To Believe in Jesus – Part 40

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 5:10-15

10ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ནད་ལས་ཐར་བའི་མི་དེ༌ལ། དེ་རིང་ནི་ངལ་གསོ་བའི་ཉིན་མོ་ཡིན་པས་ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་ཁྱོགས་ཤིང་འཁུར་བ་ནི་བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་དང་མི་མཐུན་པ་ཡིན་ཞེས་སྨྲས་པ༌དང༌། 11མི་དེ་ན༌རེ། བདག་གི་ནད་འཇོམས་པར་མཛད་མཁན་དེས་བདག་ལ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། རང་གི་ཁྱོགས་ཤིང་ཁུར་ནས་སྐྱོད་ཅིག་གསུངས་པ་ཡིན་ཞེས་སྨྲས་པ༌དང༌། 12ཡང་དེ་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། ཁྱོད་ལ་རང་གི་ཁྱོགས་ཤིང་ཁུར་ནས་སྐྱོད་ཅིག་ཅེས་ཟེར་མཁན་དེ་སུ་ཡིན་ནམ་ཞེས་དྲིས་སོ།། 13འོན༌ཀྱང༌། ནད་ལས་ཐར་བའི་མི་དེས་ནད་འཇོམས་མཁན་དེ་སུ་ཡིན་པ་མི་ཤེས༌ཏེ། གནས་དེར་མི་ཚོགས་མང་ཞིང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུའང་ཁོ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་གྲས་སུ་ཕེབས་པས༌སོ།། 14དེའི་རྗེས༌སུ། སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་མཆོད་ཁང་དུ་ནད་ལས་ཐར་བའི་མི་དེ་རྙེད་ནས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ལྟོས་དང་། ཁྱོད་རང་ད་ལྟ་ནད་ལས་ཐར་ཏེ་ལུས་ཁམས་བདེ༌བས། ཕྱིས་སུ་དེ་ལས་ལྷག་པའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ཆེན་པོ་མི་མྱང་བའི་ཕྱིར་སྡིག་པ་མ་བྱེད་ཅེས་གསུངས་སོ།། 15དེ་ནས་མི་དེ་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་གམ་དུ་སོང༌སྟེ། རང་གི་ནད་འཇོམས་པར་མཛད་མཁན་དེ་ནི་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་ཡིན་པར་སྨྲས༌སོ།།

 

John 5:10-15

Now that day was the Sabbath. 10 So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” 11 But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. 14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.

 

This miraculous healing had an interesting side to it. The man, who was healed, did not know it was Jesus who healed him. Perhaps it was due to the crowded environment as the author noted, Jesus moved away and afterward went to look for the man who was healed.

All this was happening at one of the feast, perhaps Passover? And it was on a Sabbath. Did Jesus know the Pharisees were going to complain that He told the man to pick up his bed and walk?

I believe Jesus had His purpose and intention for what He did at that specific location, at that particular time and season.

If this healing incident did actually happen during Passover, and there was a crowd visiting the Temple to do obligation for the feast, notice the connection with water and the pool of healing.

The observation of Passover has that clear direct connection to the children of Israel leaving Egypt. And there was an incident recorded in Exodus after Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt and they stop by a pool of water and it was a bitter sweet encounter.

Let’s look at Exodus 15:22-27

 

ཨེ་ཅིབ་ནས་ཐོན་པ། 15:22-27

22དེ་ནས་མོ་ཤེ་ཡིས་ཡེས་ར་ཨེལ་པ་རྣམས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་དམར་པོ་ནས་ཁྲིད་དེ་མདུན་དུ་བསྐྱོད་ཅིང་། དེ་དག་ཤུར་གྱི་དབེན་སྟོང་དུ་སླེབས་པ་དང་། ཉིན་གསུམ་ལ་དབེན་སྟོང་དུ་འགྲུལ་ནས་ཆུ་མ་ཐོབ། 23མཱ་ར་བྱ་བའི་གནས་སུ་སླེབས་པ་ན་མཱ་ར་ཡི་ཆུ་ནི་ཁ་ཏིག་ཡིན་པས་འཐུང་མ་ནུས། དེའི་ཕྱིར་ཡུལ་དེའི་མིང་ལ་མཱ་ར་ཞེས་ཟེར། 24དེར་མི་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མོ་ཤེ་ལ་སྡུག་ཡུས་བཏོན་ཏེ། ངེད་ཅག་གིས་ཅི་འཐུང་ངམ་ཞེས་སྨྲས། 25དེ་ནས་མོ་ཤེ་ཡིས་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཡ་ཝཱེ་ལ་ཞུ་འབོད་བྱས་ཤིང་། དཀོན་མཆོག་ཡ་ཝཱེས་ཁོ་ལ་ལྗོན་ཤིང་ཞིག་བསྟན་པ་དང་། ཁོས་དེ་ཆུའི་ནང་དུ་གཡུགས་པ་ན་ཆུ་མངར་མོར་གྱུར། དེར་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཡ་ཝཱེས་དེ་དག་ལ་སྒྲིག་ཁྲིམས་དང་སྲོལ་ཡིག་བཙུགས་ནས་ཁོ་རྣམས་ལ་བརྟགས་ཤིང་གསུངས་པ་ནི། 26ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་གཟབ་གཟབ་ངང་ཁྱོད་ཅག་གི་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཡ་ཝཱེའི་གསུང་སྐད་ལ་མཉན་ཏེ། ཁོང་གི་སྤྱན་སྔར་ལེགས་པོ་གང་ཡིན་དེ་སྤྱོད་ཅིང་། གཟབ་ནན་ངང་ཁོང་གི་བཀའ་རྣམས་ལ་མཉན་པ་དང་། སྒྲིག་ཁྲིམས་ཐམས་ཅད་བསྲུངས་ན། ངས་ཨེ་ཅིབ་པ་རྣམས་ལ་ཕོག་ཏུ་བཅུག་པའི་ནད་ཡམས་གང་ཡང་ཁྱོད་ཅག་ལ་འབྱུང་བར་མི་བྱ་སྟེ། ང་ནི་ཁྱོད་རང་གསོ་མཁན་ཡ་ཝཱེ་ཡིན་པའི་ཕྱིར་རོ་ཞེས་པའོ། ། 27དེ་ནས་ཁོ་རྣམས་ཨེ་ལིམ་ཡུལ་དུ་སླེབས་ཤིང་དེ་རུ་ཆུ་མིག་བཅུ་གཉིས་དང་ཏ་ལའི་ཤིང་བདུན་ཅུ་ཡོད་པ་ཡིན། དེར་ཁོ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཆུ་འགྲམ་དུ་སྒར་བཏབ་བོ། །

Exodus 15:22-27

22 Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. 23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah. 24 And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” 25 And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.

There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, 26 saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.”

27 Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water.

 

This incident recorded in Exodus, why would God make mention of sickness, diseases and healing? At that moment when the children of Israel wanted a drink? I think it was highly possible they needed something more than just a drink to quench their thirst. Therefore it was there the Lord God declared to them

 

“I am the Lord, your healer”

 

The man in John 5 who received healing was by a pool of water waiting for healing.

The children of Israel were by a pool of water they wished they could drink but could not and God pointed out to them they needed something more than just a drink of water – they needed God to heal them and to protect them from sickness and diseases.

It was a bitter experience for both before they received their forgiveness and restoration from God.

The author of John noted the man had been sick for 38 years.

Israel was noted to be out in the wilderness for about 40 years but to be exact it was in the second year after the exodus from Egypt that 12 spies were sent to the Land of Canaan and 10 of them incited rebellion which provoked the wrath and judgement of God that resulted the children of Israel having to wonder in the wilderness for another 38 years.

I don’t think both incidents were mere coincidence.

If we compare these two incidents side by side, it is difficult to dismiss the similarity of context – 38 years of hardship and holding on to the promises of God to restore and heal and to receive the blessing of the Lord.

For the children of Israel, Moses threw a log into the water and the Lord declared Himself as the one who heal them – “for I am the Lord, your healer.”

For the man in John 5 who had been sick for 38 years, Jesus came to heal him.

 

Let’s look more into to the situation the man who was healed in John 5.

Jesus would have known how the Pharisees would react when He told the man to pick up his bed and walk as it was Sabbath and this happen at the Sheep Gate one of the entrance leading to the Temple compound. All these were happening within the vicinity where there will be not a few Pharisees and lots of religious Jews during the feast!

This incident became another public testimony to the healing power of Christ. The healing power of Christ points to the bigger ultimate redemption plan of God.

What Jesus did here demonstrated His position as Messiah

 

ཐི་མོ་ཐེ་དང་པོ། 2:5-6

5ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་ཞེ་ན། དཀོན་མཆོག་གཅིག་ཁོ་ན་ཉིད་ལས་གཞན་མེད༌ཅིང༌། ཡང་དཀོན་མཆོག་དང་མིའི་རིགས་ཀྱི་བར་དུ་བར་མི་གཅིག་ལས་གཞན་མེད༌དེ། འཇིག་རྟེན་དུ་མི་རུ་འཁྲུངས་པའི་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་ཡེ་ཤུ་ཡིན་པའི་ཕྱིར༌རོ།། 6ཁོང་གིས་རང་ཉིད་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་མི་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་བླུ་རིན་དུ་གནང༌ཞིང༌། དུས་ལ་བབས་པ་ན། དོན་འདིར་བདེན་དཔང་བྱས་པ་ཡིན།

1 Timothy 2:5-6

5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

 

There were countless occasions Jesus demonstrated his authority as Messiah and Mediator between God and man. It was a deliberate demonstration of God’s compassion to forgive and to restore. But the condition to receive healing and restoration have been the same

 

To believe Jesus and to act upon what Jesus said.

 

To believe Jesus as God’s chosen Messiah to redeem us from sin and death.

To act upon what Jesus said as our sincere acts of obedience to repent of our sins.

 

To be continue …

 

David Z