To Believe in Jesus – Part 34

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 4:39-42

39དེ་ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་བདག་གིས་ཅི་བྱས་ཐམས་ཅད་གསུངས་བྱུང་ཞེས་བུད་མེད་དེས་བདེན་དཔང་བྱས༌པས། སི་གར་གྲོང་རྡལ་གྱི་སཱ་མར་ཡ་པ་མང་པོ་ཞིག་གིས་ཀྱང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་ལ་དད་པ་བྱས་པ་རེད། 40དེ་ནས་སཱ་མར་ཡ་པ་རྣམས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུའི་དྲུང་དུ་ཡོང་ནས་ཁོ་རྣམས་དང་མཉམ་དུ་བཞུགས་པར་ཞུས་པ༌ན། ཁོང་ཡང་ཉིན་གཉིས་ཀྱི་རིང་ལ་གནས་དེར་བཞུགས། 41ཁོང་གིས་ཆོས་གསུངས་པས་དད་པ་བྱེད་མཁན་ཡང་སྔར་ལས་ཇེ་མང་དུ་གྱུར་ཏོ།། 42དེ་ནས་སཱ་མར་ཡའི་དད་ལྡན་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་བུད་མེད་དེ༌ལ། ད་ལྟ་ངེད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དད་པ་བྱེད་པ་ནི་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་གཏམ་ཐོས་པས་མ་ཡིན༌ཏེ། ངེད་ཅག་གིས་རང་གི་རྣ་བས་དངོས་སུ་ཐོས་པས་ཁོང་ནི་དངོས་གནས་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡིན་པ་ཤེས་ཞེས་སྨྲས༌སོ།།

John 4:39-42

39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him (Jesus) because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

 

What was happening in those days among the Samaritans who came to listen to Jesus was wonderful, amazing, and a time to rejoice in the Lord.

It is very heartwarming to see people coming to Christ!

The positive response coming from the Samaritans seems so easy and straightforward perhaps even the disciples of Jesus were puzzled.

How did that happened?

 

The Samaritans believed what Jesus said!

 

The gospel of John did not provide a number count how many were there among the Samaritans who believed Jesus but the author simply indicated “many”

 

39དེ་ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་བདག་གིས་ཅི་བྱས་ཐམས་ཅད་གསུངས་བྱུང་ཞེས་བུད་མེད་དེས་བདེན་དཔང་བྱས༌པས། སི་གར་གྲོང་རྡལ་གྱི་སཱ་མར་ཡ་པ་མང་པོ་ཞིག་གིས་ཀྱང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་ལ་དད་པ་བྱས་པ་རེད།

39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.”

 

Here the author John repeatedly emphasis the word “believed” and that seems to be the key theme throughout the Gospel of John that we may believe in Jesus.

The testimony of the woman was helpful not only to the Samaritans but also for us today reading this account of their encounter with Jesus.

There are a lot more details we wish we know about these Samaritans who welcomed Jesus with open hearts. More than 2000 years have passed since this incident and we are still blessed with this message.

If we observe carefully the testimony of these Samaritans we might get a clue they were expecting this, they were prepared to receive Jesus with open hearts

 

42དེ་ནས་སཱ་མར་ཡའི་དད་ལྡན་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་བུད་མེད་དེ༌ལ། ད་ལྟ་ངེད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དད་པ་བྱེད་པ་ནི་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་གཏམ་ཐོས་པས་མ་ཡིན༌ཏེ། ངེད་ཅག་གིས་རང་གི་རྣ་བས་དངོས་སུ་ཐོས་པས་ཁོང་ནི་དངོས་གནས་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡིན་པ་ཤེས་ཞེས་སྨྲས༌སོ།།

42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

 

Apparently they were waiting for a Savior of the world.

They were expecting the appearing of this Savior of the world.

Although the Samaritans were despised by the Jews they did not forsake scripture truth! It is a known fact among Bible historian that the Samaritans did kept the Pentateuch as their canon of Scripture.

 

These Samaritans have been reading their Bible and looking forward to the Messiah! They kept the words of God in their hearts and were waiting for the Savior.

 

The Pentateuch, the five books of Moses did speak of the coming Messiah and these messages were scattered throughout the vast volume of this document. And among the most prominent and debatable message about the coming Messiah seem to be from Numbers and from an interesting character

 

གྲངས་ཀ 24:17

17བདག་གིས་ཁོང་ཉིད་མཐོང་ཡང་ད་ལྟ་མིན། །

ང་ཡིས་ཁོང་ཉིད་མཇལ་ཡང་ཉེ་སར་མིན། །

ཡ་ཀོབ་ཁོང་ནས་སྐར་མ་ཞིག་ཐོན་ཞིང་། །

ཡེས་ར་ཨེལ་ལས་ཕྱག་འཁར་ཞིག་དར་ངེས། །

དེ་ཡིས་མོ་ཨབ་ཀྱི་ནི་དཔྲལ་བ་གཏོར། །

སེད་ཐུ་པ་རྣམས་མགོ་བོ་བརྫི་བར་འགྱུར། །

Numbers 24:17

I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth.

 

This prophesies about the Star of Jacob came from Balaam.

There are not a few commentaries on this “Star of Jacob” and it is highly possible that it is pointing to the future Messiah who will come from the family line of Jacob.

Jesus was of the line of Judah and Jacob. Jesus did fulfilled prophesies of old He is the Messiah chosen of God.

Although Balaam was of questionable background but he claim and recognizes Yahweh as his own God. And there are Bible scholars who do see this portion of scripture as pointing to the coming Messiah however the arguments have been “who then is the real Messiah?”

 

The Gospel of John bears record this Jesus is the Messiah chosen of God that we may believe.

 

Furthermore when Jesus was born, the Gospel of Matthew recorded what is known as the “Star of Bethlehem” which is a key theme in the nativity scene of Christian tradition.

 

མད་ཐཱ། 2:1-2

1དེ་ཡང་ཧེ་རོ་དཱ་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཡིན་པའི་དུས་སུ་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་ནི་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱའི་ཡུལ་གྱི་པེད་ལེ་ཧེམ་དུ་སྐུ་འཁྲུངས༌རྗེས། ཤར་ཕྱོགས་ནས་མཁས་པ་འགའ་ཞིག་ཡེ་རུ་སཱ་ལེམ་ལ་ཕེབས༌ཏེ། 2ཡ་ཧུ་དཱའི་མི་རིགས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོར་སྐུ་འཁྲུངས་པ་དེ་གང་དུ་བཞུགས༌སམ། ངེད་ཅག་གིས་ཤར་ཕྱོགས་ནས་ཁོང་གི་སྐར་མ་མཐོང་སྟེ་ཁོང་ལ་མཇལ་དུ་ཡོང་ཞེས་སྨྲས༌སོ།།

Matthew 2:1-2

2 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

 

All these things that were happening around Jerusalem during the time of Jesus’ birth would have caught the attentions of the Samaritans but they were prevented from coming to Jerusalem due to the hostilities between them and the Jews.

News had been spreading Jesus was moving from place to place preaching the kingdom of God. Perhaps these Samaritans were praying that one day Jesus would just came by where they live!

So that faithful day came – Jesus came to reap what was being sowed among these Samaritans as they kept in their hearts the words and promises of God and were ready for harvest.

 

35ཁྱོད་ཅག་གི་ཁ་དཔེ༌ལ། ཞིང་འབྲེག་པའི་དུས་ལ་ད་དུང་ཟླ་བ་བཞི་ཡོད་ཅེས་ཟེར་བ་མིན༌ནམ། འོན་ཀྱང་བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་འདི་སྐད་སྨྲ༌སྟེ། ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་ཞིང་ལ་ལྟོས༌དང༌། ལོ་ཏོག་སྨིན་པར་གྱུར་པས་ཞིང་འབྲེག་རན༌ཏེ།

35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.

 

I believe Jesus knew these Samaritans were waiting for Him, expecting to meet with Him. And so Jesus came for this harvest among the Samaritans.

These Samaritans believed Jesus is indeed the Savior of the world and their testimony is helpful for future generation of believers.

What happened here is very encouraging that we must believe, continue to believe, continue the cycle of sowing and reaping till Jesus returns.

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 4:38

བདག་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 4:38

 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

 

To be continue …

 

David Z