To Believe in Jesus – Part 65

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 6:26-29

26སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་ཡང་དག་པར་བདེན་པར་སྨྲ༌སྟེ། ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་ང་རང་འཚོལ་དོན་ནི་གྲུབ་རྟགས་རྣམས་མཐོང་བ་མ་ཡིན་པར་བག་ལེབ་ཟོས་ནས་ལྟོ་བ་འགྲངས་པའི་ཕྱིར༌རོ།། 27ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མི་རྟག་པའི་ཁ་ཟས་ཀྱི་དོན་དུ་འབད་པ་མི་བྱེད༌པར། མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཚེ་སྲོག་འཐོབ་པའི་བར་དུ་གནས་པའི་ཁ་ཟས་དེའི་དོན་དུ་བརྩོན་པར༌གྱིས། མིའི་བུ་ཡིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་ཁ་ཟས་དེ་གནང་ངེས་ཡིན། མིའི་བུ་ལ་ཡབ་དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་བཏབ་ཡོད་པ་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།། 28ཡང་མི་ཚོགས་ན༌རེ། ངེད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ལས་གང་ཞིག་བྱས་ན་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་དོན་སྒྲུབ་པ་ཡིན་ནམ་ཞེས་ཞུས་པ༌ལ། 29ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་མངགས་པ་དེ་ལ་དད་པ་བྱས༌ན། འདི་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་དོན་སྒྲུབ་པ་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།།

John 6:26-29

26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

 

Continuing from previous post, the multitude that had been fed by Jesus came again to Jesus and from here we read very difficult conversations between Jesus and the multitude.

Jesus was concern for their welfare therefore fed them, but more than that He was concern about their eternal redemption from sin and death, therefore He speaks of “food that endures to eternal life“.

So what was the connection between work and food?

We need to look at historical context try our best effort to consider how people live and survive at that time and region. And what was the circumstance that affects them most in their decision making about life choices.

Working to put food on the table has been an age-old practice especially for family men, and it is about family survival. Consider this practice from a bigger perspective, that’s how societies and communities survive and thrive.

At that time of Christ the demands and expectations of family men to put food on the table was on higher priority due to war and conflicts.

The post-exilic Jews who returned to Jerusalem after leaving Babylon were living in a land not their own. And their next generations who continue to live in Jerusalem till the time of John the Baptist went through series of wars and conflicts.

During the time of John the Baptist there were reasons why we often read of the poor and needy Jesus was reaching out to, because they were everywhere! The people in the land were struggling to recover from the effects of war and getting ready for another one.

Jewish diaspora from around Jerusalem and far away who visit the Temple for the three appointed feast of the Lord, they were very well aware of war and conflicts in that region.

People do live with daily anxieties and uncertainties of their future, and in such time and circumstances daily survival takes priority. The multitude who came seeking Jesus for help reflected the very difficult circumstances they were living in.

Jesus was known to show great compassion for the poor and needy and while He took care of the need for food, He teaches them to think and look further to the future for eternal life and that was something difficult for them to understand.

Important lessons for us to learn – when people struggles with daily needs it is difficult to think of the future, but for the sake of our future and the hope of eternal life in Christ we must do what is necessary for the better future in the kingdom of God.

 

གསུང་མགུར། 1

1སྡིག་སྤྱོད་མི་ཡི་ཇུས་བཞིན་མི་འགྲུལ༌ཞིང༌། །སྡིག་ཅན་དག་གི་ལམ་ནང་མི་འགྲེང༌བར། །འཕྱ་མཁན་གྲལ་དུ་མི་འདུག་པ་ནི༌བདེ།། 2ཡ་ཝཱེའི་བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་ལ་ནི་ཡི་རང༌ཞིང༌། །ཉིན་མཚན་ཀུན་ཏུ་བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་སྒོམ་མཁན༌ནི།། 3ཆུ་རྒྱུན་འགྲམ་དུ་བཙུགས་པའི་ལྗོན་ཤིང༌བཞིན། །དུས་དང་མཐུན་པར་འབྲས་བུ་བསྐྱེད་བྱེད༌ཅིང༌། །ལོ་མ་དག་ཀྱང་ནམ་ཡང་མི་རྙིད༌ལ། །མི་དེས་ཅི་བྱེད་དོན་ཀུན་འགྲུབ་པར༌འགྱུར།། 4འོན་ཀྱང་སྡིག་སྤྱོད་མི་ནི་ཆ་མི༌མཚུངས། །དེ་ནི་རླུང་གིས་ཁྱེར་བའི་ཕུབ་མ༌འདྲ།། 5ཁྲིམས་ཐག་གཅོད་དུས་སྡིག་སྤྱོད་ཚུགས་མི༌ཐུབ། །དྲང་པོའི་ཚོགས་ནང་སྡིག་ཅན་དེ་བཞིན༌ཡིན།། 6ཡ་ཝཱེས་དྲང་པོ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ལམ་གཟིགས༌ཤིང༌། །སྡིག་སྤྱོད་དག་གི་ལམ་ནི་འཇིག་པར༌འགྱུར།།

Psalm 1

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; 6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

 

The message of Psalm 1 does correspond with what Jesus teaches about sowing and reaping in Matthew 13.

Therefore Jesus spoke to them about believing in Him and that means to act upon what He have been teaching and preaching to them about trust and obedience to the ways of God.

 

29ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་མངགས་པ་དེ་ལ་དད་པ་བྱས༌ན། འདི་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་དོན་སྒྲུབ་པ་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།།

29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

 

To be continue …

 

David Z