To Believe in Jesus – Part 98
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 9:13-17
13དེ་ནས་མི་དེ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སྔོན་ཆད་དམུས་ལོང་ཡིན་པ་དེ་ཉིད་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་དྲུང་དུ་ཁྲིད་པ་རེད། 14སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འཇིམ་པ་བརྫིས་ནས་དམུས་ལོང་གི་མིག་ཟུང་གསོས་པར་མཛད་པའི་ཉིན་ནི་ངལ་གསོ་བའི་ཉིན་མོ་ཡིན་ནོ།། 15དེ་ནས་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་ཁོའི་མིག་གིས་ཇི་ལྟར་མཐོང་བར་གྱུར་པ་དྲིས་པ༌ལ། ཁོ་ན༌རེ། མི་དེས་འཇིམ་པ་བརྫིས་ཏེ་ངའི་མིག་ལ་བསྐུས་ཤིང་། ངས་འཇིམ་པ་བཀྲུས་པ་དང་མིག་གིས་མཐོང་བར་གྱུར་ཞེས་སྨྲས་སོ།། 16དེ་ནས་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་རྣམས་ལས་འགའ་ཞིག་ན༌རེ། མི་དེས་ངལ་གསོ་བའི་ཉིན་མོའི་བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་སྲུང་བཞིན་མེད་པས་དཀོན་མཆོག་ནས་བྱུང་བ་མ་ཡིན་ནོ་ཞེས་སྨྲས་པ༌དང༌། ཡང་འགའ་ཞིག་ན༌རེ། མི་སྡིག་ཅན་གྱིས་དེ་ལྟ་བུའི་གྲུབ་རྟགས་རྣམས་སྟོན་ག་ལ་སྲིད་ཅེས་སྨྲས་པས་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་ལྟ་བ་མི་མཐུན་པ་བྱུང༌ངོ་༎ 17ཡང་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་དེ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སྔོན་ཆད་དམུས་ལོང་ཡིན་པ་དེ༌ལ། མི་དེས་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་མིག་ཟུང་གསོས་པར་མཛད༌པས། ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་མི་དེ་ནི་ཅི་ལྟ་བུ་ཡིན་བསམ་མམ་ཞེས་དྲིས་པ༌ལ། ཁོ་ན༌རེ། མི་དེ་ནི་ལུང་སྟོན་པ་ཞིག་ཡིན་ཞེས་སྨྲས་སོ།།
John 9:13-17
13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14 Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15 So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” 16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them. 17 So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”
The gospel writer noted “they” – referring to those neighbors who knew the man who was born blind – brought him to the Pharisees.
Why did they do that? What was the purpose of bringing him to the Pharisees?
The gospel writer specifically noted – this act of miracle by Jesus happened on the Sabbath.
As we read through all the four gospel records, there were multiple occasions whereby the Pharisees would find fault with Jesus about the Sabbath. Apparently the Pharisees had certain rules about what can be done on the Sabbath and what ought not to be done, and that according to how they read and interpreted scripture.
So, what’s wrong with healing someone on the Sabbath? Depends who you talk to!
This incident in John 9 had an interesting different take. It was the blind man’s neighbors who brought him to the Pharisees. It was not one of those occasions when the Pharisees themselves witnessed what Jesus did on the Sabbath and find fault with Jesus.
So they brought the man born blind to the Pharisees and they ended up with
1) More questions
2) More divisions
3) More debates
Could they have leaved him alone? Yes
Could they also rejoice with him that he got his healing from Jesus? Yes
So why did they had to bring the man born blind to the Pharisees?
In previous posts I had pointed out how Jesus in preaching the truth, speaking the truth, exposed a lot of those misleading teachings and doctrines of the Jewish religious establishments in Jerusalem in those days.
These two groups – the Pharisees and Sadducees – were mentioned often because they were the most influential among Jewish communities in Jerusalem and Israel.
The Pharisees runs the massive networks of synagogues, while the Sadducees controlled the Temple service. Both groups had joint leaderships running the Sanhedrin although they never seemed to fully agree with each other!
By this time in John 9, people in Jerusalem would have known enough of Jesus’s ministry. And I think there would be more and more Jews themselves doing their own soul-searching as they were debating among themselves if this Jesus is truly the Messiah they had been waiting for.
So it was not surprising after they brought the man born blind to the Pharisees they ended up with more questions and divisions.
The gospel writer noted this conversation between the Pharisees and those Jews who disagree –
16དེ་ནས་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་རྣམས་ལས་འགའ་ཞིག་ན༌རེ། མི་དེས་ངལ་གསོ་བའི་ཉིན་མོའི་བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་སྲུང་བཞིན་མེད་པས་དཀོན་མཆོག་ནས་བྱུང་བ་མ་ཡིན་ནོ་ཞེས་སྨྲས་པ༌དང༌། ཡང་འགའ་ཞིག་ན༌རེ། མི་སྡིག་ཅན་གྱིས་དེ་ལྟ་བུའི་གྲུབ་རྟགས་རྣམས་སྟོན་ག་ལ་སྲིད་ཅེས་སྨྲས་པས་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་ལྟ་བ་མི་མཐུན་པ་བྱུང༌ངོ་༎
16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them.
So apparently some of these common folks were beginning to take courage to questions and challenges the position of the Pharisees! I believe some of the Pharisees themselves also begin to questions their own doctrines.
As we consider our own journey of faith with Jesus, the more we know the truth of Jesus, we would want to questions and challenges some of those religious doctrines we had been influenced with from the society and community we grew up with. Even denominational differences needed to be re-examined according to the truth of what Jesus actually taught and very often what Jesus did not say had been misled by vast volumes of human ideology and theological-construct.
This is perhaps a good way when truth is being awakened in us, to know Jesus and His way to eternal life.
Back to John 9, eventually and finally they asked the opinion of the man born blind –
17ཡང་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་དེ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སྔོན་ཆད་དམུས་ལོང་ཡིན་པ་དེ༌ལ། མི་དེས་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་མིག་ཟུང་གསོས་པར་མཛད༌པས། ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་མི་དེ་ནི་ཅི་ལྟ་བུ་ཡིན་བསམ་མམ་ཞེས་དྲིས་པ༌ལ། ཁོ་ན༌རེ། མི་དེ་ནི་ལུང་སྟོན་པ་ཞིག་ཡིན་ཞེས་སྨྲས་སོ།།
17 So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”
The man born blind stood his ground!
To be continue …
David Z
The Life of Yeshu 