To Believe in Jesus – Part 44

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 5:19-24

19དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་མི་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་ཡང་དག་པར་བདེན་པར༌སྨྲ་སྟེ། ཡབ་ཀྱིས་དོན་གང་ཞིག་མཛད་པ་བཞིན་སྲས་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་དེ་ལྟར་མཛད༌པས། སྲས་རང་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་ཡབ་ལ་མ་བརྟེན་པར་ལས་ཅི་ཡང་བྱ་མི་ནུས༌ཤིང༌། ཡབ་ཀྱིས་དོན་གང་ཞིག་མཛད་པ་སྲས་ཀྱིས་མཐོང་གྱུར་ན་སྲས་རང་གིས་ཀྱང་དེ་ལྟར་བྱ་ནུས༌སོ།། 20རྒྱུ་མཚན་ནི་ཡབ་ཀྱིས་སྲས་གཅེས་སུ་འཛིན༌ཞིང་། ཁོང་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་མཛད་བཞིན་པའི་དོན་ཐམས་ཅད་སྲས་ལ་སྟོན་པར་མ༌ཟད། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ངོ་མཚར་བའི་ཆེད་དུ་འདི་རྣམས་ལས་ཆེ་བའི་འཕྲིན་ལས་ཀྱང་སྟོན་པར་མཛད་ངེས་སོ།། 21ཡང་ཡབ་ཀྱིས་གཤིན་པོ་རྣམས་ཇི་ལྟར་སླར་གསོན་པར་མཛད་དེ་ཚེ་སྲོག་གནང་བ༌བཞིན། སྲས་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་རང་གི་འདུན་པ་བཞིན་མི་རྣམས་ལ་ཚེ་སྲོག་གནང་བ་ཡིན། 22ཡང་ཡབ་ཀྱིས་མི་སུ་ལའང་ལེགས་ཉེས་ཀྱི་ཁྲིམས་ཐག་མི་གཅོད་པར་དབང་དེ་ཐམས་ཅད་སྲས་ལ་སྤྲད་པ་ཡིན་ནོ།། 23དེ་ནི་མི་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱིས་ཡབ་ལ་མོས་གུས་བྱེད་པ་ལྟར་སྲས་ལའང་མོས་གུས་བྱེད་པའི་ཕྱིར༌ཡིན། འོན་ཀྱང་སུ་ཞིག་གིས་སྲས་ལ་མོས་གུས་མི་བྱེད་ན། སྲས་མངགས་མཁན་ཏེ་ཡབ་ལའང་མོས་གུས་མི་བྱེད། 24ཡང་བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་ཡང་དག་པར་བདེན་པར་སྨྲ༌སྟེ། སུ་ཞིག་གིས་བདག་གི་བཀའ་ལ་ཉན་ཞིང་ང་རང་མངགས་མཁན་ལ་དད་པ་བྱས་ཡོད་པ་ཡིན༌ན། མི་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཚེ་སྲོག་ཐོབ་ཡོད་པ༌དང༌། ཉེས་ཆད་གཅོད་པར་མི་འགྱུར་ཞིང་། མི་དེ་རྣམས་འཆི་བ་ལས་གྲོལ་ནས་ཚེ་སྲོག་གི་ནང་དུ་ཞུགས་པ་ཡིན་ནོ།།

John 5:19-24

19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. 22 For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

 

What Jesus said here may appear very deep and difficult to understand.

However by comparing what Jesus said to what these local Jewish folks had learned from their synagogue teachers, the Law of Moses, and the writings of the prophet, it was a very clear message.

Jesus specifically speaks of father and son relationship, and in this context pointing to His relationship with the Father in heaven.

In previous post I mentioned addressing God as Father is not entirely taboo or forbidden among the Jewish people but depends who is saying it and for what purpose.

In the wordings of the prophet Malachi who was placed at the last book of the old testament, this particular subject of father and son relationship was highlighted but in a negative way.

Let’s look at it

 

མཱལ་ཨ་ཀེ 1:6-7

6དཔུང་ཚོགས་ཀུན་གྱི་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཡ་ཝཱེས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་འདི་སྐད་དུ། ཀྱེ་བདག་གི་མིང་ལ་མཐོང་ཆུང་བྱེད་པའི་མཆོད་དཔོན་རྣམས། བུ་ཡིས་ཕ་ལ་བཀུར་ཞིང་གཡོག་པོས་བདག་པོར་གུས་ཤིང་འཇིགས་པ་ཡིན། གལ་ཏེ་ང་རང་ཕ་ཡིན་ན་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་གུས་བཀུར་གང་དུ་ཡོད་དམ། གལ་ཏེ་ང་རང་བདག་པོ་ཡིན་ན་འཐོབ་འོས་པའི་གུས་ཞུམ་གང་དུ་ཡོད་དམ། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ན་རེ། ངེད་ཅག་གིས་ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་མཚན་ལ་ཅི་ལྟར་མཐོང་ཆུང་བྱས་སམ་ཞེས་འདྲིའོ། ། 7ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཁ་ཟས་མི་གཙང་བ་བདག་གི་མཆོད་ཁྲིའི་སྟེང་དུ་ཕུལ་ནས་ད་དུང་ན་རེ། ངེད་ཅག་གིས་ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་མཆོད་ཁྲི་ཅི་ལྟར་མི་གཙང་བར་བཟོས་སམ་ཟེར་ཏེ། ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་ཞེ་ན། ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཡ་ཝཱེའི་གསོལ་ལྕོག་ལ་མཐོང་ཆུང་བྱས་ཆོག་པར་འདོད་པས་སོ་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།

Malachi 1:6-7

6 “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’ 7 By offering polluted food upon my altar. But you say, ‘How have we polluted you?’ By saying that the Lord’s table may be despised

 

This message from Malachi was to the returning Jews from Babylonian Exile who made the willing and intentional effort to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple that was burnt down during the time of Jeremiah.

It is a known fact among historian that majority of Jewish exile chooses to remain in those foreign lands they were exiled to. That because most of them were born and raised in foreign lands by the end of the 70 years exile proclaimed by the prophet Jeremiah. And by the time Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem to help rebuild the Temple it was way beyond 70 years after the siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonian army.

That generation, who witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem and were exiled to Babylon, the majority of them would not live through that 70 years of exile except for people like Daniel and he did not return to Jerusalem due to his very old age and duty to the Persian court. So the majority of the Jews who were born and raised in foreign land may not feel the connection with Jerusalem anymore and did not return.

So a minority group of Jews returned to Jerusalem with the pledge and commitment to rebuild the Temple but they were not doing it as according to what God specifically instructed. Those 70 years of exile how did they keep faith? How did they read and interpret scripture?  How did they put into practice what God instructed?  How and what did they do during the Lord’s feast without the Temple? It was during this 70 years exile we could trace the beginning of the synagogue system where teachers and scribe had their way of interpreting scriptures and how to practice faith in God.

There are actually a few clear connections between Malachi’s message and Jesus’ message.

1. 1. The time of Malachi was known as the Second Temple Period, the same with Jesus.
2. 2. Both message had that specific reference to father and son relationship in the context of relating to God as Father.
3. 3. Both Malachi’s message and what Jesus said exposed the deep seeded problem of how these people who were called of God to worship and honor God interpreted or misinterpreted scripture and therefore engaging in practices not pleasing to God.
4. 4. I mentioned earlier it was during the 70 years exile we could trace the beginning of the synagogue system and it was highly possible those returning Jews in the time of Malachi had been influenced by what they had been taught in the synagogue. And Jesus very often was confronting those Pharisees and Scribes running the synagogue system.
5. 5. Malachi’s prophetic message in chapter 3 points to the coming Messiah. Today we have the benefits of hindsight knowing that this message was indeed pointing to John the Baptist and Jesus.

 

མཱལ་ཨ་ཀེ 3:1

དཔུང་ཚོགས་ཀུན་གྱི་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཡ་ཝཱེས་འདི་སྐད་དུ། ལྟོས་དང་། ངས་རང་གི་ཕོ་ཉ་མངགས་ཏེ་ངའི་མདུན་དུ་ལམ་གྲ་སྒྲིག་བྱེད་པ་དང་། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་འཚོལ་བའི་གཙོ་བོ་ནི་གློ་བུར་ཉིད་ལ་ཁོང་གི་མཆོད་ཁང་ནང་དུ་ཕེབས་ངེས་ཤིང་། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཡིད་སྨོན་བྱེད་པའི་ཞལ་ཆད་ཀྱི་ཕོ་ཉ་དེ་འོང་བར་འགྱུར་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།

Malachi 3:1

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.

 

There were very clear connections between what Jesus said in John 5 and Malachi’s message those people hearing Him would not missed it especially those Pharisees and Scribes .

The message of Malachi exposed the unfaithfulness and corruptions of the priests who were appointed by God to serve the community. And the focal point of this argument was about how they should honor their relationship with God as their Father.

A very important question needs to be answered here.

What kind of standard God use to judge if a person honor Him as Father or not?

 

Obedience

 

And since this argument was directed at the priests then it had to do with Temple service and there were clear directives recorded in Leviticus how things ought to be done. And the accusation highlighted in Malachi deals with a complicated situation. The priests did continue doing the Temple service but they did it in a corrupted manner and God was not pleased. And the kind of corruptions and malpractice lead to despising the Holy Name of God.

This is a very serious accusation in the message of Malachi against the priests of God. It was a bad example of how they were relating to God as Father.

Back to Jesus message in John 5, what Jesus did was an example of proper relationship with the Father in heaven.

Very often Jesus confronted the synagogue leaders, namely the Pharisees, of misleading the people through their corrupted interpretation of scriptures and thus teaching a different kind of practice which eventually do not encourage real obedience to God the Father.

Remember the many arguments Jesus had with the Pharisees was about true obedience to God the Father.

Here in the context of John 5, Jesus directly address the issue of believe and obedience. Was it because they do not believe and thus they do not obey?

So we believe Jesus is the Messiah chosen of God and therefore we pay attention and obey what Jesus teach and instructed.

 

To be continue …

 

David Z