To Believe in Jesus – Part 46

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 5:25-29

25ཡང་བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་ཡང་དག་པར་བདེན་པར་སྨྲ༌སྟེ། གཤིན་པོ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་སྲས་ཀྱི་གསུང་སྐད་ཐོས་པའི་དུས་ཤིག་སླེབ་པར་འགྱུར་ཞིང་དུས་དེ་ནི་ད་ལྟ་ཡིན། གསུང་དེར་མཉན་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱང་གསོན་པར་འགྱུར་རོ།། 26རྒྱུ་མཚན་ནི་ཡབ་ཀྱི་ནང་དུ་ཚེ་སྲོག་བཞུགས་པ་བཞིན་ཁོང་གིས་སྲས་ལའང་དེ་ལྟར་ཚེ་སྲོག་ཡོད་པར་མཛད་པ་ལགས་སོ།། 27སྲས་དེ་ནི་མིའི་བུ་ཡིན་པས་ལེགས་ཉེས་ཀྱི་ཁྲིམས་ཐག་གཅོད་པའི་དབང་ཡང་སྲས་ལ་གནང༌བ་ཡིན། 28ཁྱོད་རྣམས་དོན་འདིར་ངོ་མཚར་བར་མི༌བྱའོ།། དེ་ཡང་དུར་ཁུང་དུ་སྡོད་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱིས་སྲས་ཀྱི་གསུང་སྐད་ཐོས་ནས། དེ་རྣམས་སླར་གསོན་པར་འགྱུར་བའི་དུས་ཤིག་སླེབ་ངེས༌ཤིང༌། 29ལས་བཟང་པོ་བྱས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཚེ་སྲོག་འཐོབ་པའི་ཕྱིར་སླར་གསོན་པ༌དང༌། ལས་ངན་པ་བྱས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་ཉེས་ཆད་གཅོད་པའི༌ཕྱིར་སླར་གསོན་པར་འགྱུར་རོ།།

John 5:25-29

25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

 

What Jesus said was shocking and mind-blowing for the Jews who heard Him but those Pharisees who study the writings of the prophets will know exactly what Jesus was pointing to.

Those Pharisees who heard Jesus knew that He was making very clear reference to the prophesy and vision of Daniel –

 

དཱ་ནེ་ཨེལ། 12:2

ཡང་ཐལ་རྡུལ་ནང་དུ་གཉིད་འདུག་པ་མང་པོ་སད་པར་འགྱུར་ཞིང་། འགའ་ཞིག་ལ་ཚེ་མཐའ་མེད་པ་འཐོབ་པར་འགྱུར་ལ། འགའ་ཞིག་ངོ་ཚས་གདུང་ཞིང་དུས་གཏན་དུ་གཞན་གྱིས་མཐོང་ཆུང་བྱེད་པར་འགྱུར་རོ།

Daniel 12:2

And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

 

There were sharp divisions between the Pharisees and Sadducees and within the Sanhedrin about resurrection of the dead and their disagreement were clearly played out in the days of Jesus and Paul. These groups of people were in consistent and persistent confrontation with Jesus.

Interestingly the Pharisees were firm believer of the resurrection! And I think this is where we often read more about debate between Jesus and the Pharisees on the subject of the kingdom of God and the state of future blessing of eternal life which points to resurrection. Since this resurrection issue is something which the Pharisees can agree with Jesus about except on the details of it, then both had a lot to talk and debate about.

I think those Pharisees and Jews who believe in the resurrection of the dead did understood what Jesus said but what would had been stunning or even shocking for them was the timing emphasized by Jesus

 

25ཡང་བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་ཡང་དག་པར་བདེན་པར་སྨྲ༌སྟེ། གཤིན་པོ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་སྲས་ཀྱི་གསུང་སྐད་ཐོས་པའི་དུས་ཤིག་སླེབ་པར་འགྱུར་ཞིང་དུས་དེ་ནི་ད་ལྟ་ཡིན། གསུང་དེར་མཉན་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱང་གསོན་པར་འགྱུར་རོ།།

 25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

 

If they heard Jesus correctly it literally meant the resurrection they knew about from the writings of the prophets was going to happen in their days! And it did.

Few scripture text in the Old Testament suggested the possibility of resurrection and even lesser rare messages directly speak of resurrection of the dead.

Daniel 12:2 is one of those few and rare text and perhaps due to the rarity of this kind of message that speaks of resurrection and it was written by Daniel in exile and the original text probably written in Aramaic, those who do not recognized the writings of Daniel would not think much of the resurrection.

The other text that speaks directly of resurrection is in Isaiah

ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱ། 26:19

ཁྱེད་ལ་དབང་བའི་འདས་པོ་རྣམས་གསོན་པར་འགྱུར་ཞིང་། དེ་དག་གི་བེམ་པོ་རྣམས་ཡར་ལངས་ངེས། ས་རྡུལ་ཁྲོད་དུ་སྡོད་མཁན་དག་སད་ནས་དགའ་འབོད་བྱེད་དེ། ཅི་ལ་ཞེ་ན། ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་ཟིལ་ཆར་ནི་ཞོགས་པའི་ཟིལ་པ་ཇི་བཞིན་ས་གཞིའི་འདས་པོ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སྟེང་ལ་འབབ་ཅིང་། ས་གཞིར་ཚེ་ལས་འདས་པ་རྣམས་ཕྱིར་སྤྲོད་དུ་འཇུག་གོ །

Isaiah 26:19

Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead.

 

There is the debate about how to define “Your dead”? Does that means only a selected few will be resurrected? How does that compare to the resurrection of Daniel’s vision?

Another scripture which is hotly debate about resurrection is Ezekiel 37 prophesy of the valley of dry bones. Since this Ezekiel message was written before the time of Daniel the old school interpretation had been about the restoration of the nation of Israel, the exiles brought back to the land, and not about individual resurrection. However from the second temple period and from the time of Malachi looking forward to the coming Messiah there were changes of opinions.

 

Back to John 5, Jesus was preaching and teaching in a time when the Jews had high expectation about when the Messiah will appear and the time for restoration of the nation of Israel. So what Jesus said about resurrection was stunning and even shocking with regards to the timing. And all those arguments the Jews had with Jesus deals with the bigger picture of the identity of the Messiah.

In the days of Jesus there was a lot of arguments, debates, discussions, if this Jesus is the Messiah chosen of God. All these were happening mainly because Jesus did not openly and directly introduce Himself as the Messiah! It was after the death and resurrection of Jesus and He went to meet with the disciples in His resurrected body then His disciples and followers became fully convinced this Jesus is the Messiah they were waiting for!

With regards to what Jesus said at that time of John 5, today we have the benefit of hindsight and we know from scripture record few notable incidents Jesus brought back to life those who were dead –

 

1) Luke 7:12-14 – Jesus raises a widow’s son from dead in a town called Nain.

2) Luke 8:49-56 – Jairus’s daughter brought back to life by Jesus.

3) John 11:38-46 – Lazarus brought back to life by Jesus.

4) Matthew 27:51-54 – Jesus’ death on the cross, the earthquake, and tombs cracked open, and those dead buried in tombs came back to life.

 

And then there was the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

What Jesus said, preached, and proclaimed, were fulfilled

 

25ཡང་བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་ཡང་དག་པར་བདེན་པར་སྨྲ༌སྟེ། གཤིན་པོ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་སྲས་ཀྱི་གསུང་སྐད་ཐོས་པའི་དུས་ཤིག་སླེབ་པར་འགྱུར་ཞིང་དུས་དེ་ནི་ད་ལྟ་ཡིན། གསུང་དེར་མཉན་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱང་གསོན་པར་འགྱུར་རོ།།

 25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

 

This resurrection of the dead is foundational to our faith in Christ and yet still faces lots of debate, discussions, and arguments. But the death and resurrection of Jesus is factual and indisputable.

 

To be continue …

 

David Z