Jacob of Merom
Old miser landowner from the surroundings of Merom. Widower of Lia for 6 years.
He had his fields devastated by hail[1] and suffered a series of misfortunes: caterpillars, sick sheep and trees... He fears for his future. Jesus helps him by firmly repairing his plough.
Despite his poverty, Jacob offers bread to Jesus whom he had just heard at Anne of Merom’s.[2] For this gesture, Jesus blesses his fields. His harvests then become very abundant.
The next year, he harshly rejects Mary and Matthias, two young orphans the hungry.[3] Jesus recalls to Jacob the fruits of his blessing:
"Because of the bread you gave the Son of man, these fieldswill give you rich crops and your olive-trees will be laden with olives like the grains of sand on the sea shore and the branches of your apple-trees will bend towards the ground”. You received all that and this year you are the richest man in the district. And you refuse two children a piece of bread!…"[4]
The Lord then performs the miracle of making fruit grow on an apple tree stripped by autumn. The fruits gathered feed the children the hungry.[5]
Then Jesus curses Jacob’s crops. He explains to Peter what will happen to him:
"Justice. He will not starve, because his granaries are well stocked for a long time. But he will suffer shortage, because the seed he sows will yield no corn and his olive and apple-trees will be covered with leaves only."[6]
However, He will send the apostles to see if he converts. In vain: Although he is very sick and calls Jesus out of fear of death and of God’s judgment, the anxiety for his future harvests, greatly damaged by frost, further strengthens his avarice.[7]
The apostles even cultivate the cursed field for him, working beyond the Sabbath. They try, led by Judas, to heal him, but in vain: Judas has lost his power to perform miracles and Jacob is a stubborn sinner who wants to get everything from God, but on his own terms.[8]
Struck by scarcity, Jacob will later come to ask forgiveness from Jesus to have his soul in peace. But the Lord tells him that, since the widow and orphan are sacred, he will be forgiven according to his way of living until the end of his life.[9]
His name
Jacob (Ia'acob) or James: etymologically: "he who supplants" or "God protects" - Historical: Jacob, the son of Isaac and Rebecca, the twin brother of Esau, who will take the name Israel after wrestling with the angel.