To Believe in Jesus – Part 111
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 10:19-21
19 ཡེ་ཤུས་དེ་ལྟར་གསུངས་པས་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པའི་ནང་ན་ཡང་བསྐྱར་ལྟ་བ་མི་མཐུན་པ་བྱུང༌། 20 དེ་ཚོའི་ནང་ནས་མི་མང་པོས་ “མི་འདི་འདྲེ་ཞུགས་ཏེ་སྨྱོས་པས་ཁྱོད་ཚོས་ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་ཉན་” ཞེས་བཤད། 21 འོན་ཀྱང་གཞན་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ “གཏམ་འདི་ནི་འདྲེ་ཞུགས་པ་ཞིག་གི་གཏམ་མ་ཡིན། འདྲེ་ཡིས་མི་ལོང་བའི་མིག་གསོ་བར་བྱེད་པ་དེ་ཅི་ལ་སྲིད་” ཅེས་བཤད།
John 10:19-21
19 There was again a division among the Jews because of these words. 20 Many of them said, “He has a demon, and is insane; why listen to him?” 21 Others said, “These are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”
Divisions due to how people react and response to what Jesus said are very common.
The Four Gospel – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – recorded many repeated incidents of divisions among the Jews based on what Jesus said. Even among Jesus’ disciples there were disagreements and divisions.
After the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Book of Acts (མཛད་འཕྲིན།) recorded how the believer’s communities grew in numbers and along with it more divisions and disagreements. And today, Christians are divided according to the vast spectrum of denominations while many try to keep peace and harmony.
With regards to divisions and disagreements based on what Jesus said we must seek deeper understanding and get into more details, and find out what exactly people disagree about and that resulted in divisions.
Divisions can leads to separation or continue interactions.
I think the situation here in John 10 is basically about if these Jews will accept the authority of Jesus or not.
The situation in John 10, these Jews responding to what Jesus said is no stranger to debate and disagreement. Within the Jewish community especially during gatherings at synagogues, expressing one’s point of view in opposition to their Rabbis were not restricted and more learning through careful analysis, discussion and even disagreement were encouraged.
We have very interesting record of Paul being put on trial for preaching the gospel for Jesus at the hearing of the Sanhedrin written in the Book of Acts that revealed the public disagreements and division among the Pharisees, Sadducees and Priests, and they continue to function as one organization trying very hard to hold the Jewish community in Jerusalem together. (མཛད་འཕྲིན། Acts 23).
So back to the situation in John 10, I think the basis of division had to do with accepting Jesus’ authority and I will list a few areas of authority to consider
- Authority to judge
- Authority to interpret scripture
- Authority over life and death
- Authority of the Messiah chosen of God
We must bear in mind the kind of society the Jews embraced in the days of John the Baptist and Jesus was highly theocratic. Therefore religious leadership carries much influence over the daily lives of the people. And furthermore what people think and believe about the afterlife and what happen when a person die – what kind of judgement will befall that person? That kind of belief system makes the Jews more attentive to what was spoken by Jesus and John the Baptist and they will compare and contrast with what they had heard from their religious leaders at their synagogue meetings.
I need to point out, what added to the division here in John 10 was that at that time in Jerusalem, religious committed Jews were waiting and expecting the appearance of the Messiah and the restoration of the nation of Israel.
There were already noted divisions and disagreement about if this Jesus is the Messiah they had been waiting for, and thus the repeated questions “when will the kingdom of God appear?‘
Apparently those Jews who had been taught and educate by their religious leaderships were expecting a coming Messiah to lead a successful military campaign to defect the Romans and liberate Israel completely from foreign rule – and that based on how their religious leaderships interpreted scripture and prophesies about the coming Messiah.
Religious sectarianism among the Jews was widespread and noted in Jerusalem at the time of John the Baptist and Jesus and a lot of their disagreement seems to be related to the issue of the coming Messiah and the restoration of Israel, and most if not all had that expectation of a Messiah who will fully restore the nation of Israel to the time of one united glorious nation like the days of King Solomon and therefore the assumption of political campaign – military – to liberate Israel from Roman rule.
Whatever these Jews were thinking and expecting, let’s look at what Jesus said in Matthew 10:34-36 which is related –
མད་ཐཱ། 10:34-36
34ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ང་རང་འཇིག་རྟེན་འདིར་ཡོང་བ་ནི་མི་རྣམས་ལ་ཞི་བདེ་བསྐྱལ་ཡོང་བའི་ཆེད་དུ་ཡིན་པར་མ་སེམས༌ཤིག ངས་མི་རྣམས་ལ་ཞི་བདེ་བསྐྱལ་ཡོང་བ་མ་ཡིན་པར་རལ་གྲི་བསྐྱལ་བའི་ཕྱིར་ཡོང༌ངོ༌།། 35ང་ནི་བུ་དང༌ཕ། བུ་མོ་དང༌མ། མནའ་མ་དང་སྒྱུག་མོ་རྣམས་ཕན་ཚུན་དགྲ་རུ་ལང་བའི་ཕྱིར་ཡོང་བ༌ཡིན། 36མི་རྣམས་ཀྱི་དགྲ་བོ་ནི་རང་གི་ཁྱིམ་མི་དག་ཡིན་པར༌འགྱུར།
Matthew 10:34-36
34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.
In Matthew 10:34-36, Jesus was not preaching with a literal physical sword in His hand and waving it in the air.
Those Jews who heard what Jesus said would had understood the “sword” mentioned by Jesus in that context refers to judgement, separation and division, based on the His pure teachings and instructions of God revealed in scripture.
I pointed out in previous posts, how the existing religious leaderships had corrupted the pure teachings of God with their man-made doctrines and as more Jews themselves started to think deeper and compare notes with what they had been taught by their Rabbis and with what Jesus said, apparently the demand and desire for truth and clarity about the kingdom of God will cause them to be divided, to separate and make decision to follow Jesus or not.
What is at stake here with all these divisions about Jesus is – the true path to redemption and eternal life!
Jesus came to show us the true way to repentance and reconciliation with God and it is through this Messiah chosen of God – Jesus Christ – that we will receive our redemption from sin and death and with it the reward of eternal life with God.
Man-made doctrines appears to look good on the outside – doing things for show – but is of no eternal value and no power to redeem us from sin and death.
To be continue …
David Z
The Life of Yeshu 