To Believe in Jesus – Part 42
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 5:15-16
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།།
16སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་ངལ་གསོ་བའི་ཉིན་ལ་དེ་ལྟར་མཛད་པས་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཁོང་ལ་གནོད་འཚེ་བྱས།
John 5:15:16
15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. 16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.
Why was this incident recorded by John?
The plan reading of the text highlighted a key reason why Jesus was persecuted and by whom and for what reason. It also addressed a key problem why this same group of people refused to believe Jesus is the Messiah chosen of God.
To believe in Jesus we need to be prepared for persecution!
Persecutions can arise from various reasons and we need to carefully observe exactly where is it coming from and for what purpose, and when necessary we need to stand firm in our faith in Christ.
John identified this group of people who were persecuting Jesus as “Jews” but that was not referring to every Jewish person! In the context of John’s message, these Jews most likely refer to those strict religious minded Jews who had settled within Jerusalem.
Locations and contexts are the initial clues we need to watch out for with regards to Christian persecutions.
Today we have the benefit of hindsight; we can look back in history and differentiate the different groups of Jewish people during the time of the Four Gospel and Acts.
In Acts 2 when we read of what happened during Pentecost and there were Jewish Diaspora gathered in Jerusalem because they came from outside Jerusalem to do obligation for the feast.
Why did they come to Jerusalem? Because the Temple was there! And there was only one designated Temple for doing their obligations to God with regards to the yearly feast and sacrifices.
There is growing consensus among bible historian that after the Babylon Exile, majority of Jewish Diaspora did not return to Jerusalem but prefer to continue living in the various places and nations where they were exiled to. However many did make the regular pilgrimages to Jerusalem to observe the feast of the Lord but did not live permanently in Jerusalem.
By the time of Jesus, majority of the total Jewish population worldwide were living outside Jerusalem, and away from the Promised Land. That situation continues till today whereby majority of Jewish Diaspora can be found in North America. The minority ultra-orthodox Jews today do settle in modern day Jerusalem and Israel.
In the days of Jesus and the apostle Paul, there was a minority group of Jews who did permanently resettled back to Jerusalem after the Babylon Exile and these were most likely the religious minded and followed a more strict code-of-conduct enforced by the authority of the Sanhedrin and the synagogue system operated by the Pharisees.
In those days there were already various disagreements and divisions among the Jews themselves especially between those who permanently settled in Jerusalem being identified as Judeans and those who live outside Jerusalem and far away.
Do not be surprised that even Jews from Jerusalem and Jews from Galilee could not agree with each other about what was written in the Law of Moses and the writings of the Prophets, especially about the coming Messiah. That was perhaps just one of the many reasons why we often read of the Pharisees continuously bombarding Jesus with absurd questionings and arguments.
In the days of Jesus the land of Israel was governed by Rome and most of these Jews who were living within the old city depended on either the Sanhedrin or the synagogue system for verification of their identity as Jews and Judeans, and certain civil rights protection against Roman laws which may expose them to pagan worship. And why would they want to switch camp to follow Jesus? Jesus did not promise them membership privileges but continue preaching against their sins and calling for repentance.
The problem with the Sanhedrin and the Pharisees was that they had their own sets of interpretation about the Law of Moses and how to keep God’s commandments and we do have record of Jesus’ confrontation with them. For example
མཱཪ་ཀུ 7:5-8
5དེ་ནས་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་དང་མཁན་པོ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ༌ལ། ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་ཐུགས་སྲས་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་གནའ་མིའི་ལུགས་སྲོལ་བཞིན་མི་བྱེད༌པར། ལག་པ་མི་གཙང་ནའང་བག་ལེབ་ཟའམ་ཞེས་དྲིས་པ༌དང༌། 6སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ཚུལ་འཆོས་པ་ཁྱོད་ཅག་གི་སྐོར་ལ་ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱ་ཡིས་ལེགས་པར་གསུངས་པ་འདི་ལྟ༌སྟེ།
མི་སྡེ་འདི་ཡིས་ངག་ནས་ང་རང་བཀུར་ན༌ཡང༌།།
ཁོ་ཚོའི་སེམས་ནི་ང་དང་ཡོངས་སུ་བྲལ་བ༌ཡིན།།
7འཇིག་རྟེན་མི་ཡིས་བརྩམས་པའི་བསླབ་བྱ་སྣ་ཚོགས༌པ།།
བདེན་པའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་གཞུང་ལུགས་ཡིན་ཁུལ་སྟོན་བྱེད༌པས།།
བསྙེན་བཀུར་དེ་འདྲ་བདག་ལ་བྱས་ཀྱང་སྙིང་པོ༌མེད།།
ཅེས་བཀོད་པ༌ལྟར། 8ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་སྤངས་ནས་མིའི་ལུགས་སྲོལ་སྲུང་བཞིན་འདུག་ཅེས་གསུངས་པ༌དང༌།
Mark 7:5-8
5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” 6 And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,
“‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”
In the context of Mark 7, the Pharisee were complaining about certain issues with hand washing rituals before eating but did God ever issued such laws?
Back to the situation in John 5, it was beyond common sense that Jesus did His miracle to heal a man who had been sick for 38 years and these Jews went head on to persecute Jesus because this happen on the Sabbath! But God had never issued any commandment against healing on the Sabbath!
Furthermore the issue these Jews had with the man and Jesus was that he picks up his bed and walk on the Sabbath. What’s wrong with that?
To believe in Jesus as against man’s traditions
The “tradition of the elders” and “commandments of men” the Pharisees and Sanhedrin had indoctrinated that generation of Jews living in Jerusalem were adulterated and corrupted interpretation of God’s commandment.
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 civic and social issues were discussed. And the Pharisees were teaching the Jews how to behave based on how they interpreted God’s instructions to Moses.
How these synagogue leaders – namely the Pharisees – interpreted God law and how to practice became a hindrance to believing and accepting Jesus as the Messiah chosen of God.
However, among the Jews there were those who believed.
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 8:31-32
31དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་རང་ཉིད་ལ་དད་པ་ཡོད་པའི་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ལ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། གལ་ཏེ་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་བདག་གི་བཀའ་ཡི་ནང་དུ་གནས་ན། ཁྱོད་ཅག་ནི་དངོས་གནས་བདག་གི་རྗེས་འབྲང་པ་ཡིན༌ལ། 32ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་བདེན་པ་ཉིད་དེ་ཤེས་པར་འགྱུར་ཞིང་བདེན་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་རང་དབང་ལྡན་པར་མཛད་ངེས་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།།
John 8:31-32
31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
What Jesus said to these Jews who believed in Him was encouraging but they need to stand firm in their faith and continue to believe and not fall back to old ways of following man-made doctrines.
To believe in Jesus is to walk in freedom to receive the salvation of God.
To believe in Jesus is to freely receive the grace and forgiveness of Christ.
To believe in Jesus we must be prepared for persecutions due to man-made doctrines and traditions which contradict the will of God to redeem us from the system of this world.
As Jesus continues to preach and teach, divisions and disagreements continue among the Jews.
Regardless of Jews or Gentiles, as we believe in Jesus and continue to believe we are on the path to eternal life because this is the promise Jesus as Messiah gave to those who trust in Him!
There will be those who do not agree but we must continue to stand firm on the promises of Jesus the Christ, our hope of eternal life.
To be continue …
David Z
The Life of Yeshu 