To Believe in Jesus – Part 52

 

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 posts we covered the interesting yet important conversations between Jesus Martha and Mary, and observed what those Jews who came to the funeral of Lazarus thought of Jesus.

Today we look that the climax of event – Lazarus walking out of his tomb alive!

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 11:38-44

38སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུའང་ཐུགས་སྐྱོ་བཞིན་དུར་ཁུང་གི་མདུན་དུ་ཕེབས་པ༌དང༌། དུར་ཁུང་དེ་ནི་བྲག་ཁུང་ཞིག་ཡིན་ཞིང་རྡོ་ཕ་བོང་ཞིག་གིས་ཁུང་སྒོ་བཅད་ཡོད༌པ་རེད། 39སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་རྡོ་ཕ་བོང་དེ་ཕར་སྒྲིལ་ཞིག་ཅེས་གསུངས་པ༌ན། གཤིན་པོའི་ལྕམ་སྲིང་མཱར་ཐ་ན༌རེ། གཙོ་བོ༌ལགས། ལཱ་ཟར་ཤི་ནས་ཉིན་བཞི་འགོར་བས་ད་ལྟ་དྲི་ངན་བྲོ་བར་ངེས་ཞེས་ཞུས་པ༌ལ། 40སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་དད་པ་བྱས་ན་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་གཟི་བརྗིད་མཐོང་ངེས་ཡིན་ཞེས་བདག་གིས་སྨྲས་མྱོང་བ་མ་ཡིན་ནམ་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།། 41དེ་ནས་མི་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་རྡོ་ཕ་བོང་ཕར་བསྒྲིལ་བ་དང་། སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་དབུ་ཡར་དགྱེ་ནས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། བདག་གི་ཡབ༌ལགས། ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་བདག་གི་གསོལ་བ་ལ་གསན་པར་ཐུགས་རྗེ༌ཆེ་ཞུ། 42ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་རྟག་ཏུ་བདག་གི་གསོལ་བ་ལ་གསན་པ་ངས་ཀྱང་ཤེས༌མོད། འོན་ཀྱང་ཐེངས་འདིར་ཞུ་དོན་ནི་འདི་རུ་ཡོད་པའི་མི་རྣམས་བདག་ནི་ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་མངགས་པ་ཡིན་པར་ཡིད་ཆེས་པའི་ཕྱིར་རོ་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།། 43སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་དེ་ལྟར་གསུངས་རྗེས་སྐད་གསང་མཐོན་པོས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ལཱ༌ཟར། ཁྱོད་རང་ཕྱི་རོལ་ཏུ་ཤོག་ཅིག་ཅེས་གསུངས་མ༌ཐག 44ཤི་ཟིན་པའི་མི་དེ་ཕྱི་རོལ་ཏུ་ཐོན་ནོ།། ལཱ་ཟར་གྱི་རྐང་ལག་དང་གདོང་ལ་རས་ཀྱིས་དཀྲིས་ཡོད༌པས། སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་རས་གྲོལ་ཏེ་ཁོ་རང་འགྲོ་རུ་ཆུག་ཅེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།

John 11:38-44

38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

 

Today many Christens would look at this event with excitement.  This incident of Lazarus coming back to life has been used for funeral message to inspire hope and life after death in Christ Jesus. Evangelist preaching in crowed venue would boldly quote “Lazarus comes forth” to highlight the power and authority of Jesus over death!

However we need to carefully consider how these friends and family members would have reacted as witness of that event when Lazarus walked out his own tomb alive

I mean for these people who were there together with Jesus standing outside the tomb, they knew Lazarus personally and they knew he was dead and already laid in the tomb.

Martha and Mary were family members and they were living together under the same roof and they knew their brother was dead and gone. That’s why their dishearten expression if Jesus had been with them earlier Lazarus would not have died.

Some of those Jews who came to the funeral may have been close friends and had spoken kindly about Lazarus and how they missed his fellowship knowing he was dead and gone.

 

So Jesus came and Lazarus walked out of his tomb alive!

 

I think the whole situation might have just scared the hell out of them! Imagine a person whom you know personally is dead and you are attending his funeral and the next moment he just step out of his coffin and is walking in front of you!

Interestingly the author John did not record much of how these people reacted except made a simple statement “many believed”. So whatever human emotions and excitement expressed were marginalized and the emphasis was “many believed”.  Perhaps John was just lost for words how to describe that event but choose to exalt the ministry of Jesus.

Jesus before calling Lazarus back to life explicitly declared His purpose and intention

 

42ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་རྟག་ཏུ་བདག་གི་གསོལ་བ་ལ་གསན་པ་ངས་ཀྱང་ཤེས༌མོད། འོན་ཀྱང་ཐེངས་འདིར་ཞུ་དོན་ནི་འདི་རུ་ཡོད་པའི་མི་རྣམས་བདག་ནི་ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་མངགས་པ་ཡིན་པར་ཡིད་ཆེས་པའི་ཕྱིར་རོ་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།།

42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.”

 

Thus was it!

Lazarus walking out of his tomb alive would have caused a lot more debate and questions about what his Jewish friends had been taught by the Pharisees at their local synagogues about life after death and resurrection.

Whatever arguments that may arise from this Lazarus incident would had been damaging to the influence and authority of the Pharisees and Sanhedrin.

Jesus during those years of His preaching and teachings, the call for repentance and the promise of eternal life has been central to His message. And these Jewish folks gather at the funeral of Lazarus were immersed in the reality and tragedy of physical death and when they saw their dead friend walking out of his tomb alive it was a stunning contrast between death and life.

And right there standing together with Lazarus was the man Jesus who had been preaching about the promise of eternal life!

Therefore many believed.

There was no other option but to believe Jesus is the resurrection and the life.

How could anyone not believe?

 

To be continue …

 

David Z