To Believe in Jesus – Part 38

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 4:46-54

46དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་སླར་ཡང་ཆུ་རྒུན་ཆང་དུ་བསྒྱུར་མྱོང་བའི་ག་ལིལ་ཡུལ་གྱི་ཀ་ནཱ་རུ་ཕེབས་པ༌དང༌། གནས་དེར་བློན་ཆེན་ཞིག་ཡོད་པའི་བུ་ནི་ཀཱ་ཕར་ན་ཧུམ་དུ་ཡོད་ཅིང་ན་ཚ་བྱུང་བ་རེད། 47བློན་ཆེན་དེས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་ཁོང་ཉིད་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱའི་ཡུལ་ནས་ག་ལིལ་ཡུལ་དུ་ཕེབས་པ་ཐོས་ཏེ་ཁོང་གི་དྲུང་དུ་ཕྱིན༌ཅིང༌། རང་གི་བུ་འཆི་ལ་ཉེ་བས་ཁོང་ཉིད་ཕེབས་ནས་བུ་ཡི་ནད་འཇོམས་པར་ཞུ་བ་ཞུས་པ༌ལ། 48སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་བློན་ཆེན་དེ་ལ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་གྲུབ་རྟགས་དང་ངོ་མཚར་བའི་དོན་རྣམས་མ་མཐོང་ན་དད་པ་མི་བྱེད་ཅེས་གསུངས་སོ།། 49ཡང་བློན་ཆེན་ན༌རེ། ཇོ་བོ༌ལགས། ཁྱེད་རང་བདག་གི་བུ་མ་ཤི་སྔོན་ལ་ཕེབས་པར་མཛོད་ཅེས་ཞུས་སོ།། 50ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ཕྱིར་སོང་དང་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་བུ་གསོན་པོར་གནས་ཞེས་གསུངས་པ༌དང༌། བློན་ཆེན་གྱིས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་གསུངས་པའི་བཀའ་ལ་ཡིད་ཆེས་ཏེ་ཕྱིར་ལོག་ཅིང་། 51ལམ་བར་དུ་བློན་ཆེན་དེའི་གཡོག་པོ་རྣམས་ཁོ་རང་བསུ་རུ་ཡོང་ནས་ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་བུ་གསོན་པོར་འདུག་ཅེས་སྨྲས་སོ།། 52དེ་ནས་ཁོས་དུས་ནམ་ཞིག་ལ་སོས་པར་གྱུར་རམ་ཞེས་དྲིས་པ༌ལ། དེ་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། ཁ་སང་ཉིན་གུང་གི་ཆུ་ཚོད་གཅིག་ཙམ་ལ་བུའི་ལུས་ཀྱི་ཚ་བཞག་པའོ་ཞེས་སྨྲས་སོ།། 53དེ་ནས་བློན་ཆེན་གྱིས་ཁ་སང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་བུ་གསོན་པོར་གནས་ཞེས་གསུངས་པའི་དུས་དེར་རང་གི་བུ་སོས་པར་གྱུར་པའང་ཤེས༌ཏེ། ཁོ་དང་ཁྱིམ་མི་ཐམས་ཅད་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་ལ་དད་པར་གྱུར་ཏོ།། 54དོན་འདི་ནི་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་ཁོང་ཉིད་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱའི་ཡུལ་ནས་སླར་ཡང་ག་ལིལ་ཡུལ་དུ་ཕེབས་ཏེ་མཛད་པའི་གྲུབ་རྟགས་གཉིས་པ་ཡིན༌ནོ།།

 

John 4:46-54

46 So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” 49 The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. 51 As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. 52 So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” 53 The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. 54 This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.

 

This official who came to Jesus, the author of the Gospel of John did not note or disclose his name. Likewise the woman at the well who spoke with Jesus we have no idea what’s her name.

I believe the gospel author did not note these people’s names with the intention to give attention to more important issue about their witness and testimony to what Jesus did and in recognition of who Jesus is.

 

The focus here is what Jesus did to identify who Jesus is

 

These people whose names we do not know and yet they believed in Jesus testified to the truth and reality that God had sent His Messiah and they had their encounter with the Savior and their faith was assured.

 

Not only did they believed what Jesus said but was confident this Jesus is the Messiah chosen of God.

 

It is very interesting to note that till that time the disciples of Jesus continue to address Jesus as Rabbi, master, teacher, and may not fully recognized His messiahship yet. Or rather they were still in doubt and could not confidently affirm within themselves this Jesus is the Messiah they were waiting for. And they were following Jesus around and saw those amazing miracles and encounters of many others who believed this Jesus is the Messiah chosen of God!

Today we have the benefit of hindsight that it was after Jesus’ resurrection these few disciples who followed Jesus came to fully acknowledge Him as the Messiah.

So this official from Capernaum who came to Jesus we can ascertain he was a person of high status and surely he should be well aware of the ongoing resistant and oppositions against Jesus.

If this official was a Jew he should know any public association with Jesus will put him in risk of losing his membership with the synagogue and the eventual damages to his social standing. Remember Nicodemus who came to Jesus by night keeping his head low. So this official made a very bold move that he went to Jesus himself to seek help! And that happened in public view!

If this official was a Gentile it was an act against all odds – possible mockery from his peers who practice pagan worship and the extra difficulties of a Gentile trying to get near a Jewish preacher. But his son was dying and he needs help!

This incident of the official from Capernaum coming to meet Jesus had a power message in the context of John 4.

This incident was in direct contrast of deliberate rejection from Jesus’ hometown

 

44ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་ཞེ་ན། སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་སྔ་མོ་ནས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ལུང་སྟོན་པ་ལ་རང་ཡུལ་ནས་བརྩི་བཀུར་མི་བྱེད་ཅེས་བདེན་དཔང་མཛད་པས༌སོ།།

44 (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.)

 

This official from Capernaum coming to meet Jesus if observed from a negative perspective could be seen as a rebuke to those who were familiar with Jesus and yet deliberately choose to reject! All these were happening within the context of John Chapter 4.

The issue about being familiar with someone within the same community is that we can imagine that people who lived closed to each other would easily find fault with any bad habits or wrong doing of a particular person. But we have faithful and trustworthy record from Luke how Jesus lived and behave in His hometown

 

ལོ་ཀུ 2:39-40

39སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུའི་ཡབ་ཡུམ་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་གཙོ་བོའི་བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་ལྟར་ལས་ཐམས་ཅད་བསྒྲུབས་རྗེས་ག་ལིལ་ཡུལ་གྱི་ནཱ་ཙ་རེལ་གྲོང་རྡལ་དུ་ཕྱིར་ལོག༌པ་རེད། 40ཕྲུ་གུ་ཡེ་ཤུ་ནར་སོན་ཏེ་སྟོབས་ཤུགས་འཛོམས་ཤིང་མཁྱེན་རབ་རྒྱས་པ་དང་། དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཡང་ཁོང་གི་སྟེང་ལ་ཁྱབ་བོ།།

Luke 2:39-40

39 And when they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. 40 And the child (Jesus) grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.

 

ལོ་ཀུ 2:52

52སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུའི་མཁྱེན་རབ་དང་སྐུ་གཟུགས། ཡང་དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་ཁོང་ལ་གཅེས་པའི་ཐུགས་དང་མི་རྣམས་ཁོང་ལ་དགའ་བའི་སེམས་བཅས་ལྷན་དུ་རྒྱས༌སོ།།

Luke 2:52

52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.

 

It is difficult to understand on what basis Jesus was rejected by the people of His hometown.

So back to the official from Capernaum who came to meet Jesus, he came with respect to wait upon Jesus himself, and it was a show of true sincerity that he believes Jesus could save his son.

This official from Capernaum who was probably of high status would have had access to good physicians and his son most likely suffering from life-threatening sickness that a father will go the extra mile to find help.

Now we see the words of Jesus put into action

 

50ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ཕྱིར་སོང་དང་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་བུ་གསོན་པོར་གནས་ཞེས་གསུངས་པ༌དང༌། བློན་ཆེན་གྱིས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་གསུངས་པའི་བཀའ་ལ་ཡིད་ཆེས་ཏེ་ཕྱིར་ལོག་ཅིང་།

50 Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.

 

And let’s compare what Jesus said to what Isaiah prophesied

 

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.

 

That was it!

Jesus spoke the word, His words went forth and the official’s son was healed!

But prior to that why did Jesus question the expectation to see signs and wonders?

 

48སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་བློན་ཆེན་དེ་ལ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་གྲུབ་རྟགས་དང་ངོ་མཚར་བའི་དོན་རྣམས་མ་མཐོང་ན་དད་པ་མི་བྱེད་ཅེས་གསུངས་སོ།།

48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”

 

Did Jesus purposefully make this statement to show and demonstrate the power and authority of His word that will transcend time and space and location?

This conversation between Jesus and the official from Capernaum recorded in John 4 did not went sour and led to more arguments as what happened often between Jesus and the Pharisees.

Although the official appears to be in a panic because his son was dying and he tried to hurry Jesus to visit his son, yet he chooses to believe in the power and authority of Jesus’ spoken words.

Eventually not only was his son healed but all his household together with him believed in Jesus!

 

To be continue …

 

David Z