To Believe in Jesus – Part 103
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 10:1-6
1དེ་ནས་ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་ཡང་དག་པར་བདེན་པར་སྨྲ༌སྟེ། མི་སུ་ཞིག་ལུག་རའི་ནང་དུ་སྒོ་ལམ་བརྒྱུད་ནས་མི་འགྲོ༌བར། གནས་གཞན་ནས་ཡར་འགོས་ཏེ་འགྲོ་བ་ནི་ཇག་རྐུན་ཡིན། 2འོན་ཀྱང་སྒོ་ལམ་བརྒྱུད་ནས་ལུག་རའི་ནང་དུ་འགྲོ་བ་དེ་ནི་ད་གཟོད་ལུག་རྫི་ཡིན༌ཏེ། 3སྒོ་སྲུང་གིས་དེ་ལ་སྒོ་འབྱེད་ཅིང་ལུག་དག་གིས་ཀྱང་དེའི་སྐད་ལ་མཉན༌པ་དང་། དེས་ཀྱང་རང་གི་ལུག་དག་གི་མིང་ནས་བོས་ཏེ་ཕྱི་རོལ་ཏུ་ཁྲིད༌ཅིང༌། 4རང་གི་ལུག་རྣམས་ཕྱིར་གཏོང་ཞིང་ཁོ་ནི་མདུན་དུ་འགྲོ་བའི་དུས། ལུག་དག་གིས་ཀྱང་ཁོའི་སྐད་ཤེས་པས་རྗེས་སུ་འབྲང་བ་ཡིན་ནོ།། 5ལུག་དེ་དག་མི་རྒྱུས་མེད་ཀྱི་རྗེས་སུ་མི་འབྲང༌ལ། མི་དེའི་སྐད་ཀྱང་མི་ཤེས་པས་འབྲོ་བར་འགྱུར་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།། 6དེ་ལྟར་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་དཔེའི་སྒོ་ནས་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་གསུང་གནང་ནའང་ཁོ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་འདིའི་དོན་ཅི་ཡིན་མ་རྟོགས༌སོ།།
John 10:1-6
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
The message of John 10, many Christians would be familiar with, lots of sermons have been preached from it.
John 10 is where we read a well noted famous statement from Jesus ‘ I am the good shepherd“.
If we are to put things back into context, study carefully into every details about the historical background, we would see that in the message of John 10, Jesus was addressing something deeper, direct and confrontational, and from here is where tensions between Jesus and the Pharisees, fanatic Jews, and other religious groups were raised to the point that all the oppositions camps of Jesus who used to had their frictions and boundaries among themselves begin to put aside their difference and unwillingly came together in a collective effort to deal with Jesus “once and for all” as they wished for.
So, let’s dive deeper into the message of John 10.
First – John 10 is definitely a continuation of conversation from what was happening in John 9.
In John 10:6 – a special note here that highlighted to us, what we need to pay attention to
1) Who was Jesus speaking to? Not to the masses of common folks as when Jesus fed the multitudes or when He delivered the Sermon on the Mount, but to a specific group.
2) Who were the “them” and “they” mentioned here?
3) Why did “they” not understand?
4) What was it that Jesus said that “they” did not understand?
5) What does it mean in their cultural context that “they” did not understand?
6དེ་ལྟར་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་དཔེའི་སྒོ་ནས་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་གསུང་གནང་ནའང་ཁོ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་འདིའི་དོན་ཅི་ཡིན་མ་རྟོགས༌སོ།།
6 This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
The answer to who were “they” Jesus was speaking to can be found in John 9:40-41
40དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུའི་དྲུང་དུ་ཡོད་པའི་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་འགའ་ཞིག་གིས་ཀྱང་གསུངས་དེ་ཐོས་ནས་འདི༌ལྟར། དེས་ན་ངེད་རྣམས་ཀྱང་ལོང་བ་ཡིན་ནམ་ཞེས་དྲིས་པ༌ན། 41ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། གལ་ཏེ་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལོང་བ་ཡིན་ན་སྡིག་པའང་མེད། འོན་ཀྱང་ད་ལྟ་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མིག་གིས་མཐོང་བ་ཡིན་ཞེས་ཟེར༌བས། ཁྱོད་ཅག་གི་རྒྱུད་དུ་ད་དུང་སྡིག་པ་ཡོད་ཅེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།
40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.
So the message of John 10 is a continuation, how and what Jesus continued to reply to the Pharisees who raised that question to Him ““Are we also blind?”.
I would like to offer my point of view why Jesus was using figure of speech like “thief and a robber” in contrast to “shepherd of the sheep” and “gatekeeper“.
Previous post I pointed out –
“The fanatic Jews and Pharisees who assumed to be teachers of the law and light to the nations (ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱ། Isaiah 42:6, ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱ། Isaiah 49:6, རོ་མཱ་པ། Romans 2:17-24) – their willful determination to keep their human traditions and doctrines based on their reading and interpretation of God’s revealed teachings and instructions through Moses rejected Jesus as the light of God’s truth and therefore judged to be blind.”
Apparently Jesus was comparing and contrasting Himself with the Pharisees and fanatic Jews.
Was it not obvious?
So what was it that they, the Pharisees and fanatic Jews, did not understand?
The situation appeared more likely that they will not accept Jesus is right and they were wrong, and that Jesus was directing the message at them!
I believe those who were excommunicated from the synagogues saw through this.
The multitudes of common folks who came to Jesus by their own and turned away from the religious establishments most likely did understand what Jesus was saying.
The religious establishments did not understand because they could not accept!
How do we make this message applicable to us in our walk with Jesus?
We need to constantly compare and contrast what Jesus is actually teaching with doctrines of religious leaderships that have influences over our lives and learning.
To be continue …
David Z
The Life of Yeshu 