To Believe in Jesus – Part 32
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 4:37-38
37ཡང་ཁ་དཔེ༌ལ།
མི་དེ་ཡིས་ས་བོན༌བཏབ།།
མི་འདི་ཡིས་འབྲུ་རིགས༌བསྡུས།།
ཞེས་པ་དེ་བདེན༌ནོ།། 38བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ངལ་བའི་ལས་ལ་མ་བརྟེན་པ་གང་དེ་བསྡུ་བར་མངགས་པ་ཡིན། མི་གཞན་གྱིས་ངལ་བའི་ལས་ལ་བརྟེན་ཅིང་ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་ངལ་བའི་འབྲས་བུ་དེ་ལོངས་སུ་སྤྱད་པ་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།
John 4:37-38
37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
In previous post we examined how the apostle Paul who had suffered for the sake of preaching Christ taught us the necessity of enduring hardship for the ministry of the gospel for Jesus and that we are to be mentally prepared.
We learn from the examples of our Lord and Savior Jesus that the fruit of obedience to the will of God is life, resurrection to eternal life. However, in our current life circumstances we may have to suffer hardship due to two possible factors
- Dying to our own sinful nature that works against the will of God. We often struggle with temptation to neglect doing the will of God.
- People and situations surrounding us that may work against the will of God. Not everyone around us will agree to do the will of God and yet we need to stand firm and persevere and continue with Jesus till He returns.
Let’s read again what Jesus said here
37ཡང་ཁ་དཔེ༌ལ།
མི་དེ་ཡིས་ས་བོན༌བཏབ།།
མི་འདི་ཡིས་འབྲུ་རིགས༌བསྡུས།།
ཞེས་པ་དེ་བདེན༌ནོ།། 38བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ངལ་བའི་ལས་ལ་མ་བརྟེན་པ་གང་དེ་བསྡུ་བར་མངགས་པ་ཡིན། མི་གཞན་གྱིས་ངལ་བའི་ལས་ལ་བརྟེན་ཅིང་ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་ངལ་བའི་འབྲས་བུ་དེ་ལོངས་སུ་སྤྱད་པ་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།
37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
Jesus was definitely talking about sowing and reaping. But Jesus was telling His disciples that they were reaping something they did not sow!
How did that work?
Was Jesus talking about “shared labor”?
Yes He did!
From a much broader perspective, this shared labor transcends time and locations and went beyond generations and across different races and nationalities.
Jesus was preparing His disciples for harvest beyond their expectations.
By now the disciples should had noticed Jesus was not referring to the material physical agricultural sowing and harvesting process. Jesus was talking about something deeper and related to people – how people response to the preaching of the kingdom of God.
The purpose of harvesting is to reap what was sowed.
That means to say we can only harvest what was being sowed, right?
So what exactly was being sowed previously?
Jesus said “I sent you to reap” and that give us the clear understanding that we are to harvest what is rightfully belonging to Jesus and what He expects to reap.
This is not the first time Jesus speaks of sowing and reaping. In Matthew 13 when Jesus speaks of The Parable of the Sower and when His disciples asked Him to explain they understood Jesus was referring to His ministry of preaching and calling people to repentance and to obey God’s teachings.
In the beginning of the Gospel of John, the author identified Jesus as “the word of God”. And Jesus went about preaching the words of God.
So what was being sowed? The words of God!
And what is to be harvested? People who response in obedience to God’s teachings!
This sowing and reaping cycle had started long ago –
ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱ། 55:10-11
10གནམ་ནས་ཆར་དང་ཁངས་བབས་ཏེ། ནམ་མཁར་ཕྱིར་མི་ལོག་པར་ས་གཞིར་རློན་བཟོས་ནས་དེའི་སྟེང་གི་སྐྱེས་དངོས་ལ་མྱུ་གུ་འབུ་བར་བྱེད་པ་དང་། ཞིང་འདེབས་མཁན་ལ་ས་བོན་ཡོད་པ་དང་། ཟས་སྤྱོད་མཁན་ལ་འབྲུ་རིགས་འཐོབ་ཏུ་འཇུག་པ་ཇི་བཞིན། 11བདག་གི་ཁ་ནས་བྱུང་བའི་གཏམ་རྣམས་ཀྱང་དེ་བཞིན་ཡིན་ཏེ། དོན་མེད་དུ་བདག་གི་ཕྱོགས་སུ་ཕྱིར་ལོག་པར་མི་འགྱུར་གྱིས། བདག་གི་འདོད་བློ་བཞིན་དུ་འགྲུབ་ཅིང་། བདག་གིས་མངགས་པའི་དོན་རྣམས་སྟེང་དུ་འགྲུབ་པར་འགྱུར།
Isaiah 55:10-11
10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
The words and teachings of God had gone forth to men and women before Isaiah, and it started since the days of Adam calling for obedience with promises and guarantee of eternal life in the presence of God but for those who continued in rejection death and separation from the life of God.
One of Jesus prominent apostle Peter did affirm the ministry of sowing the words of God started long ago
པེ་ཏྲོ་གཉིས་པ། 2:5
ཡང་དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་གནའ་བོའི་འཇིག་རྟེན་ལའང་བཟོད་སྒོམ་མ་གནང་བར། དད་གུས་མེད་པའི་མི་རྣམས་ཆུ་ལོག་གིས་བསྣུབས་པར་མཛད༌མོད། འོན་ཀྱང་ཡང་དག་པའི་ཆོས་སྒྲོག་མཁན་ནོ་ཨའི་ཁྱིམ་མི་བརྒྱད་པོ་བསྐྱབས་མྱོང་།
2 Peter 2:5
if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;
Peter recognized Noah as a preacher of righteousness. The message of Noah made clear distinction between those who obey God and those who refused, and by the time of Noah’s Flood, few were harvested for their obedience to God’s warnings and teachings.
We can see a God-ordained principle here – the harvesting of people who acted in obedience to God’s words and to bring them into eternal life in the presence of God.
Back to the message of John 4, Jesus is teaching that we are to continue this cycle of sowing and reaping. And this sowing and reaping have everything to do with the ministry of God’s words.
Jesus was sending His disciples to harvest those who will obey God’s teachings.
To be continue …
David Z
The Life of Yeshu 