To Believe in Jesus – Part 124
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 11:9-10
9ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ཉིན་དཀར་གཅིག་ལ་ཆུ་ཚོད་བཅུ་གཉིས་ཡོད་པ་མ་ཡིན༌ནམ། ཉིན་མོར་ལམ་ལ་སྐྱོད་མཁན་དེས་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་འོད་སྣང་མཐོང་བས་སར་མི་འགྱེལ༌ཡང༌། 10མཚན་མོར་ལམ་ལ་སྐྱོད་མཁན་དེར་འོད་སྣང་མེད་པས་སར་འགྱེལ་བར་འགྱུར་ཞེས་གསུངས་པ༌དང༌།
John 11:9-10
9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10 But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”
Continuing on the point about Jesus being the light of the world.
When Jesus gave the instruction to go to Judea His disciples had their concern and questions as they had stayed away from Judea due to the hostility of fanatic Jews who wanted to kill their Master.
Jesus in His explanation uses the opposite comparison of day and night, contrast of light and darkness. And in previous post I pointed out that the key to understand what Jesus said here in John 11 is this particular remark He made in V9
light of this world.
And in v10 Jesus gave a negative warning about walking in the night –
10མཚན་མོར་ལམ་ལ་སྐྱོད་མཁན་དེར་འོད་སྣང་མེད་པས་སར་འགྱེལ་བར་འགྱུར་ཞེས་གསུངས་པ༌དང༌།
10 But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”
The interesting English translation to note is the word “stumbles” and the reason being “the light is not in him”.
Jesus did not say that person stumbles because there is no illumination of light, in the environment as if we walk into a dark room and there is no lighting.
Jesus said – that person stumbles because the light is not in him, means within that person’s soul and mind there is no light, and what kind of light is Jesus referring to?
Apparently Jesus was teaching His disciples important lesson about the light of God’s truth, and walking in the light of God means to live in obedience to God’s teaching by means of trust and obedience.
The light of Jesus was shining brightly among the Jewish communities in Jerusalem because He is the light of God!
At that moment when Jesus said that, His disciples might had difficulties understanding what He meant.
For us today, we have the benefits of hindsight and we have the letters of the apostles to help us gain better understanding of what Jesus said here in John 11.
First let’s look at what Peter said that is related to contrast of light and darkness
པེ་ཏྲོ་དང་པོ། 2:9 – འོན་ཀྱང་། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ནི་བདམས་ཟིན་པའི་རིགས་རྒྱུད་དང་། རྒྱལ་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་མཆོད་དཔོན། མི་རིགས་དམ༌པ། དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་གཏོགས་པའི་མི་བཅས་ཡིན་ཏེ། དེ་ནི་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་མུན་ནག་ལས་ཁོང་གི་ངོ་མཚར་ཆེ་བའི་འོད་ཟེར་ནང་དུ་ཞལ་འབོད་གནང་མཁན་ཁོང་གི་འཕྲིན་ལས་སྒྲོག་པའི་ཕྱིར་རོ།།
1 Peter 2:9 – But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Peter recognized Jesus as the true light and faithfully follow Him.
Peter being called to shepherd the flocks of his Master, Jesus the Christ, teaches us how we believers had been delivered out of darkness by the power and will of God, through His redemption grace revealed in His Son Jesus Christ, that we should walk in the true light. Therefore we are called to trust and obey Jesus and walk in the light of God’s truth.
When we walk in the light of God’s truth we see very clear our future in Christ, but without the true light of God’s word, people stumbles in life.
Let’s look at the letters of Paul
ཨེ་ཕེ་སི་པ། 5:8 – དེ་སྔར་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ནི་མུན་པ་ཡིན༌ཡང༌། ད་ལྟ་གཙོ་བོ་ལ་གཏོགས་ཤིང་འོད་ཟེར་དང་ལྡན་པ་ཡིན༌པས། འོད་ཟེར་གྱི་བུ་ཕྲུག་བཞིན་དུ་སྤྱོད་འོས་སོ།།
Ephesians 5:8 – For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
Paul was remaining the Ephesians not to return to their old sinful ways of darkness which do not produce good fruits. And since they had been delivered from darkness by the power and grace Christ, they should walk in the light of God’s truth.
Let’s look at the letters of John
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན་དང་པོ། 1:5 – དཀོན་མཆོག་ནི་འོད་ཟེར་ཡིན་པས་ཁོང་ལ་མུན་ནག་གཏན་ནས་མེད་དོ།། འདི་ནི་ངེད་ཅག་གིས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་ནས་ཐོས་ཤིང་ཁྱོད་ཅག་ལ་སྒྲོག་པའི་བརྡ་འཕྲིན་ཡིན་ནོ།།
1 John 1:5 – This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
We know John was referring to Jesus.
The message of John in his letters was dealing with misleading teachings and false teachers who marginalized the destructive effects of sins that damages our relationship with Jesus Christ and will causes believers to loose their eternal hope in God the Father. In other words, it was warning against those who abuses and take for granted the grace of God and continued in their sinful ways and do not practice walking in the light of God’s truth.
And let’s look at what is written in Psalm
གསུང་མགུར། 119:105 – ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་བཀའ་ནི་མདུན་གྱི་སྒྲོན་མེ༌དང༌། །ང་ཡི་ལམ་གྱི་འོད་ཟེར་དེ་ཡང༌ཡིན།།
Psalm 119:105 – Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
In the days of the four gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, John – Jesus was the true lamp of God that shine brightly among the people around Jerusalem and Judea.
Those who believed and followed Jesus were walking in the light of God’s truth but those who persistently rejected due to their religious and sectarian doctrines continue to live in darkness being blinded by their sins.
Jesus in His plan and intention to go to Judea again to raise Lazarus from the dead, He is going to show His disciple how the true light of God words will overcome darkness of this world.
To be continue …
David Z
