To Believe in Jesus – Part 119
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 11:1-4
1དེ་ཡང་མིང་ལ་ལཱ་ཟར་ཞེས་འབོད་པའི་ནད་པ་ཞིག་ཡོད་པ་དེ་ནི་པེ་ཐན་ཡཱ་གྲོང་སྡེ་རུ་གནས༌ཤིང༌། དེ་ནི་མིར་ཡམ་དང་ཁོ་མོའི་ལྕམ་མོ་མཱར་ཐ་གཉིས་ཀའི་གྲོང་སྡེ་ཡིན། 2མིར་ཡམ་ཞེས་པ་དེ་ནི་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུའི་སྐུ་ལ་སྤོས་ཆུ་བྱུགས་ཤིང་སྐྲ་ཡིས་ཁོང་གི་ཞབས་ཟུང་ཕྱི་མཁན་དེ་ཡིན༌ལ། ཁོ་མོའི་སྤུན་ལཱ་ཟར་ལ་ན་ཚ་བྱུང་བ་ཡིན༌པས། 3ལྕམ་སྲིང་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་མི་གཞན་ཞིག་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུའི་དྲུང་དུ་མངགས༌ཏེ། གཙོ་བོ༌ལགས། ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་བྱམས་ཤིང་གཅེས་པའི་མི་དེ་ད་ལྟ་ནད་ཀྱིས་མནར་ཞེས་ངག་འཕྲིན་བསྐུར༌ཏོ།།
4དེ་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 11:1-4
Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 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.”
Apparently there are numerous discussion and debate about who is this Mary who anointed Jesus with oil. Is this the same Mary mentioned in the other gospels – Matthew, Mark, and Luke?
I would consider that John who wrote this gospel is looking back in history and making records of what Jesus had already went through all the way to the cross and resurrection, and this Mary mentioned in John 11 is most like the same Mary in John 12.
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 12:3
དེ་ནས་མིར་ཡམ་གྱིས་རིན་ཐང་ཆེ་བའི་སྤོས་ཆུ་ལྷད་མེད་པ་ནཱར་དི་རྒྱ་མ་གང་ཙམ་ཁྱེར་ཡོང༌ནས། སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུའི་ཞབས་ལ་བྱུགས་ཤིང་རང་གི་སྐྲས་ཕྱིས་པ༌ན། ཁང་པའི་ནང་དུའང་སྤོས་ཆུའི་དྲི་ཞིམ་ཁྱབ་པ་རེད།
John 12:3
Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
Why would John make mention of Mary here about what she will do later?
And why did Mary anointed Jesus’ feet instead of His head?
The context of what the writer wanted to convey in this chapter 11 with regards to Lazarus, being raised from the dead, will provide some answers.
I think the writer gave specific attention to what Mary did due to what Jewish folks would had understood about the act of using oil for anointing king and what important event that will happen in John 11, all of which had their connection in identifying the Messiah chosen of God who is to come.
Furthermore the widespread divisions among the Jews about the identity of Jesus were heating up to a point of boiling over as they were in anticipation for the appearance of the Messiah and the restoration of Israel.
First let’s look at two important examples of kings of Israel being anointed with oil
སཱ་མུ་ཨེལ་དང་པོ། 10:1
1དེ་ནས་སཱ་མུ་ཨེལ་གྱིས་སྣོད་ཅིག་བླངས་ནས་སོ་ལོའི་མགོ་ལ་སྣུམ་བླུགས་ཏེ་འོ་བྱས་ཤིང་སྨྲས་པ། ད་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཡ་ཝཱེས་ཁྱོད་རང་ཁོང་གི་འབངས་མིའི་རྗེ་དཔོན་དུ་བྱུགས་པར་མཛད་པ་མ་ཡིན་ནམ།
1 Samuel 10:1
Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head (Saul) and kissed him and said, “Has not the Lord anointed you to be prince over his people Israel?
སཱ་མུ་ཨེལ་དང་པོ། 16:13
13སཱ་མུ་ཨེལ་གྱིས་སྣུམ་ལྡུད་སྤྱད་ཀྱི་རྭ་ཅོ་དེ་བླངས་ནས་ཁོའི་སྤུན་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ཁྲོད་དུ་ཁོ་ལ་སྣུམ་གྱིས་བྱུགས་པ་དང་། ཉིན་དེ་ནས་བཟུང་དཱ་བིད་ལ་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཡ་ཝཱེའི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་དབང་དང་ལྡན་པར་བབས་པ་དང་། སཱ་མུ་ཨེལ་ལངས་ཏེ་ཕྱིར་རཱ་མ་ཡུལ་དུ་སོང་ངོ་། །
1 Samuel 16:13
Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him (David) in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.
Saul was recognized as the first official king of Israel although he had his failures, and David who came after Saul was the first king who eventually united the 12 tribes of Israel and formed the united kingdom of Israel which was handed over to Solomon but right the end of Solomon’s reign Israel deteriorated into civil war and became divide ever since till today.
What is interesting to note in the records of Samuel is that both Saul and David was anointed with oil by the same prophet Samuel under instruction from God Yah·weh יְהוָֹה.
So the act of using oil for anointing king is a known historical and cultural issue among the Jews identifying that king appointed of God. And for the Jews waiting for the Messiah, they know the Hebrews word meaning the anointed one.
Earlier I asked the question “why did Mary anointed Jesus’ feet instead of His head?” – it seems that Mary knew she is not a prophet and she do not hold any of the high position among their religious establishment to enact any official anointing of oil on a king, and so Mary did what she did in the most obvious expression of humility and willingly submitting herself to Jesus as servant to master.
That expensive ointment she (Mary) used was no ordinary oil but for very specific occasion of utmost importance.
The Jews at that time of John the Baptist and Jesus who were waiting for the Messiah had their expectation of the full restoration of Israel and here in John 11 Jesus did something that actually points to that. If we are not informed of Old Testament prophesy about what the Messiah will do with Israel when He return we mostly likely will missed a very important message here in John 11.
The gospel writer highlighted here in the context of John 11 the raising of the dead – Lazarus – which actually pointed to resurrection and restoration, something which modern day Christians may find exciting but for the Jews this is a very important message pointing to a specific Old Testament prophesy which they had been waiting for.
Let’s look at Ezekiel 37, the chapter known as “The Valley of Dry Bones”
ཨེ་ཟེ་ཀི་ཨེལ། 37:1-3
1དཀོན་མཆོག་ཡ་ཝཱེའི་ཕྱག་ནི་ངའི་སྟེང་དུ་བཞག་སྟེ། ཁོང་གིས་ཉིད་ཀྱི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་ང་རང་ཕྱི་རུ་ཁྲིད་དེ། ང་རང་ཀེང་རུས་ཀྱིས་ཁེངས་པའི་ཐང་ཞིག་ཏུ་བཞག་གོ ། 2ཁོང་གིས་ང་ཁྲིད་ནས་ཀེང་རུས་ཀྱི་ཕྱོགས་བཞི་རུ་ཕྱིན་པ་དང་། ཐང་དེ་རུ་ཀེང་རུས་ཤིན་ཏུ་མང་པོ་ཡོད་པ་ངས་མཐོང་སྟེ། རུས་པ་དེ་དག་ཤིན་ཏུ་སྐམ་པོ་ཡིན་ནོ། ། 3དེ་ནས་ཁོང་གིས་ང་ལ་འདི་སྐད་དུ། ཀྱེ་མིའི་བུ། ཀེང་རུས་འདི་དག་གསོན་པོར་འགྱུར་སྲིད་དམ་ཞེས་བཀའ་འདྲི་གནང་བའི་ལན་དུ། ངས་གཙོ་བོ་ཡ་ཝཱེ་ལགས། ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་མཁྱེན་ནོ་ཞེས་ཞུས།
Ezekiel 37:1-3
The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me up in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. 2 And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. 3 And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.”
We know there is only one who has the power and authority over life and death – God Yah·weh יְהוָֹה and He has bestowed that same power and authority to the Messiah chosen, appointed, and approved by Him.
We know from the message of Ezekiel 37 how the prophet Ezekiel prophesied as according to the order and instructions of God Yah·weh יְהוָֹה and those dry bone of dead people came back to life! And that chapter 37 of Ezekiel actually speaks of the restoration of Israel in a specific manner referring to the two divided houses of Israel and that means the return of what Christians knows as the “Ten Lost Tribes of Israel” merging with those in Judea. That community of Jews living in Jerusalem at that time of Jesus and John the Baptist were those who returned from exiles in Babylon and they were only from the southern kingdom of Judah. The northern kingdom of Ephraim, otherwise known as the kingdom of Israel comprises of what we know today as the “Ten Lost Tribes of Israel”. It is written in prophesies of Ezekiel that God Yah·weh יְהוָֹה will bring about a reunification of the two divided houses of Israel through His Messiah.
Here in John 11, the Jews were about to witness something similar to what was recorded and prophesied in Ezekiel 37. Lazarus was already dead and laid to rest in the tomb for four days when Jesus raised him from the dead.
The message of John 11 is a crucial turning point for the Jews in Jerusalem and thus after that incident those fanatic Jews who were determined to kill Jesus turned their attention to Lazarus and wanted him killed too because many Jews turned to believe in Jesus after He raised Lazarus from the dead!
And what is even more interesting here, is that when Jesus first heard that Lazarus was ill and before He made that trip to Bethany, He said this
4དེ་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།།
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.”
Did Jesus know He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead? Yes!
Did Jesus know He was going to do something similar from prophesy of Ezekiel? I believe so.
Did Jesus know raising Lazarus form the dead, being already dead for four days, will invoke the Jews’ memory and anticipation of what was written in Ezekiel 37? Most likely yes!
The message of John 11 contains a highly important and powerful expression, in fact a manifestation, of the Messiah in fulfillment of prophesies and promises of restoration and redemption.
All Christians today, regardless of denominations and or creeds, should know that the resurrection of Jesus and our hope of future resurrection in Christ are foundational to our faith.
To be continue …
David Z
