To Believe in Jesus – Part 62

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 6:14-15

14ཡང་མི་ཚོགས་ཀྱིས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་མཛད་པའི་གྲུབ་རྟགས་དེ་མཐོང༌རྗེས། ཁོང་ནི་དངོས་གནས་འཇིག་རྟེན་དུ་འབྱོན་ངེས་པའི་ལུང་སྟོན་པ་དེ་ཉིད་ཡིན་ཞེས་སྨྲས་སོ།། 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 6:14-15

14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”

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.

 

Last week posting, we were looking at a positive turn of event when the multitude begin to see the connections between what Jesus did and that perhaps this preacher is the prophet to come as foretold by Moses and perhaps is also the coming Messiah!

Plus the testimony they heard from John the Baptist, perhaps they were also beginning to see the connections between Moses’s message and what was spoken of by Malachi about the coming Messiah and they were right about it!

So if they had the idea to make Jesus king how would they do it? Most likely through an anointing ceremony at the Temple and that will involves the Sadducees and the Sanhedrin and the much needed support from the wider synagogue communities led by the Pharisees.

How did Jesus react?

He left!

What happen?

The gospel writer John noted Jesus already perceived they were going to make Him king before they actually do anything about it and that prompted Jesus to move away!

Based on what we could learn from scripture about the role and function of the Messiah, Jesus is to be honored as King. But why did Jesus move away from the multitude to prevent them from making public His kingship?

Why would Jesus reject their acknowledgement of Him as King at that time when He knows He is destined to be King?

I think the question is about what these Jews expected their king to do for them, and what Jesus knew about the people’s expectation! And how these people had not been paying attention to what Jesus had been teachings!

So exactly what did those Jews at that time expected their king to do for them if they do have a Jewish King installed? Bearing in mind at that time Jerusalem was under Roman occupation and those Jews who had been educated about End Times events and the restoration of Israel – what do they expect their king to do?

Liberation from Rome! Free Jerusalem from foreign rule!

For those who want more detail information about the political situation in Jerusalem during the time of the Four Gospel, the works of Flavius Josephus (AD 37 to 100) a Roman–Jewish historian who lived during the time of Acts of the Apostle can be useful.

For Jews who were already living and settled in Jerusalem and for Jews living away from the Holy Land, and those far away among the Jewish Diaspora, especially among the religious minded, the idea of Jerusalem being liberated from Rome and the Jewish people once again having a land of their own where they can claim sovereignty and having their own king, that would be most ideal.

So, the multitude was right to assume this Jesus is the prophet to come and to make Him king is not wrong. In fact it would be an act of rightful honor to recognize their king but would they listen and do what their king wants them to do?

 

མད་ཐཱ། 4:17

17དུས་དེ་ནས་བཟུང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་ཆོས་སྒྲོག་འགོ་བརྩམས་ཏེ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ནམ་མཁའི་རྒྱལ་སྲིད་ཉེ་བར་སླེབས་པས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་འགྱོད་བཤགས་བྱོས་ཤིག་ཅེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།

Matthew 4:17

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

 

Before Jesus started His public ministry, John the Baptist had been preaching and calling for repentance. When Jesus started His public ministry He continued the same message from John the Baptist. Nothing changed!

In fact Jesus made it clear this call for repentance is exactly what He demanded from the people –

 

མད་ཐཱ། 11:16-20

16བདག་གིས་མི་རབས་འདི་ནི་གང་ཞིག་ལ་བསྡུར་བར༌བྱའམ། དེ་རྣམས་ནི་ཁྲོམ་སྲང་དུ་སྡོད་པའི་བྱིས་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་རང་གི་གྲོགས་པོ་རྣམས་བོས༌ཏེ། 17ངེད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་གླིང་བུ་བུས་ཀྱང་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་བྲོ་མི༌འཁྲབ། ངེད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སྐྱོ་གླུ་བླངས་ཀྱང་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ངུ་བ་མིན་ཞེས་ཟེར་བ་དང༌འདྲའོ།། 18དེ་ལྟར་ཡོ་ཧ་ནན་ཡོང་ནས་མ་ཟོས་མ་འཐུངས༌ཤིང༌། མི་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཁོ་རང་གདོན་འདྲེས་བཟུང་འདུག་ཅེས་ཟེར་བ༌དང༌། 19དེ་ནས་མིའི་བུ་ཕེབས་ཏེ་བཟའ་བཏུང་ལོངས་སུ་སྤྱད༌ཅིང༌། མི་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མི་འདི་ནི་ཤ་ཆང་ལ་རྔམ་པ་ཞིག་ཡིན༌ལ། ཁྲལ་ལེན་མཁན་དང་སྡིག་ཅན་རྣམས་ཀྱི་གྲོགས་པོ་ཡིན་ཟེར༌མོད། འོན་ཀྱང་ཤེས་རབ་ནི་དེའི་འབྲས་བུ་ལས་བདེན་ཅིང་ཡང་དག་པ་ཡིན་པར་ར་སྤྲོད་བྱུང་ཞེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།

20སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་རྣམས་སུ་ངོ་མཚར་ཆེ་བའི་མཛད་པ་གང་མང་བསྟན༌ནའང༌། གྲོང་ཁྱེར་དེ་དག་གིས་འགྱོད་བཤགས་མ་བྱས༌པས། ཁོང་གིས་འདི་སྐད་དུ་བཀའ་བཀྱོན་གནང་བ༌སྟེ།

Matthew 11:16-20

16 “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates,

17 “‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’

18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”

20 Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent.

 

Matthew highlighted “because they did not repent“ to emphasis Jesus’ mission and purpose for His public ministry, preaching and teachings among the people.

What Jesus said in Matthew 11 was more than just an expression of disappointment but sever warning of their rejection. But why would Jesus issue such warning? Because He is King!

So if they refused to listen and do what Jesus had been preaching and teachings, how could they sincerely received and acknowledge Jesus as King?

 

To be continue …

 

David Z