! Wouldn’t that sound impressive? His business card could have read ‘Jude, brother of Jesus’ and everyone would have had to pay attention!

And yet, for the opening of his letter he chose, ‘Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ and the brother of James.’ I suspect that if he did not have the same name as Judas Iscariot he may have just written, ‘bondservant of Jesus Christ,’ but he certainly needed to clarify which Jude he was.

I am always struck by Jude’s humility here. He saw himself as nothing special just because he was the Lord’s brother. He did not claim any false authority because of who he was or who he knew.

In reality, what better title could we have then to simply be ‘a servant of Jesus Christ?’