To Believe in Jesus – Part 26
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 4:29-30
29ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཤོག་དང་། འདིར་མི་ཞིག་ཡོད་པར་ལྟོས་ཤིག དེས་ངས་བྱས་པའི་དོན་ཐམས་ཅད་རེ་རེ་བཞིན་གསུངས་པས་ཁོ་རང་ནི་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་ཡིན་ཀྱང་སྲིད་ཅེས་སྨྲས་པ༌དང༌། 30མི་དེ་རྣམས་ཀྱང་གྲོང་རྡལ་ལས་ཕྱིར་ཐོན་ཏེ་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུའི་ཕྱོགས་སུ་ཆས༌སོ།།
John 4:29-30
29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.
As we read more into what John had recorded about this encounter between Jesus and the woman at the well, we should be able to get an understanding that to a certain degree these Samaritans were well prepared to receive the Messiah!
First thing to note is that although the Samaritans were despised by the synagogue and Sanhedrin but they do know what is written in scripture.
Means to say the Samaritans do have basic knowledge of what is written in the Bible, the writings of Moses and the Prophets, especially and in particular those portions about the coming Messiah!
The known open clashes and disagreements between Jews and Samaritans had to do with doctrines and practices – how did both parties interpret what was written in the laws and the prophets and how did they apply it to their daily lives?
So both Jews and Samaritans had prior knowledge of the coming Messiah but we can see that the Sanhedrin had engaged in a systematic and institutionalized rejection of Jesus as the Messiah.
So here we have an interesting confession from the woman at the well that I will made reference to what was written in Psalm
གསུང་མགུར། 90:8
ང་ཚོའི་ཉེས་སྐྱོན་ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་སྤྱན་སྔར༌བཤམས། །གསང་བའི་སྡིག་པ་ཞལ་མདངས་འོད་ལ༌དྲངས།།
Psalm 90:8
You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.
གསུང་མགུར། 69:5
དཀོན་མཆོག་ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་ང་ཡི་གླེན་རྟགས༌མཁྱེན། །ང་ཡི་ཉེས་པ་ཁྱེད་ལ་སྦས་པ༌མེད།།
Psalm 69:5
O God, you know my folly; the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.
What was it that inspires that woman to make a connection between Christ and Jesus knowing what she did in her private life?
Both Psalm 90:8 and Psalm 69:5 were clearly pointing to God’s power and ability.
We know the true and living God we worship knows all our secrets; there is nothing we could hide from God! And there at the well the woman encountered Jesus telling her about her private life and Jesus even disclosed her identity to her that He is the Messiah.
She believed Jesus!
She could had walked away from Jesus in fear, intermediation, and disgust, not happy that Jesus talked about her private life but she was she was impressed Jesus had demonstrated the same power and authority of God that she was convinced this is the Christ they were waiting for!
I believe her positive response had to do with what better blessing she knew she could receive from the Messiah. And what she knew she had learned from scripture –
ལེགས་བཤད། 28:13
རང་གི་ཉེས་སྐྱོན་སྦེད་མཁན་དོན་མི༌འགྲུབ། །རང་སྐྱོན་མཐོལ་ནས་སྤང་བར་ཐུགས་རྗེ༌འཐོབ།།
Proverbs 28:13
Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.
The author of 1st John wrote of the same teachings from Proverbs 28:13
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན་དང་པོ། 1:9
དཀོན་མཆོག་ནི་ཡིད་རྟོན་རུང་བ་དང་དྲང་བདེན་ཡིན་པས། བདག་ཅག་གིས་རང་གི་སྡིག་པ་མཐོལ་བཤགས་བྱས༌ན། ཁོང་གིས་བདག་ཅག་གི་སྡིག་པ་བསལ་ཞིང་དྲང་བདེན་མ་ཡིན་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་གཙང་མར་མཛད་ངེས་ཡིན།
1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Apparently the woman at the well was looking for forgiveness.
I would say she was looking for forgiveness, acceptance, and even reconciliation with God!
To believe in Jesus is to have a heart of reverence towards God’s word and an attitude of repentance
She had demonstrated the right attitude before God and she brought the same blessing back to her community.
And these Samaritans who were waiting for the Messiah they knew Christ is the anointed of God, the chosen of God, that one special person to represent God to forgive and to reconcile.
To be continue …
David Z
The Life of Yeshu 