To Believe in Jesus – Part 53

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.

 

In previous post we look that the climax of event – Lazarus walking out of his tomb alive!

We need to bear in mind there were infallible proofs and evidences of Jesus being the Messiah chosen of God and spoken of by the prophets of old and recorded by those who witnessed His works and ministry.

What Jesus said in John 5:25-26 were supported by many witnesses.

Today we look into details how the Jewish folks who witnessed Lazarus coming back to life reacted to the event and who wanted to stop people believing in Jesus.

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 11:45-48

45དེ་ནས་མིར་ཡམ་གྱི་གམ་དུ་ཡོང་བའི་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་མང་པོས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་མཛད་པའི་དོན་དེ་མཐོང་ནས་ཁོང་ལ་དད་པར་གྱུར་ཏོ།། 46འོན་ཀྱང་དེ་རྣམས་ལས་འགའ་ཞིག་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་གམ་དུ་སོང་སྟེ། སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་མཛད་པའི་དོན་རྣམས་བཤད༌པས། 47མཆོད་དཔོན་ཆེན་པོ་དག་དང་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཚོགས་མི་རྣམས་བསྡུས་ཤིང་གྲོས་བྱས་ཏེ་ན༌རེ། མི་འདིས་གྲུབ་རྟགས་མང་པོ་སྟོན་བཞིན་ཡོད་པས་བདག་ཅག་གིས་ཅི༌བྱའམ། 48གལ་ཏེ་འདི་ལྟར་བསྐྱུར་ན་མི་ཐམས་ཅད་ཁོ་ལ་དད་པར་འགྱུར༌ཞིང༌། རོ་མཱ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱང་ཡོང་ནས་བདག་ཅག་གི་ས་དང་འབངས་རྣམས་འཕྲོག་ངེས་ཡིན་ཞེས་སྨྲས་སོ།།

John 11:45-48

45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, 46 but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

 

The gathering of the chief priests and Pharisees in the council was known as the Sanhedrin, more commonly referred to as the Jewish Court System or Jewish High Court. The Sadducees who operates the Temple system during the time of Herod and do not believe in resurrection of the dead were part of the Sanhedrin too.

The Sanhedrin was an assembly of Jewish elders where legislative and judicial decision were discussed and made. But with the mixed of Pharisees and Sadducees within the same council group, how did they get along? Today we have the benefit of hindsight knowing after the destruction of Jerusalem again in AD 70 and the 2nd Temple was burnt, many Jewish folks were scattered away from Jerusalem with few poor left behind and the Sanhedrin faded into history while a group of Rabbi carried on the traditions of synagogues among the Jewish diaspora.

These Jewish elders serving in the Sanhedrin were no ordinary old folks but of the learned class, especially those recognized as Rabbi and with reputation and credibility to interpret and teach the Law of Moses.

For example, the apostle Paul before he switched camp to follow Jesus was under a teacher named Gamaliel who was a noted reputable Rabbi and member of the Sanhedrin –

མཛད་འཕྲིན། 22:3

3ང་རང་ཡང་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱའི་མི་རིགས་ཡིན་ཞིང་ཀི་ལིག་ཡཱ་ཡུལ་གྱི་ཐཱར་ཟི་རུ་སྐྱེས༌ལ། གྲོང་ཁྱེར་འདི་ནས་ནར་སོན་པ༌དང༌། གཱ་མ་ཨེལ་གྱི་ཞབས་དྲུང་ནས་བདག་ཅག་གི་ཕ་མེས་ཀྱི་བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་དམ་པོ་བཞིན་སྦྱངས༌པ་བྱས་ཤིང༌། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དེ་རིང་ཅི་ལྟར་བྱེད་པ་བཞིན་ངས་ཀྱང་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་བརྩོན་སེམས་ཆེན་པོ་བཅངས་མྱོང༌བ་ཡིན།

Acts 22:3

“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day.

 

Paul was giving his testimony when on trial for preaching Jesus.

There was no record if this same Gamaliel was involved in the decision making in John 11 but his name did appear in Acts 5 when Peter and the apostle were facing persecution for preaching Jesus –

 

མཛད་འཕྲིན། 5:29-35

29པེ་ཏྲོ་དང་སྐུ་ཚབ་པ་གཞན་རྣམས་ཀྱིས། ངེད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་ལ་མཉན་པ་ལས་མིའི་ངག་ལ་མཉན་མི་འོས་སོ།། 30ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་སྡོང་པོའི་སྟེང་དུ་བརྐྱངས་ཏེ་བཀྲོངས་པའི་ཡེ་ཤུ་ཁོང་ཉིད་ནི་བདག་ཅག་གི་མེས་པོའི་དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་སླར་གསོན་པར་མཛད། 31དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་རང་གི་གཡས་ཕྱོགས་སུ་འཕགས་པར་མཛད་ནས་དབུ་ཁྲིད་དང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་དུ་བསྐོས༌ཏེ། ཡེས་ར་ཨེལ་གྱི་མི་རྣམས་ལ་འགྱོད་བཤགས་བྱེད་པ་དང་སྡིག་པ་བསལ་བའི་ཐུགས་རྗེ་གནང་བའི་ཕྱིར༌རོ།། 32ངེད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་དོན་འདི་དག་ལ་བདེན་དཔང་བྱེད༌ཅིང༌། དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་རང་ཉིད་ཀྱི་བཀའ་ལ་ཉན་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་གནང་བའི་དམ་པའི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་བདེན་དཔང་མཛད་ཅེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།

33དེ་ནས་དཔོན་རིགས་ཚོགས་པའི་ཚོགས་མི་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་གཏམ་དེ་ཐོས་ནས་ཤིན་ཏུ་ཁྲོས་ཏེ་སྐུ་ཚབ་པ་རྣམས་གསོད་པར་སྙམ༌མོད། 34འོན་ཀྱང་གནས་དེར་མི་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱིས་གུས་བཀུར་བྱེད་པའི་བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་ཀྱི་དགེ་རྒན་ཏེ། མིང་ལ་གཱ་མ་ཨེལ་ཟེར་བའི་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་ཞིག་ཡོད་པ་དེ་ཚོགས་མིའི་ཁྲོད་དུ་ཡར་ལངས༌ནས། སྐུ་ཚབ་པ་རྣམས་རེ་ཞིག་ཕྱི་རོལ་ཏུ་འཁྲིད་དགོས་པའི་བཀའ་གནང་བ༌དང༌། 35དཔོན་རིགས་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ཀྱེ། ཡེས་ར་ཨེལ་པ༌རྣམས། ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་མི་འདི་དག་ལ་ཅི་ལྟར་ཐག་གཅོད་བྱེད་པར་གཟབ་གཟབ་བྱོས༌ཤིག

Acts 5:29-35

29 But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men. 30 The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. 31 God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. 32 And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”

33 When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them. 34 But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while. 35 And he said to them, “Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men.

 

Apparently the Sanhedrin had much influence and power over the lives of Jewish people in those days due to their perceived position to preserve and protect their Jewish identity and when taken to the extreme had given rise to Jewish nationalism.

The important question is –

 

WHY DOES THE SANHEDRIN WANTED TO STOP PEOPLE BELIEVING IN JESUS?

 

It is very interesting that the author John have it on record the very words of whoever was in the Sanhedrin who said –

 

48གལ་ཏེ་འདི་ལྟར་བསྐྱུར་ན་མི་ཐམས་ཅད་ཁོ་ལ་དད་པར་འགྱུར༌ཞིང༌། རོ་མཱ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱང་ཡོང་ནས་བདག་ཅག་གི་ས་དང་འབངས་རྣམས་འཕྲོག་ངེས་ཡིན་ཞེས་སྨྲས་སོ།།

48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

 

The initial reading of this tell us they were either driven by fear or jealousy, but either way they see the possibility of losing control of the land and the people to the Roman because of Jesus. But if we do a thorough study of the actual situation on the ground, understand the full historical context during the times of Jesus we would be able to know that kind of decision by the Sanhedrin contradict facts and truth!

We must bear in mind that at that time of John the Baptist and Jesus, although the Jewish people in Jerusalem had a grand Temple reconstructed by Herod, that land of Palestine known as The Promised Land was under Roman rule.

From the time of Jeremiah when the Babylonian conquered Jerusalem the Jewish people had lost sovereignty of the land. For more than 500 years had passed till the time of Jesus, that land was ruled by the Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and finally Rome.

So what does the Sanhedrin mean “the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation” when they knew the land was already under Roman control and they did not have sovereignty over the land?

At that time the Sanhedrin was used by Rome to keep peace and order especially among the Jewish folks living in Jerusalem and Judea. After Rome took control of the land with the help of Herod they did not deport those local Jewish populations who had been living there but there were notable tensions between Jews and Romans in the land.

John the Baptist and Jesus were living, preaching and teaching, at that time when the Jewish folks were expecting the appearing of the Messiah. But based on how those elders in the council of the Sanhedrin interpreted scripture, they had the expectation the coming Messiah should serve as King and liberate Israel from foreign rule.

There were a lot of speculations this Jesus could be the Messiah but these elders and rulers seems to have observed enough of Jesus to know that He will not liberate Israel from Roman rule –

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 6:15

15དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་མི་དེ་རྣམས་ཡོང་བ་དང་ནན་གྱིས་རང་ཉིད་རྒྱལ་པོར་བསྐོ་ངེས་པ་མཁྱེན༌ཏེ། རང་ཉིད་གཅིག་པུ་སླར་ཡང་རི་བོར་ཕེབས༌སོ།།

John 6:15

Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

 

Jesus rejected the offer to be king because He was very well aware of what these people wanted – liberation from Rome.

Jesus had been preaching and teaching to the people – Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand – obviously they had not been paying attention!

Jesus’ message points to the promises of eternal life in the kingdom of God with condition of obedience and repentance.

It became clear Jesus had no intention of liberating Israel from Roman rule and the Sanhedrin came to their conclusion this Jesus is not the Messiah they wanted!

As Jesus continues to preach and teach and raise the dead, more people believe in Jesus and switched camp to follow Him.

Apparently the Sanhedrin decided the only option was to kill Jesus before they lose everything they had – whatever benefits they might have received from Rome and their position to control the people and to protect their interest.

And as their bad habit was, they were not paying attention to what Jesus said

 

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.

 

So they plotted to kill Jesus, they got what they wanted, but Jesus was resurrected form the dead!

 

To be continue …

 

David Z