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