To Believe in Jesus – Part 29
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 4:34
དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ང་རང་མངགས་མཁན་གྱི་དགོངས་པ་བཞིན་དུ་བྱེད་པ་དང་ཁོང་གི་ཆོས་དོན་སྒྲུབ་པ་དེ་ནི་བདག་གི་ཁ་ཟས་ཡིན།
John 4:34
Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.
Here in John 4, Jesus used the occasion of that incident meeting the woman at the well and His disciples who went to get food to teach an important lesson about doing the will of God.
As necessary as food is to human so is doing the will of God for us who trust and believe in Jesus.
Jesus did not speak a negative message about the disciples who went to get food while He was reaching out to the Samaritan woman but instead appeal to their understanding to prioritize the eternity value of doing the will of God.
Perhaps the disciples had difficulties understanding Jesus at that time and so do we. As we seek to grow in the Lord in faith we do struggle in trying to understand the will of God from time to time.
Later in John 6, the same message was spoken again and with more details –
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 6:35-40
35དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། བདག་ནི་ཚེ་སྲོག་གི་བག་ལེབ་ཡིན༌ཏེ། ངའི་གམ་དུ་ཡོང་བ་རྣམས་ལ་བཀྲེས་ལྟོགས་མི་འབྱུང༌ཞིང༌། ཡང་ང་རང་ལ་དད་པ་བྱེད་མཁན་རྣམས་ནམ་ཡང་སྐོམ་མི་སྲིད། 36འོན་ཀྱང་བདག་གིས་སྨྲས་པ་བཞིན་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ང་རང་མཐོང་ནའང་དད་པ་མི་བྱེད་དོ།། 37དེ་ཡང་ཡབ་ཀྱིས་ང་རང་ལ་བསྩལ་བའི་མི་ཐམས་ཅད་བདག་གི་དྲུང་དུ་ཡོང་ངེས༌ཤིང༌། བདག་གི་གམ་དུ་ཡོང་བའི་མི་སུ་ཡིན་ཡང་བདག་གིས་ནམ་ཡང་འདོར་མི་སྲིད་དོ།། 38རྒྱུ་མཚན་ནི་ང་རང་ནམ་མཁའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་ནས་ཡོང་དོན་ནི་རང་གི་བསམ་དོན་བཞིན་བསྒྲུབ་པའི་ཕྱིར་འོངས་པ་མིན༌ཏེ། ང་རང་མངགས་མཁན་གྱི་དགོངས་པ་བཞིན་དུ་བསྒྲུབ་པའི་ཕྱིར་ཡོང༌བ་ཡིན། 39ང་རང་མངགས་མཁན་ཁོང་གི་དགོངས་པ་ནི་ཁོང་གིས་བདག་ལ་གནང་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་ལས་བདག་གིས་གཅིག་ཀྱང་མི་སྟོར༌བར། མཐའ་མའི་ཉིན་མོ་ལ་དེ་རྣམས་སླར་གསོན་དུ་འཇུག་པ་དེ་ཡིན་ནོ།། 40རྒྱུ་མཚན་ནི་སྲས་དེ་ཉིད་མཇལ་ནས་དད་པ་བྱེད་མཁན་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཚེ་སྲོག་འཐོབ་པ༌དང༌། མཐའ་མའི་ཉིན་མོར་ཡང་བདག་གིས་དེ་རྣམས་སླར་གསོན་དུ་འཇུག་དགོས་པ་ནི་བདག་གི་ཡབ་ཀྱི་དགོངས་པའང་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།
John 6:35-40
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Here in John 6, Jesus identified Himself as “the bread of life“! There is that definite clear link between food for human survival and the eternity of life which can only be provided by the one true living God.
The multitudes came to Jesus for provision – they needed food for survival. Jesus did not despised them for seeking Him because they were hungry and needed food but took the opportunity to encourage them to set priority for things of eternal value.
And what was it of eternal value?
To believe in Jesus the Messiah chosen of God and the provision of eternal life through Jesus!
Putting together what happened in John 4 and John 6, we can see a clear indication that the will of God in these contexts refers to redemption and restoration of Man from sin and death, and to bring Man back to peace with God with promise eternal life.
The Old Testament prophets who called for repentance and to turn away from sin, the purpose was to teach the truth that we need to seek God and fullness of life in the eternal presence of God.
Sin separated Man from the gift of eternal life provided by God and Jesus came to do God’s will to restore us to the fullness of life in God.
Salvation belongs to God and only the one true living God can redeem us from sin and death.
To believe in Jesus is to believe in the will of God for redemption and restoration of Man from sin and death.
To believe in Jesus is to seek peace and restoration in God.
The public ministry of Jesus was mobile. Jesus and His disciples moved from place to place and their main itinerary was preaching about the kingdom of God and calling for people to repent as condition to enter the kingdom of God. So as they moved from place to place, getting food was part of their necessary check-list, and it is interesting that Jesus would use food as object lesson to teach people to seek eternal life in God.
There were occasion Jesus feed the multitudes by multiplying food! But the main purpose was the proclaiming of the kingdom of God that those who hear may find redemption in the Messiah and to enter fullness of life in God.
Jesus is able to provide us full and complete redemption and restoration because Jesus did completely fulfill and accomplish the will of God. The death and resurrection of Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of God’s will to redeem Man from sin and death!
As Jesus came to do the will of God and accomplish it, we are called to do the will of God as well.
To do the will of God take priority because such act of obedience leads us to eternity with God –
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན་དང་པོ། 2:17
འཇིག་རྟེན་འདི་དང་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་འདོད་ཆགས་ཐམས་ཅད་འཇིག་པར་འགྱུར༌མོད། འོན་ཀྱང་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་ཐུགས་དགོངས་བཞིན་སྒྲུབ་མཁན་ནི་གཏན་དུ་གནས་པར་འགྱུར་རོ།།
1 John 2:17
And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
To be continue …
David Z
The Life of Yeshu 