To Believe in Jesus – Part 51

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 5:25-26

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།།

John 5:25-26

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.

 

Last week posting I went into details about that conversation between Martha and Jesus.

Today let’s look at what kind of communications went through between Martha and Mary, and between Mary and Jesus –

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 11:28-37

28མཱར་ཐས་དེ་ལྟར་ཞུས་རྗེས་ཕྱིར་ཁྱིམ་དུ་སོང་ནས་རང་གི་ནུ་མོ་མིར་ཡམ་ཟུར་དུ་བོས་ཏེ་ན༌རེ། སློབ་དཔོན་ཕེབས་བྱུང༌། ཁོང་གིས་ཁྱོད་རང་ཡང་འབོད་ཀྱིན་འདུག་ཅེས་སྨྲས་པ༌དང༌། 29མིར་ཡམ་གྱིས་སྐད་དེ་ཐོས་ནས་མྱུར་དུ་ཡར་ལངས་ཏེ་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུའི་དྲུང་དུ་སོང༌ངོ་༎ 30དུས༌དེར། སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་ད་དུང་ཡུལ་སྡེ་ནང་དུ་ཕེབས་མེད་པར་མཱར་ཐས་ཁོང་ལ་བསུ་བ་བྱས་པའི་གནས་དེར་བཞུགས་ཡོད༌པ་རེད། 31མིར་ཡམ་དང་མཉམ་དུ་ཁྱིམ་ལ་སྡོད་ཅིང་སེམས་གསོ་བྱེད་པའི་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་ཁོ་མོ་མྱུར་དུ་ཡར་ལངས་ནས་ཕྱི་རོལ་ཏུ་འགྲོ་བ་མཐོང༌རྗེས། ཁོ་མོ་ནི་དུར་ཁུང་གི་སྒོ་ཁར་ངུ་རུ་འགྲོ་བར་བསམས་ཏེ་ཁོ་མོའི་རྗེས་སུ་འབྲངས་སོ།། 32དེ་ནས་མིར་ཡམ་ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་བཞུགས་སར་སླེབས་ཤིང་། ཁོང་མཇལ་བ་དང་ཁོང་གི་ཞབས་དྲུང་དུ་ཕྱག་བཙལ་ཏེ་ན༌རེ། གཙོ་བོ༌ལགས། ཁྱེད་རང་སྔ་མོ་ནས་གནས་འདིར་ཕེབས་པ་ཡིན་ན་ངའི་སྤུན་ཡང་འཆི་མི་སྲིད་ཅེས་ཞུས་པ༌དང༌། 33སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་མིར་ཡམ་དང་བཅས་པའི་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ངུ་བ་གཟིགས་པ༌དང༌། ཁོང་གི་ཐུགས་ཤིན་ཏུ་སྐྱོ་ཞིང་གདུང་བར་གྱུར་ཏེ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། 34ལཱ་ཟར་གྱི་བེམ་པོ་གང་དུ་བཞག་ཡོད་དམ་ཞེས་གསུངས་པ༌ལ། དེ་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། གཙོ་བོ་ཁྱེད་ཉིད་ཕེབས་ཏེ་གཟིགས་རོགས་མཛོད་ཅེས་ཞུས་པ༌དང༌། 35སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་བཤུམས༌སོ།། 36དེ་ནས་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ཕན་ཚུན་ན༌རེ། ལྟོས༌དང༌། ཁོང་གིས་ལཱ་ཟར་ལ་ཇི་འདྲའི་བྱམས་ཤིང་གཅེས་ཨང་ཞེས་སྨྲས་པ༌དང༌། 37ཡང་འགའ་ཞིག་ན༌རེ། མི་འདིས་ལོང་བའི་མིག་ཟུང་གསོ་བར་ནུས༌ན། ལཱ་ཟར་ཡང་འཆི་རུ་མ་བཅུག་ན་མི་ཆོག་གམ་ཞེས་སྨྲས༌སོ།།

John 11:28-37

28 When she (Martha) had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”

 

What Martha said to Mary was very interesting. There was no record of Jesus asking to see Mary! Was Martha not paying attention to what Jesus said?

 

25ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། སླར་གསོན་པ་དང་ཚེ་སྲོག་གནང་མཁན་ནི་ང་རང་ཡིན༌ཏེ། བདག་ལ་དད་པ་བྱེད་མཁན་སུ་ཞིག་ཤི་ནའང་ད་དུང་གསོན་པར་འགྱུར་བ༌དང༌། 26གསོན་པོར་གནས་ཤིང་བདག་ལ་དད་མཁན་ཐམས་ཅད་ནམ་ཡང་འཆི་བར་མི་འགྱུར། ཁྱོད་ནི་དོན་འདི་ལ་ཡིད་ཆེས་སམ་ཞེས་གསུངས་པ༌ལ།

25 Jesus said to her (Martha), “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

 

And when Mary came to Jesus, she repeated the same thing Martha had said to Jesus before!

 

32དེ་ནས་མིར་ཡམ་ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་བཞུགས་སར་སླེབས་ཤིང་། ཁོང་མཇལ་བ་དང་ཁོང་གི་ཞབས་དྲུང་དུ་ཕྱག་བཙལ་ཏེ་ན༌རེ། གཙོ་བོ༌ལགས། ཁྱེད་རང་སྔ་མོ་ནས་གནས་འདིར་ཕེབས་པ་ཡིན་ན་ངའི་སྤུན་ཡང་འཆི་མི་སྲིད་ཅེས་ཞུས་པ༌དང༌།

32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

 

Why the Gospel writer John would made the effort to record such mundane conversations that we could easily dismiss as unnecessary?

All these extra details in John 11 actually provided deeper understanding of a different group of Jews who were following Jesus. It helps us to know and understand what they were thinking in contrast to those who were determined to persecute Jesus and His disciples.

Thus far these groups of Jews who were at the funeral for Lazarus, their hearts and minds may have been receptive to Jesus as they would had known of the family’s close association with Jesus. Thus when Mary repeated the same word of Martha

 

“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

 

There was no argument about it and as we read further, we discover what these Jewish followers were expecting of Jesus

 

37ཡང་འགའ་ཞིག་ན༌རེ། མི་འདིས་ལོང་བའི་མིག་ཟུང་གསོ་བར་ནུས༌ན། ལཱ་ཟར་ཡང་འཆི་རུ་མ་བཅུག་ན་མི་ཆོག་གམ་ཞེས་སྨྲས༌སོ།།

37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”

 

They did consider the possibility of Jesus being able to restore Lazarus back to life!

It would be difficult to differentiate between faith and expectation. All these details in John 11 revealed to us what kind of anticipation and expectation they had towards Jesus at that time and perhaps they had seen other miraculous healing by Jesus and were paying attention to what Jesus said about raising the dead.

These folks who came to the funeral were not those Jews who were ready to kill and destroy Jesus but they were hopeful for better things.

 

Apparently they had been listening and paying attention to what Jesus actually said and believed.

 

This incident whereby Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead happened towards the end of Jesus’ public ministry and very soon He would be heading for His crucifixion and death.

Bible historians would agree Jesus’ public ministry stretched for about 3 years, and apparently this period of time His consistent preaching and teachings have been bearing fruits.

Perhaps that could be the reason why the Sanhedrin and Pharisees were so furious that these Jews actually believed Jesus!

To be continue …

 

David Z

To Believe in Jesus – Part 50

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 5:25-26

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།།

John 5:25-26

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.

 

Last week posting we read Lazarus raised from the dead by Jesus.

It should be interesting to note how this particular incident had such a major impact that the Sanhedrin decided to put Jesus to death and as more Jews switch camp to follow Jesus the same Jewish council or their high court wanted to kill Lazarus as well.

With regards to Lazarus, that was not the first time Jesus raised someone from the dead. But why and how this incident involving Lazarus had such an impact on the whole of Jewish society in those days especially among those living around Jerusalem?

This incident recorded in John 11, the author covered much details and it does provide better observation about what the common folks in those days were taught and what they expected of the Messiah and the coming kingdom of God.

First let’s look at this interesting conversation between Martha and Jesus

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 11:20-27

20དེ་ནས་མཱར་ཐས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་ཕེབས་བཞིན་པའི་གནས་ཚུལ་ཐོས་ཏེ། ཁོང་བསུ་བར་ཕྱིན་ཅིང་མིར་ཡམ་རང་ཁྱིམ་དུ་བསྡད་པ་དང་། 21དེ་ནས་མཱར་ཐ་ན༌རེ། གཙོ་བོ༌ལགས། ཁྱེད་རང་སྔ་མོ་ནས་འདིར་ཕེབས་པ་ཡིན་ན་ངའི་སྤུན་འཆི་མི་སྲིད་དོ།། 22འོན་ཀྱང་ད་ལྟའང་ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་དོན་གང་ཞིག་ཞུ་བ་དེ་བཞིན་གནང་བར་འགྱུར་བ་བདག་གིས་ཤེས་ཞེས་ཞུས་པ༌ལ། 23སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་སྤུན་ལཱ་ཟར་སླར་གསོན་ངེས་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས་པ༌ན། 24མཱར་ཐ་ན༌རེ། མཐའ་མའི་ཉིན་མོར་གཤིན་པོ་རྣམས་སླར་གསོན་དུས་ལཱ་ཟར་ཡང་སླར་གསོན་པར་འགྱུར་བ་བདག་གིས་ཤེས་ཞེས་ཞུས་སོ།། 25ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། སླར་གསོན་པ་དང་ཚེ་སྲོག་གནང་མཁན་ནི་ང་རང་ཡིན༌ཏེ། བདག་ལ་དད་པ་བྱེད་མཁན་སུ་ཞིག་ཤི་ནའང་ད་དུང་གསོན་པར་འགྱུར་བ༌དང༌། 26གསོན་པོར་གནས་ཤིང་བདག་ལ་དད་མཁན་ཐམས་ཅད་ནམ་ཡང་འཆི་བར་མི་འགྱུར། ཁྱོད་ནི་དོན་འདི་ལ་ཡིད་ཆེས་སམ་ཞེས་གསུངས་པ༌ལ། 27མཱར་ཐ་ན༌རེ། ལགས༌སོ།། གཙོ་བོ༌ལགས། བདག་གིས་ཁྱེད་རང་ནི་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་སྟེ། དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་སྲས་འཇིག་རྟེན་དུ་བྱོན་པ་དེ་ཉིད་ཡིན་པར་དད་པ་བྱེད་ཅེས་ཞུས༌སོ།།

John 11:20-27

20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

 

Perhaps Lazarus was suffering from some form of sickness before he die and thus Martha who already knew of Jesus’ miraculous work expressed her view that if Jesus had been around earlier Lazarus could had been healed and not die.

This conversation gets more interesting as Jesus responded and what Martha might had perceive otherwise

 

23སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་སྤུན་ལཱ་ཟར་སླར་གསོན་ངེས་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས་པ༌ན། 24མཱར་ཐ་ན༌རེ། མཐའ་མའི་ཉིན་མོར་གཤིན་པོ་རྣམས་སླར་གསོན་དུས་ལཱ་ཟར་ཡང་སླར་གསོན་པར་འགྱུར་བ་བདག་གིས་ཤེས་ཞེས་ཞུས་སོ།།

23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”

 

Jesus simply mentioned Lazarus will rise again but Martha in her next response mentioned the resurrection and the last day which Jesus did not say anything about the last day resurrection.

Apparently Martha was responding based on what she assumed she knew about the resurrection in the last day and the dead being brought back to life.

So how did Martha know of the resurrection and about the last day?

Majority of Jewish folks living in Judea in the days of Jesus and John the Baptist would had been part of the synagogue system while participating in the Temple service during one of the 3 major feasts.

The synagogue and the Temple were led by two distinct separated religious leaderships and they do have their differences in doctrine and practice and it should be amazing to note how they could co-exist in Jerusalem serving the spiritual needs of the local people while continuously being not on friendly terms with each other. However they seem to treat Jesus and John the Baptist as their common enemy!

The gatherings at synagogues would be more regular like every Sabbath except for Jewish folks who had been ostracized and told to stay away due to certain ritual uncleanness determined by the synagogue leadership namely the Pharisees.

So what these synagogue leaders had been teaching every Sabbath had shaped and formed the mindset of these common folks under their influence.

The Pharisees were noted firm believers of the resurrection and they would be familiar with Daniel’s prophesy of the last day and they were indeed looking forward to receiving the coming Messiah! Perhaps the reason we often read of the Pharisees having confrontations and arguments with Jesus because they were very interested in the subject of the kingdom of God and who will be the Messiah and when will the Messiah actually appear!

How these Pharisees interpret scripture and what they expect the Messiah to do to liberate Israel from foreign rule clashed head on with Jesus on many occasions as there was the expectation for the Messiah to liberate Israel from Roman rule.

Therefore the Pharisees often see Jesus as a threat when more Jewish folk switch camp and follow Jesus and some even dare to leave the synagogue while Jesus had no intention to lead an army to overthrow the Roman.

Back to this conversation between Martha and Jesus, how Jesus further responded to her could have been very puzzling to her because apparently Jesus seem to be telling Martha they were communicating on different perspective –

 

25ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། སླར་གསོན་པ་དང་ཚེ་སྲོག་གནང་མཁན་ནི་ང་རང་ཡིན༌ཏེ། བདག་ལ་དད་པ་བྱེད་མཁན་སུ་ཞིག་ཤི་ནའང་ད་དུང་གསོན་པར་འགྱུར་བ༌དང༌། 26གསོན་པོར་གནས་ཤིང་བདག་ལ་དད་མཁན་ཐམས་ཅད་ནམ་ཡང་འཆི་བར་མི་འགྱུར། ཁྱོད་ནི་དོན་འདི་ལ་ཡིད་ཆེས་སམ་ཞེས་གསུངས་པ༌ལ།

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

 

Does that sounds like Jesus was trying to tell Martha that He was going to resurrect Lazarus and give him life now?

Does that sounds like Jesus was telling Martha that Lazarus is going to be resurrected now because Jesus Himself is here in person and He has the power to resurrect a person from dead?

Today we have the benefit of hindsight, we can look back to history and see what Jesus had already accomplished, we can gain further understanding from the epistles of the Apostles, and we know those words of Jesus transcend time and space and are eternal. We can understand how the resurrection can happen because of the presence of God and Jesus given the power and authority by the Father to raise the dead.

And right here in John 11 we have Jesus the Son of God in person speaking to Martha. But eventually Martha gave that response that seem to be trying to be respectful but she may not fully expect what was to happen next

 

27མཱར་ཐ་ན༌རེ། ལགས༌སོ།། གཙོ་བོ༌ལགས། བདག་གིས་ཁྱེད་རང་ནི་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་སྟེ། དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་སྲས་འཇིག་རྟེན་དུ་བྱོན་པ་དེ་ཉིད་ཡིན་པར་དད་པ་བྱེད་ཅེས་ཞུས༌སོ།།

27 She (Martha) said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

 

It was a bold move for Martha to acknowledge Jesus as the Christ as those Jewish folk who do so had been targeted by the synagogue leaders for questioning and possible persecution.

So apparently Martha had certain knowledge and understanding of the coming Messiah and she believe this Jesus is the Messiah chosen of God.

I believe Jesus’ plan to raise Lazarus from the dead was to strengthen and enhance the faith of people like Martha who already had established some form of belief in Jesus being the Messiah.

So how this event had such a great impact on the Jewish society of that time?

I think apparently these Jewish folks who were gathering at the funeral of Lazarus had been informed about the resurrection and the coming Messiah. And in those days there are widespread discussion and debates if this Jesus is the Messiah who is to come.

So with Jesus’s ability to bring Lazarus back to life, it was a clear indication this is the Messiah they were waiting for!

 

To be continue …

 

David Z