To Believe in Jesus – Part 47

 

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.

 

Previous post we looked into the subject of resurrection. What Jesus said here in John 5 was clearly and definitely dealing with the subject of resurrection of the dead.

Among the different fractions of Jewish communities who heard Jesus, the Pharisees would have been very interested in what Jesus said because they were firm believer of the resurrection and it was part of their doctrine that distinguished them from the Sadducees.

For what possible reasons was the subject of resurrection contentious and debatable most likely about the future state of being brought back to life – how is that going to happen? And the endless questions about judgement of the dead.

Jesus was preaching and teaching in a time when the Jews in Jerusalem, especially those who made regular visits to the Temple, 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. There was the expectation and strong opinion among synagogue leaders that all these events comprising the restoration of Israel and the resurrection of the dead means the End of Days or The Day of the Lord mentioned by the prophets and what we modern day Christians will know as Last Days events and all these terms points to judgement of God upon the whole world.

What made the Jews actually paid attention to what Jesus said and not ignore Him as another prophet of gloom and doom was that during the time of Jesus’ public ministry He did raised a few people from the dead! And these people who were brought back to life were talking and giving their testimonies!

In previous post I listed few notable incidents Jesus brought back to life those who were dead. Let’s look into the details of it and connect them with what Jesus said in John 5

 

Jesus raises a widow’s son from dead in a town called Nain.

 

ལོ་ཀུ 7:11-17

11དེ་ནས་ཅང་མ་འགོར༌བར། སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་དང་ཐུགས་སྲས་རྣམས་དང་མི་ཧ་ཅང་མང་པོ་ལྷན་དུ་ནཱ་ཨིན་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་དུ་ཕེབས༌ཤིང༌། 12ཁོང་རྣམས་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་གྱི་མཁར་སྒོར་སླེབས་པའི༌ཚེ། ཡུགས་མོ་ཞིག་ལ་བུ་གཅིག་པུ་ཡོད་པ་ཤི༌སྟེ། གྲོང་ཁྱེར་དེའི་མི་མང་པོས་ཁོ་མོ་དང་མཉམ་དུ་བེམ་པོ་ཕྱི་རུ་སྐྱེལ་བཞིན་ཡོད་པ༌དང༌། 13གཙོ་བོས་ཡུགས་མོ་དེ་མཐོང་ནས་སྙིང་རྗེ་དགོངས་ཏེ་མ་ངུའོ་ཞེས་གསུངས་པ༌དང༌། 14ཁོང་ཉིད་ཁྱོགས་ཤིང་གི་གམ་དུ་ཕེབས་ཤིང་དེར་ཕྱག་གིས་རེག་པ་དང་འཁུར་མཁན་རྣམས་ཀྱང་བསྡད། ཁོང་གིས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ཀྱེ། གསར༌བུ། ངས་ཁྱོད་ལ་སྨྲ་བར༌བྱ་སྟེ། ཡར་ལོངས་དང་ཞེས་གསུངས་པ༌ན། 15གཤིན་པོ་དེ་སླར་གསོན་ཞིང་ཡར་ལངས་ནས་སྐད་ཆ་སྨྲས་སོ།། ཁོང་གིས་མི་དེ་ཕྱིར་རང་གི་མ་ལ་སྤྲད་དོ།། 16མི་ཐམས་ཅད་ངོ་མཚར་སྐྱེས་ཏེ་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་བསྟོད་བསྔགས་བརྗོད་ཅིང་ཕན་ཚུན་ན༌རེ། ལུང་སྟོན་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ཞིག་བདག་ཅག་གི་ཁྲོད་ནས་བྱུང༌བ་རེད། དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་རང་གི་མི་སྡེ་ལ་གཟིགས་སྐྱོང་མཛད་དོ་ཞེས་སྨྲས༌ཤིང་། 17སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུའི་དོན་དེ་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱའི་ཡུལ་དང་མཐའ་འཁོར་གྱི་ས་ཆ་ཀུན་ལ་ཁྱབ༌བོ།།

Luke 7:11-17

11 Soon afterward he (Jesus) went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. 12 As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. 13 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” 14 Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” 15 And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. 16 Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” 17 And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.

 

What Jesus did was an act of compassion, divine compassion.

What happens was a demonstration of the power and authority of the Messiah over life and death.

What happened here in Luke 7 was exactly what Jesus said in John 5 –

 

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.

 

There is no other way to explain the whole situation except to believe what Jesus said and do. And those people who witnessed this incident knows what Jesus did and the man brought back to life points to something about Jesus’ position with the Father in heaven and this is the kind of incident that would make them think if this Jesus is actually the Messiah they were waiting for.

The immediate impact and result of this incident in Luke 7 did post a threat to the power and influence of the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin who had a lot of control over the daily lives of the Jews at that time. Let’s look again how those people in the town of Nain react to what Jesus did –

 

16མི་ཐམས་ཅད་ངོ་མཚར་སྐྱེས་ཏེ་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་བསྟོད་བསྔགས་བརྗོད་ཅིང་ཕན་ཚུན་ན༌རེ། ལུང་སྟོན་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ཞིག་བདག་ཅག་གི་ཁྲོད་ནས་བྱུང༌བ་རེད། དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་རང་གི་མི་སྡེ་ལ་གཟིགས་སྐྱོང་མཛད་དོ་ཞེས་སྨྲས༌ཤིང་། 17སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུའི་དོན་དེ་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱའི་ཡུལ་དང་མཐའ་འཁོར་གྱི་ས་ཆ་ཀུན་ལ་ཁྱབ༌བོ།།

16 Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” 17 And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.

 

It was one of those incidents the religious authorities could not put to silent.

It is so important for us to know and remember what Jesus said and did so that we not only learn to believe but strengthen our faith in Christ and we look forward to our resurrection in the Lord.

To be continue …

 

David Z