To Believe in Jesus – Part 122

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 11:5-16
5སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་མཱར་ཐ་དང་ཁོ་མོའི་ནུ་མོ་མིར་ཡམ། ལཱ་ཟར་བཅས་ལ་བྱམས་ཤིང་གཅེས༌ནའང༌། 6སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་ལཱ་ཟར་ན་བའི་གཏམ་དེ་གསན་ནས་སྔར་བཞིན་རང་ཉིད་ཀྱི་བཞུགས་གནས་སུ་ཉིན་གཉིས་ལ་བཞུགས༌རྗེས། 7ཁོང་གིས་ཐུགས་སྲས་རྣམས་ལ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། བདག་ཅག་སླར་ཡང་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱའི་ཡུལ་དུ་འགྲོའོ་ཞེས་གསུངས་པ༌ལ། 8ཐུགས་སྲས་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། རཱབ་པེ་ལགས། ཁ་སང་ཙམ་ནས་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཁྱེད་རྡོ་རུབ་གཏོང་བར་རྩོམ༌ཡང༌། ཁྱེད་རང་ད་དུང་ཡུལ་དེར་ཕེབས་སམ་ཞེས་ཞུས་པ༌ན། 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༌། 11ཡང་ཁོང་གིས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། བདག་ཅག་གི་གྲོགས་ལཱ་ཟར་གཉིད་དུ་ཡུར་བས་ང་རང་ཁོ་བསླང་དུ་འགྲོ་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།། 12དེ་ནས་ཐུགས་སྲས་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། གཙོ་བོ༌ལགས། ལཱ་ཟར་གཉིད་དུ་ཡུར་བ་ཡིན་ན་ནད་སོས་པར་འགྱུར་ཞེས་སྨྲས་སོ།། 13སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་ལཱ་ཟར་ཤི་ཟིན་པ་མཁྱེན་ནས་དེ་སྐད་གསུངས་ནའང་ཐུགས་སྲས་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ལཱ་ཟར་དངོས་གནས་གཉིད་དུ་ཡུར་བ་ལ༌གོ་བ་རེད། 14དེའི༌ཕྱིར། སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་ཐུགས་སྲས་རྣམས་ལ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ལཱ་ཟར་ཤི་ཟིན༌ཏོ།། 15འོན་ཀྱང་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་དད་པར་འགྱུར་བའི༌ཕྱིར། ང་རང་སྔར་དེར་མེད་པ་ལ་དགའོ།། ད་ལྟ་བདག་ཅག་ལཱ་ཟར་སྡོད་པའི་ཡུལ་དུ་འགྲོའོ་ཞེས་གསལ་པོར་གསུངས་སོ།། 16དེ་ནས་ཐུགས་སྲས་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ཁྲོད་དུ་མིང་གཞན་ལ་མཚེ་མ་ཞེས་འབོད་པའི་ཐོ་མཱ་ཡིས་ཐུགས་སྲས་གཞན་རྣམས་ལ། བདག་ཅག་ཀྱང་ཁོང་དང་ལྷན་དུ་འཆི་རུ་འགྲོའོ་ཞེས་སྨྲས༌སོ།།

John 11:5-16
5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. 7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” 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.” 11 After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” 12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” 13 Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, 15 and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

The gospel writer’s deliberate note of the friendship and relationship between Jesus and Lazarus’ family needed our attention and reflection.

In scripture, Abraham was mention by name as friend of God, and Lazarus is another. Moses was noted as someone whom God spoke to “face to face”.

Throughout scripture very few individuals were mentioned by name and being honored by God Yah·weh יְהוָֹה due to their relationship with Him.

I believe such specific mention of names with honor points to their deep trust and obedience to observe the ways of God’s righteousness.

Although the apostle Paul taught that all men had sinned and that judgement due to humanity’s fallen nature after the Sin of Adam, nevertheless God do expect us to live in trust and obedience to His teachings and to walk in the way of righteousness according to His will.

So therefore, I believe, Lazarus and His family were the kind of people their life’s habit and practices consistently seek to draw near to God and Jesus knew their sincerity and was willing to risk His life by going to Judea a known hostile ground for Him.

Remember what Jesus said about friendship

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 15:13
མཛའ་གྲོགས་ཀྱི་དོན་དུ་རང་སྲོག་བློས་གཏོང་བ་དེ་ལས་ལྷག་པའི་བྱམས་པ་ཞིག་མེད།

John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

 

Why did Jesus stayed two more days and why did the gospel writer made a specific note about it?

I believe that by the time Jesus reached to Lazarus, he was already dead and laid in the tomb for 4 days, and it was something Jesus intended to and that circumstances seems to provide some answers.

I would consider 3 possible reasons –

1) The traditional Jewish culture of observing seven days of mourning following the death of a close family, known as Shiva (שבעה)

2) A cultural Jewish view about 3 days after death to ensure the soul have departed, the final separation of body and soul.

3) A more sure physical evident of bodily decay after 3 days.

The above 3 reasons offered do suggest the initial intention of Jesus for “the Son of God to be glorified through it” as He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead.

Since Jesus was going to raise Lazarus from the dead, the necessity to ensure that he was already dead and in the tomb for 4 days and that it was in the midst of Shiva (שבעה) when more of his families and close relations would have been around to witness the event, plus any other visitors who may be present.

All these possibilities were for the sake of the people that they may believe.

Jesus was going to do a deliberate miracle to fulfill scripture prophesy and promises of restoration and renewal.

The mention of 2 days and 4 days here in John 11, I believe have very important purpose.

The message here in John 11 will somehow invoke memory and remembrance of where else and when did Jesus made specific mentions of death and being raised back to life days later.

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 2:18-22
18དེ་ནས་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། ཁྱེད་ལ་དོན་འདི་རྣམས་མཛད་པའི་དབང་ཡོད་པར་བདེན་དཔང་བྱ་ཆེད་གྲུབ་རྟགས་གང་ཞིག་སྟོན་ནུས་སམ་ཞེས་སྨྲས་པ༌ལ། 19སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། གལ་ཏེ་ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་མཆོད་ཁང་འདི་བཤིག་ན། བདག་གིས་ཉིན་གསུམ་ལ་སླར་ཡང་བརྩིག་པར་བྱ་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།། 20ཡང་དེ་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། མཆོད་ཁང་འདི་ནི་ལོ་ངོ་བཞི་བཅུ་ཞེ་དྲུག་གི་རིང་ལ་བརྩིགས་པ་ཡིན་ཡང་ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་ཉིན་གསུམ་ལ་བརྩིག་ཐུབ་བམ་ཞེས་དྲིས། 21འོན་ཀྱང་དེ་ནི་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་རང་གི་སྐུ་ལུས་ཡིན་པའི་མཆོད་ཁང་ལ་དམིགས་ཏེ་གསུངས་པ་ཡིན། 22དེའི༌ཕྱིར། ཁོང་ཉིད་སྐུ་གཤེགས་པ་ནས་སླར་གསོན་པའི་རྗེས༌སུ། ཐུགས་སྲས་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཁོང་གི་གསུང་དེ་དྲན༌ནས། གསུང་རབ་ཀྱི་མདོ་དང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་གསུངས་པའི་བཀའ་ལ་དད་པར་གྱུར༌ཏོ།།

 

John 2:18-22
18 So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

མད་ཐཱ། 12:38-40
38དེ་ནས་མཁན་པོ་དང་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་འགའ་ཞིག་གིས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་ལ་འདི་ལྟར་སྨྲས༌པ། སློབ་དཔོན༌ལགས། ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་གྲུབ་རྟགས་ཤིག་སྟོན་དང་ངེད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མཐོང་འདོད་པ་ཡིན་ཞེས་ཞུས་པ༌ན། 39སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། མི་རབས་ངན་པ་དང་གཡེམ་སྦྱོར་ཅན་ཞིག་གིས་གྲུབ་རྟགས་ཤིག་མཐོང་འདོད༌ནའང༌། ལུང་སྟོན་པ་ཡོ་ནཱའི་རྟགས་ངོ་མཚར་ཅན་དེ་ལས༌གཞན། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་རྟགས་ཅི་ཡང་སྟོན་པར་མི༌འགྱུར། 40ཡོ་ནཱ་ཉིན་ཞག་གསུམ་ལ་ཉ་ཆེན་གྱི་གྲོད་ཁོག་ནང་དུ་ལུས་པ༌ལྟར། མིའི་བུ་ཡང་ཉིན་ཞག་གསུམ་ལ་སའི་ཁོག་ཏུ་གནས་པར༌འགྱུར།

Matthew 12:38-40
38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Very similar events and this is no coincidence.

 

To be continue …
David Z

To Believe in Jesus – Part 121

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 11:4
དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་གཏམ་དེ་གསན་ནས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ནད་དེ་ནི་འཆི་བའི་རྒྱུ་མ་ཡིན་པར་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་གཟི་བརྗིད་མངོན་པར་འགྱུར་བའི༌ཕྱིར་ཡིན་ལ། ནད་པ་དེ་ཉིད་བརྒྱུད་ནས་སྲས་དཀོན་མཆོག་གཟི་བརྗིད་དང་ལྡན་པར་འགྱུར་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།།

John 11:4
But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

Keeping our attention here on what Jesus said to His disciples prior to His trip to Bethany to raise Lazarus from the dead.

Previous post I had given attention to the prophesy of Ezekiel 37 about resurrection and restoration which I believe have very strong connection to the context of John 11.

Now let’s consider something interesting here.

Jesus first mentioned that Lazarus illness does not lead to death but moments later He speaks of Lazarus falling asleep and when His disciples did not understand what He was speaking of, Jesus simply said Lazarus is dead!

Does that sounds confusing?

I believe Jesus was referring to both physical death and eternal death.

Our human body physical death is often quoted in scripture as “falling asleep” or “fallen asleep” and that refers to those who died in faith and hope of God’s promises of future resurrection and restoration.

Our faith and hope of future resurrection and restoration is part of our foundation of faith in Jesus Christ the Messiah chosen of God Yah·weh יְהוָֹה to redeem Man from sin and death, and the provision of eternal life.

In the previous post #120 – I made specific note that

The events of John 11 and 12 was very near to the Passover and the last Passover Jesus will partake with His disciples in person.

Jesus was well prepared in advance for His own death and resurrection but His disciples most likely had not yet understood His way of suffering till after His resurrection.

For us believers today as we look back in history and having the benefits of hindsight and with all the letters of the apostles, we know the death and resurrection of Jesus fulfilled the will of God and is our foundation of hope in Christ for redemption and restoration and our path to eternal life with God Yah·weh יְהוָֹה

In the context of John 11, I pointed out, at that time before the death and resurrection of Jesus, it would had been very difficult for the Jews to know and understand how God Yah·weh יְהוָֹה will exalt, magnify, and glorify His Son through suffering, death and resurrection through obedience to the will of the Father.

And in various previous post I highlighted the underlying problems of how the religious establishments of that time had interpreted scripture according to their sectarianism and were advocating a coming Messiah who should be king of Israel and must lead a military campaign to liberate the land of Jerusalem from foreign rule and do a full restoration of the nation of Israel. Means Israel will regain their sovereignty of the land of Jerusalem. It was with that kind of expectations that fanatic Jews who were nationalistic had problems accepting Jesus as the Son of God. Especially when they knew for sure Jesus will not use His influences to mobilize the Jews against the Romans at that time.

 

The understanding and expectation of glorification with victorious conquest was more of the accepted norm and so therefore when Jesus went through the painful suffering of death being fully submitted to the will of the Father it appears to be some sort of a impediment for the Jews to see Him as the Messiah, but after His resurrection and ascension those who believe were fully convinced.

 

Here in John 11, Jesus speaks of His glorification which may had been difficult for His disciples to understand at that time but we do have a better idea from Paul’s letter to the Philippians

ཕི་ལིབ་པི་པ། 2
5ཁྱོད་ཅག་གི་བསམ་པ་ནི་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་ཡེ་ཤུའི་ཐུགས་དགོངས་བཞིན་ཡིན་དགོས་པ་འདི༌ལྟ་སྟེ།
6དེ་ཡང་ཁོང་ཉིད་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཇི་བཞིན༌དུ།།
ཐོག་མ་ཉིད་ནས་རང་བཞིན་མཚུངས་ན༌ཡང༌།།
དཀོན་མཆོག་ཉིད་དང་མཉམ་པའི་གོ་འཕང༌དེར།།
འཕྲོག་ཅིང་རྩོད་པའི་འགྲན་སེམས་ཡེ་ནས༌མེད།།
7རང་གི་གཟི་བརྗིད་དོར་ནས་ཁེངས་སྐྱུང༌གིས།།
རང་ཉིད་ཞབས་ཕྱི་པ་ཡི་རྣམ་པ༌བཞིན།།
འཇིག་རྟེན་ཕལ་བའི་མི་ཡི་གཟུགས་པོར༌གྱུར།།
8ཕལ་བའི་རྣམ་འགྱུར་བཟུང་ཞིང་དམན་ཚུལ༌གྱིས།།
དཀོན་མཆོག་ཉིད་ཀྱི་བཀའ་ལུང་ཇི་བཞིན༌དུ།།
རྒྱ་གྲམ་ཤིང་གི་རྩེ་ནས་གྲོངས་པར༌མཛད།།
9དེའི་ཕྱིར་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་ཁོང་ཉིད༌ནི།།
ཀུན་ལས་མཐོ་བའི་གནས་སུ་དྲངས་པ༌དང༌།།
ཀུན་ལས་འཕགས་པའི་མཚན་ཡང་གནང་བར༌གྱུར།།
10དེ་ནི་ས་སྟེང་ས་འོག་ས་བླ་ཀུན༎
སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུའི་མཚན་ལ་བཀུར་བའི༌ཕྱིར།།
པུས་མོ་ས་ལ་བཙུགས་ནས་ཕྱག་འཚལ༌ཞིང་།།
11ཡབ་ཆེན་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཉིད་ལ་བསྟོད་པའི༌ཕྱིར།།
ཀུན་གྱི་ངག་ལས་ཡེ་ཤུ་མཱ་ཤི༌ཀར།།
གཙོ་བོ་ལགས་ཞེས་སྨྲ་ཞིང་ཁས་ལེན༌བརྗོད།།
ཅེས་པ་བཞིན༌ནོ།།

Philippians 2:5-11
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

 

Jesus was fully submitted to the will of the Father. We often read of Jesus making clear statement to the Jews that He is doing the will of the Father and we know from gospel records that the Jews were divided about Jesus.

It is very interesting to note that at this point of time in John 11, the religious establishments of the land – referring to Pharisees, Sadducees, and the ruling Sanhedrin – they all knew Jesus was getting glorified by the masses and they were loosing credibility. And it is here that Jesus said

 

that the Son of God may be glorified

 

By the time of John 11, many more of those Jewish pilgrims – Jewish diaspora – visiting Jerusalem were more convinced that Jesus is either a great prophet of God or perhaps He is the coming Messiah they had been waiting for and that kind of atmosphere was putting extra pressure on the fanatic nationalistic Jews who reject Jesus as the Son of God.

So why would those fanatic Jews be not happy with Jesus? Since Jesus was indeed popular and well received by the common folks?

Jesus was preaching and calling for repentance, and demanding that true worshippers of God be submitted to the will of God to live a life of obedience and that means the way of suffering for the sake of obedience if necessary.

Jesus was both preaching and leading by example and He was going to lay down His life for the will of the Father.

That was not the kind of message the fanatic Jews wanted as they were ready for a fight with the Romans to reclaim sovereignty, and they knew it’s time put Jesus to death so their plan will not be disrupted.

 

To be continue …
David Z