To Believe in Jesus – Part 112

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 10:22-30

22དེ་ནས་ཡེ་རུ་སཱ་ལེམ་གྱི་བསྔོ་བའི་དུས་ཆེན་ལ་སླེབས་ཤིང་། དུས༌དེ་ནི་དགུན་དུས་ཡིན། 23སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་མཆོད་ཁང་ནས་སོ་ལོ་མོན་ཞེས་པའི་ཁྱམས་རར་ཞབས་ཀྱིས་བཅགས་ཤིང་། 24ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཁོང་གི་མཐའ་བསྐོར་ཏེ་ན༌རེ། ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་དུས་ནམ་ཞིག་གི་བར་དུ་ངེད་ཅག་ལ་ཐེ་ཚོམ་སྐྱེས་སུ་འཇུག༌གམ། ཁྱེད་རང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་ཡིན་ན་ངེད་ཅག་ལ་གསལ་པོར་གསུང་བར་མཛོད་ཅེས་ཞུས་སོ།། 25དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། བདག་གིས་སྔ་མོ་ནས་སྨྲས་ཀྱང་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཡིད་མ་ཆེས། བདག་གིས་རང་གི་ཡབ་ཀྱི་མཚན་གྱི་སྒོ་ནས་མཛད་པའི་ལས་དེ་དག་གིས་ང་རང་ལ་བདེན་དཔང་བྱེད༌པ་ཡིན། 26འོན་ཀྱང་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ནི་བདག་གི་ལུག་མིན་པས་བདག་ལ་ཡིད་མི་ཆེས༌ཤིང་། 27ངའི་ལུག་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ངའི་སྐད་ལ་ཉན་པ༌དང༌། ངས་ཀྱང་ལུག་དེ་དག་ངོ་ཤེས་ཏེ་ལུག་རྣམས་ཀྱང་བདག་གི་རྗེས་སུ་འབྲང༌ངོ་།། 28ཡང་བདག་གིས་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཚེ་སྲོག་སྩོལ༌བས། དེ་དག་ནམ་ཡང་འཇིག་པར་མི་འགྱུར་ཞིང་སུས་ཀྱང་བདག་གི་ལག་ནས་དེ་རྣམས་འཕྲོག་མི་ནུས། 29བདག་གི་ཡབ་ཀྱིས་ལུག་དེ་རྣམས་བདག་ལ་གནང་ཞིང་ཁོང་ཉིད་ནི་ཐམས་ཅད་ལས་མཆོག་ཏུ་གྱུར་པ་ཡིན༌ཏེ། སུ་ཞིག་གིས་ཀྱང་བདག་གི་ཡབ་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་ནས་ལུག་དེ་རྣམས་འཕྲོག་པར་མི་ནུས། 30བདག་དང་ཡབ་ནི་ངོ་བོ་གཅིག་རང་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།

John 10:22-30

22 At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. 24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

 

The gospel writer made a special note about when and where the next confrontation between fanatic Jews and Jesus took place – the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem.

I mentioned fanatic Jews because it was not just the Pharisees – as assumed by many Christian pastors and preachers – who were nitpicking with Jesus and being antagonistic. Bad religious leadership is one problem but their supporters who do blind allegiances and are ready to attack anyone who do not agree with their policies can do more harm very destructive harm. Therefore Jesus warned His disciples often about persecution for righteousness sake, for the sake of the gospel, and for sake of His name.

If we read records of the gospel and what happen in the Book of Acts, it was usually these fanatic supporters of bad religious leaderships who first started persecuting believes of Jesus and eventually when the issues gets blown up believers and disciples of Jesus were dragged to courts for unfair trial and punishment according to their religious doctrines.

About this Feast of Dedication in John 10, this should be important to note as this particular feast is not one of the three major feasts of the Lord requested by God Yahweh with specific instructions given to Moses at Mount Sinai.

In fact there was no such thing as the Feast of Dedication even for the returning Jews from the Babylonian Exile who rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem and the Temple.

 

So why is this Feast of Dedication mentioned here in John 10 and why were the Jews observing it? And more important – why did this gospel writer made specific note of it?

 

What most Christians know about the Old Testament Canons – the same list of 39 books listed in the Hebrew Bible – have no trace no references to the Feast of Dedication whatsoever.

However, there is a list of books not officially accepted in into either Old or New Testament Canons and it does contain references to the Feast of Dedication. This list of records and literature is commonly known as the Biblical Apocrypha, and few of the Christians denominations use them. The book of 1 and 2 Maccabees found in the Apocrypha provides background to the Feast of Dedication we read about in John 10.

This Feast of Dedication mentioned in John 10 was also known as Feast of the Maccabees in memory of the Maccabean Revolt – a Jewish rebellion about 150 years before Jesus and John the Baptist, against the Seleucid Empire of Antiochus IV Epiphanes.

The Maccabean Revolt brought liberation for the Jews in Jerusalem they had hope for, but that freedom and independence from foreign rule was short lived because the Romans soon took control of Jerusalem.

 

The connection between the Feast of Dedication, the Maccabean Revolt, and the Messiah should not be overlooked.

 

For us modern day Christians and believers we may not see any of these connections but for those Jews in the days of Jesus and John the Baptist the connections was so strong and the memory of the Maccabean Revolt still fresh in their minds, therefore these Jews in John 10 demanded of Jesus

 

24ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཁོང་གི་མཐའ་བསྐོར་ཏེ་ན༌རེ། ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་དུས་ནམ་ཞིག་གི་བར་དུ་ངེད་ཅག་ལ་ཐེ་ཚོམ་སྐྱེས་སུ་འཇུག༌གམ། ཁྱེད་རང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་ཡིན་ན་ངེད་ཅག་ལ་གསལ་པོར་གསུང་བར་མཛོད་ཅེས་ཞུས་སོ།།

24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”

 

This question was directed at Jesus during the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem and it happened right at that area in the Temple named in honor of King Solomon.

All these that was happening during the Feast of Dedication was no coincidence – the gospels records shows about 3 years of Jesus’ public ministry and these Jews had many opportunities to question and debate with Jesus but it had to be this moment at the Feast of Dedication they raised that questions “If you are the Christ”.

Can you feel the sense of urgency and heaviness these Jews were directing that kind of question to Jesus? I think they came to Jesus, surrounded Jesus, put Jesus in a corner and demanded an immediate answer. It was a kind of upfront personal interrogation.

In various previous post I pointed out at that time of John the Baptist and Jesus, many of the Jews were waiting and expecting a coming Messiah to liberate the Jews living in Jerusalem from foreign rule and restore the nation of Israel to sovereignty. The Maccabean Revolt seems to have had achieved that but because it was short lived and the Roman soon conquered Jerusalem, those Jews who remember that incident abandoned the idea the kingdom of God had arrived with the result of the Maccabean Revolt and with their God appointed and long awaited Messiah. But they continued to hope for and wait for the coming Messiah to be revealed, and remember the Maccabean Revolt happened just about 150 years before Jesus.

By the time of John the Baptist and Jesus, expectations was running high and thus the repeated questions recorded in the gospel, Jews asking Jesus if the kingdom of God is here.

It is important to note and remember what Jesus actually said about the kingdom of God

 

མད་ཐཱ། 4:17 – དེ་ནས་བཟུང་ཡེ་ཤུས་ཆོས་བསྟན་འགོ་ཚུགས་གནང་སྟེ་  “དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་རྒྱལ་སྲིད་འཐོན་ལ་ཉེ་བར་སླེབས་པས། ཁྱེད་ཚོས་སྤྱོད་པ་ངན་པ་རྣམས་སྤངས་ནས་སེམས་བསྒྱུར་དགོས་”  ཞེས་གསུངས།  ཉེ་གནས་ཐོག་མ།

Matthew 4:17 – From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

 

Jesus was calling for repentance to be ready for the kingdom of God.

Of course Jesus’ message did not go well with these fanatic Jews who were expecting a military campaign to overthrow the Romans and liberate Jerusalem from foreign power.

Today we have the benefit of hindsight and we know

 

Jesus is the Messiah chosen of God but not the type of messiah the Jews wanted at that time

 

But not every Jews rejected Jesus and therefore the Jewish community was divided.

 

To be continue …

David Z