To Believe in Jesus – Part 96
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 9:1-7
1སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་ཕར་ཕེབས་པའི་ལམ་བར་དུ་དམུས་ལོང་ཞིག་དང་ཕྲད༌ཅིང༌། 2ཐུགས་སྲས་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། རཱབ་པེ་ལགས། མི་འདི་ནི་སྐྱེས་མ་ཐག་ནས་ལོང་བ་ཞིག་ཡིན༌པས། ལོང་བ་རང་ཉིད་དམ་ཁོའི་ཕ་མས་སྡིག་པ་བྱས་པའི་རྐྱེན་གང་ཞིག་ཡིན་ནམ་ཞེས་ཞུས་པ༌ལ། 3སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ལོང་བ་འདིས་སྡིག་པ་བྱས་པའི་རྐྱེན་མིན༌ལ། ཁོའི་ཕ་མས་སྡིག་པ་བྱས་པའི་རྐྱེན་ཡང་མིན༌པར། དེ་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་ངོ་མཚར་བའི་མཛད་པ་ཁོའི་སྟེང་ནས་མངོན་པའི་ཕྱིར་དེ་ལྟར་བྱུང༌ངོ་།། 4བདག་ཅག་གིས་ཉིན་མོའི་དུས་སུ་ང་རང་མངགས་མཁན་གྱི་བསྒྲུབ་འོས་པའི་དོན་བྱེད་དགོས༌ཤིང༌། མི་སུས་ཀྱང་ལས་ཅི་ཡང་བྱེད་མི་ཐུབ་པའི་མཚན་མོའི་དུས་ཤིག་སླེབ་ངེས༌ཡིན། 5ང་རང་འཇིག་རྟེན་དུ་བཞུགས་དུས་བདག་ནི་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་འོད་ཟེར་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས༌རྗེས། 6སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་མཆིལ་མ་ས་ལ་གཏོར་ནས་འཇིམ་པ་ཞིག་བརྫིས་ཤིང་ལོང་བའི་མིག་ཟུང་ལ་བསྐུས་ཏེ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། 7ཁྱོད་རང་སི་ལོ་ཨམ་རྫིང་བུའི་ནང་དུ་མིག་ཟུང་བཀྲུ་བར་སོང་ཞིག་ཅེས་གསུངས་སོ།། སི་ལོ་ཨམ་ཞེས་པ་ནི་མངགས་པ་ཞེས་པའི་དོན༌ཡིན། དེ་ནས་ལོང་བ་དེ་སོང་ནས་མིག་ཟུང་བཀྲུས་ཤིང་མིག་གིས་མཐོང་བར་གྱུར་པ་དང་ཕྱིར་རང་ཡུལ་དུ་ལོག༌གོ།
John 9:1-7
As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud 7 and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.
This incident recorded in the gospel of John, with attention to the conversation between Jesus and His disciples who were traveling with Him, brings to light a common human perception about the connection between human sufferings and divine punishment.
For a long time in human history, majority of the world population do subscribe to some forms of religious belief system that assumed divine blessings and or punishments that would affect human lives in a certain way.
The tendency to think and believe human sufferings caused by divine punishment is pervasive across cultures and thus religious sacrifices involving certain forms of religious rituals are practiced to mitigate divine wrath.
What people think and believe about divine judgements is not entirely baseless but human understanding, interpretation, and narratives are often called into questions.
Since the time of The Age of Enlightenment the teaching for Atheism had gained popularity but majority of the world population today still holds on to their preferred choices of religious beliefs and practices.
That fear of divine wrath still runs deep in human souls for those who remain sensitive to their conscience and often questioning and debating about morals and ethics.
So here in John 9, for the disciples to ask that kind of question
2ཐུགས་སྲས་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། རཱབ་པེ་ལགས། མི་འདི་ནི་སྐྱེས་མ་ཐག་ནས་ལོང་བ་ཞིག་ཡིན༌པས། ལོང་བ་རང་ཉིད་དམ་ཁོའི་ཕ་མས་སྡིག་པ་བྱས་པའི་རྐྱེན་གང་ཞིག་ཡིན་ནམ་ཞེས་ཞུས་པ༌ལ།
2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
Whatever the disciples were thinking, their thoughts were not unique to Jewish belief system although for the more ultra-religious minded they will refer to the sacrificial law code of Leviticus and the warnings of Deuteronomy about divine infliction and God’s punishments but those negative consequences are circumstantial and can be avoided.
We must bear in mind not all sickness and human sufferings are caused by divine punishment! And we must not be quick to interpret any human sufferings as divine wrath!
So here in John 9, this conversation between Jesus and His disciples, what is really important is how and what did Jesus reply to His disciples
3སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ལོང་བ་འདིས་སྡིག་པ་བྱས་པའི་རྐྱེན་མིན༌ལ། ཁོའི་ཕ་མས་སྡིག་པ་བྱས་པའི་རྐྱེན་ཡང་མིན༌པར། དེ་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་ངོ་མཚར་བའི་མཛད་པ་ཁོའི་སྟེང་ནས་མངོན་པའི་ཕྱིར་དེ་ལྟར་བྱུང༌ངོ་།།
3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.
What is certain about Jesus’ reply is that – this man who was born blind got nothing to do with sin!
The reference to his parents most likely had to do with Jewish understanding of generation curse!
Important point to note – Jesus did not say the man born blind and his parents were sinless! No! That was not what Jesus said!
Jesus made clear – this man who was born blind, his human sufferings, was not caused by his sin, and had no connections to his parents’ sin.
At that moment of Jesus’ reply, what would be difficult to understand for His disciples –
What does Jesus means saying “that the works of God might be displayed in him”?
As we read on to observe how Jesus healed this man who was born blind, I would point out 3 important observations
1) God is concern about human sufferings
2) God is reaching out
3) Jesus did something to help because He was there!
Before we get to what Jesus did to heal this man of his blindness, lets’ consider what further explanation Jesus said to His disciples
5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
Does that sound familiar? This statement being light of the world was mentioned in John 8.
It is possible this incident in John 9 could be a continuation from John 8.
In the context of John 8, I pointed out how Jesus was exposing the misleading doctrines of religious establishments and showing them the true way to eternal life. Apparently here in John 9, the use of the same statement “I am the light of the world” Jesus seems to be exposing misleading beliefs of common folks about human sufferings and divine punishment.
Jesus is bringing His teachings about truth and relationship with God deeper in to the hearts and souls of His disciples.
The extra bonus lesson here in John 9 for the disciples of Jesus – Jesus teaches God’s grace and compassion towards the poor, needy, outcast, especially those sufferings and in need of help.
གསུང་མགུར། 146:8-9
8ཡ་ཝཱེས་ལོང་བ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་མིག་འབྱེད༌ཅིང༌། །གཉའ་གནོན་ཐེབས་པ་རྣམས་ནི་སློང་བར༌མཛད། །ཁོང་ཉིད་དྲང་བདེན་མི་ལ་ཐུགས་མཉེས༌སོ།། 9ཡ་ཝཱེས་བྱེས་སུ་སྡོད་པ་རྣམས་བསྲུང༌ཞིང༌། །དྭ་ཕྲུག་ཡུགས་མོ་རྣམས་ལ་རོགས་སྐྱོར༌གནང༌། །འོན་ཀྱང་སྡིག་སྤྱོད་ལམ་ནི་འཁྱོག་པོར༌མཛད།།
Psalm 146:8-9
8 the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous.
9 The Lord watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
Earlier I mentioned that Jesus did something to help the man who was born blond because He was there in person.
After the resurrection and ascension of Christ, we read His disciples carried on the ministry of Jesus reaching out to the poor and needy.
To be continue …
David Z
The Life of Yeshu 