To Believe in Jesus – Part 43

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 5:17-18

17སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། བདག་གི་ཡབ་ཀྱིས་ད་ལྟའི་བར་དུ་འཕྲིན་ལས་སྣ་ཚོགས་མཛད༌ཅིང༌། བདག་གིས་ཀྱང་འཕྲིན་ལས་མཛད་པ་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས་པ༌ན། 18ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སྔར་ལས་ལྷག་པར་ཁོང་ཉིད་དགྲོང་འདོད༌པ་རེད། རྒྱུ་མཚན་ནི་ཁོང་ཉིད་ངལ་གསོ་བའི་ཉིན་མོའི་ཆོས་ཁྲིམས་དང་འགལ་བར་མ༌ཟད། དཀོན་མཆོག་ནི་རང་གི་ཡབ་ཡིན་ཞེས་ཀྱང་གསུངས༌ཏེ། ཁོང་དང་དཀོན་མཆོག་གཉིས་འདྲ་མཉམ་ཡིན་པར་བྱས་པའི་ཕྱིར༌རོ།།

 

John 5:17-18

17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

 

In previous post I discussed a key problem why this same group of people identified as Jews who refused to believe Jesus is the Messiah chosen of God. And what is important to note is that they do not represent every Jewish person but those who were under control and authority of the Sanhedrin and the synagogue system operated by the Pharisees.

The Pharisees who oversee the vast network of synagogue and having direct authority and control over the social-economic lives of the majority of Jews, they had their own interpretation of God’s law and how to practice. Those who disagree risk being excommunicated and condemned as outlaws.

The synagogue system continues till today with a different leadership structure but this vast network of systematic organized gatherings had facilitated the survival of Jewish culture and traditions known as Judaism after the destruction of the Temple in AD 70.

Back to the situation in John 5, on the background of the various arguments these Jews had with Jesus very often it happened on the Sabbath because it was the designated day of gathering at the local synagogues and where many civil and social issues were discussed.

In this context John highlighted that apart from their teachings and rule about Sabbath they had problem with Jesus addressing God as His Father!

God being addressed as Father is not entirely taboo or banned among the Jewish people but such addressing is to be done with utmost respect and depending on the purpose and who is claiming and proclaiming God as Father.

The identity of Jesus had become a divisive issue among the Jews especially those who live in Jerusalem and were directly involved with the Temple service. They were expecting the Messiah but not this Jesus who keep preaching against their sins!

John noted on what basis these Jews were angry to the points of intending to kill Jesus

 

18ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སྔར་ལས་ལྷག་པར་ཁོང་ཉིད་དགྲོང་འདོད༌པ་རེད། རྒྱུ་མཚན་ནི་ཁོང་ཉིད་ངལ་གསོ་བའི་ཉིན་མོའི་ཆོས་ཁྲིམས་དང་འགལ་བར་མ༌ཟད། དཀོན་མཆོག་ནི་རང་གི་ཡབ་ཡིན་ཞེས་ཀྱང་གསུངས༌ཏེ། ཁོང་དང་དཀོན་མཆོག་གཉིས་འདྲ་མཉམ་ཡིན་པར་བྱས་པའི་ཕྱིར༌རོ།།

18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

 

The issue of Jesus being equal with God was offensive to them. Basically they don’t believe and do not receive Jesus as having that position to claim that kind of relationship with God.

The root causes of being offended seem to be in how they interpreted scripture and what had they been taught about the coming Messiah. In this context the Gospel of Matthew recorded an incident worth taking note

 

མད་ཐཱ། 22:41-46

41ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་རྣམས་གནས་དེར་འཛོམས༌དུས། སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། 42མཱ་ཤི་ཀའི་སྐོར་ནས་ཁྱོད་ཅག་གི་བསམ་ཚུལ་ཅི་ཡིན༌ནམ། ཁོང་ནི་སུ་ཞིག་གི་སྲས་ཡིན་ནམ་ཞེས་བཀའ་འདྲི་གནང་བ༌ལ། དེ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དཱ་བིད་ཀྱི་རིགས་སྲས་ཡིན་ཞེས་ཞུས༌སོ།། 43ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། དེས་ན་དཱ་བིད་ཀྱིས་དམ་པའི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་ཀྱི་ངང་ནས་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་ལ་གཙོ་བོ་ལགས་ཞེས་འབོད་པ་ཅི་ཡིན༌ནམ། དེ་ལ་ཇི་སྐད༌དུ།

44དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་ནི་ང་ཡི་གཙོ་བོ༌ལ།།

བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་བསྟན་དགྲ་ཐམས་ཅད༌ཀུན།།

ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་ཞབས་ཀྱི་འོག་ཏུ་འཇུག་པའི༌བར།།

བདག་གི་གཡས་སུ་བཞུགས་ཤིང་སྒུག་པར༌བྱའོ།།

ཞེས་གསུངས༌ཤིང༌། 45དཱ་བིད་ཀྱིས་ཁོང་ལ་གཙོ་བོ་ཞེས་ཞུས༌ན། ཁོང་ནི་དཱ་བིད་ཀྱི་རིགས་སྲས་སུ་ཇི་ལྟར་གྱུར་པ་ཡིན་ནམ་ཞེས་གསུངས་པ༌ན། 46མི་སུས་ཀྱང་ཁོང་ལ་ལན་འདེབས་མ་ནུས༌ལ། ཉིན་དེ་ནས་བཟུང་སུས་ཀྱང་ཁོང་ལ་དྲི་བ་ཅི་ཡང་ཞུ་མ་ཕོད༌དོ།།

Matthew 22:41-46

41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, 42 saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” 43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,

44 “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet”’?

45 If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” 46 And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

 

This conversation in Mathew was directed at the Pharisees, namely the synagogue leadership. And there were many others gathered there at the meeting.

Those present at that gathering who heard Jesus knew He quoted from Psalm 110, and they already knew that message from Psalm 110 was speaking of the coming Messiah!

Jesus was very well aware what these community leaders, namely the Pharisees, had been teaching and how they interpreted scripture and how eventually they have been hindering the people from believing in Jesus being the Messiah chosen of God.

The first chapter of the Gospel of John, the author already addressed the issue of having the rights to be sons of God and even pointed out on what basis people will receive or reject the invitation to address God as Father

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 1:9-13

9གཟི་འོད་དེ་ཉིད་འོད་ཟེར་དངོས་མ༌སྟེ།།

འཇིག་རྟེན་ཡོངས་སུ་འཕྲོས་ནས་མི་ཀུན༌གསལ།།

10དེ་ཡང་ཁོང་ཉིད་འཇིག་རྟེན་འདིར་བཞུགས༌ཤིང༌།།

ཁོང་ཉིད་བརྒྱུད་ནས་འཇིག་རྟེན་བསྐྲུན་ན༌ཡང༌།།

འཇིག་རྟེན་མི་ཡིས་ཁོང་ཉིད་ཤེས་མ༌གྱུར།།

11ཁོང་ནི་རང་ཡུལ་ཕྱོགས་སུ་ཕེབས་ན༌ཡང༌།།

རང་ཡུལ་མི་ཡིས་ཁོང་ལ་བསུ་བ༌མེད།།

12ཁོང་ཉིད་བསུ་ཞིང་ཁོང་གི་མཚན་ལ་ནི།།

དད་པའི་མི་རྣམས་དཀོན་མཆོག་བུ་ཕྲུག་ལ༎

འགྱུར་བར་མཛད་པའི་དབང་ཡང་ཁོང་གིས༌གནང༌།།

13དད་ལྡན་སྐྱེ་བོ་སོ་སོ་དེ་རྣམས༌ནི།།

མི་ཡི་ཁྲག་ལས་སྐྱེས་པ་མ་ཡིན༌ལ།།

མི་ཡི་འདོད་ཆགས་དབང་གིས་མ་སྐྱེས༌ཤིང༌།།

མི་ཡི་འདོད་མོས་བཞིན་དུ་སྐྱེས་པའང༌མིན།།

དེ་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཉིད་ལས་སྐྱེས་པ་ལགས།།

John 1:9-13

9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

 

The key is to believe in Jesus, to receive Jesus as the Messiah chosen of God to redeem and restore us back to relationship with God.

Who do we recognize and receive as the Messiah chosen of God to redeem us from sin and death is crucial to our future hope of eternal life.

 

To be continue …

 

David Z