To Believe in Jesus – Part 72

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 6:66-71

66སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་དེ་ལྟར་གསུངས༌རྗེས། ཁོང་གི་རྗེས་འབྲང་པ་རྣམས་ལས་མི་མང་པོ་ཞིག་ཕྱིར་བུད་ཅིང་ཁོང་གི་རྗེས་སུ་མ་འབྲངས་སོ།། 67དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་ཐུགས་སྲས་བཅུ་གཉིས་པོ་ལ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་ང་རང་བསྐྱུར་ནས་འགྲོ་འདོད་དམ་ཞེས་གསུངས་པ༌ལ། 68སི་མོན་པེ་ཏྲོ་ན༌རེ། གཙོ་བོ༌ལགས། ངེད་རྣམས་སུ་ཡི་དྲུང་དུ་འགྲོའམ། ཁྱེད་ལ་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཚེ་སྲོག་གི་བཀའ་རྣམས་མངའ་བའོ༎ 69ངེད་རྣམས་ཁྱེད་ལ་དད་ཅིང་ཁྱེད་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་སྐྱེས་བུ་དམ་པ་དེ་ཉིད་ཡིན་པའང་ཤེས་ཞེས་ཞུས་སོ།། 70དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཐུགས་སྲས་བཅུ་གཉིས་སུ་བདམས་པ་མ་ཡིན༌ནམ། འོན༌ཀྱང༌། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལས་གཅིག་ནི་བདུད་ཅིག་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།། 71ཁོང་གི་གསུང་འདི་ནི་ཨི་སི་ཀར་རེའི་སི་མོན་ཞེས་པའི་བུ་ཡུ་དཱ་ལ་དམིགས་ནས་གསུངས༌ཤིང༌། ཡུ་དཱ་ནི་ཐུགས་སྲས་བཅུ་གཉིས་ལས་གཅིག༌སྟེ། མ་འོངས་པར་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་ལ་ངོ་ལོག་བྱེད་མཁན་ཡིན༌ནོ།།

John 6:66-71

66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” 70 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” 71 He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.

 

What Jesus had spoken had already caused discomfort among those common folk Jews who heard Him, and now even His disciples starts to leave Him.

Why would they do that?

In those days and circumstances being identified as a disciple means the expected obligations to observe and obey what their master teaches and being a disciple is to follow the same discipline or habits of their teacher.

Jesus’ teachings and preaching does cause division and separation, even among His followers.

Thus far what we observed from the many and various conversations and confrontations between Jesus and different groups of Jews including the religious leaderships, there is that common opposing belief about sin and relationship with God.

 

How a person defines sin will influence how that person think he can or cannot be in good relationship with God.

 

Remember John the Baptist when confronting the Sadducees warned them against their doctrine of entitlement – the belief that because they are of a certain race, being descendants of Abraham, they are entitled to God’s blessing and thus excused themselves from what Jesus teaches about repentance and redemption.

So back to the situation in John 6, Jesus’ message goes deep into challenging our perspective and understanding of sin and repentance and who do we depend on for redemption to eternal life. Therefore Jesus speaks to them about the living bread from heaven and about His blood.

It became obvious those who were opposing Jesus were debating and struggling with a very important question –

 

Can they trust what Jesus said?

 

The message from Jesus had become crystal clear – He is the way to eternal life and no other options! That was a message very difficult for the Jews hearing Him to accept, especially those who voiced their opposition.

What Jesus said confronted their personal belief about sin and salvation!

The situation in John 6 had reached point when those who were disciples of Jesus decided to leave. And I would think what Jesus said had cut deep into their hearts and souls as what is being explained in Hebrews 4:12 –

 

ཨིབ་རི་པ། 4:12

12དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་ནི་སྐྱེ་སྟོབས་དང་ནུས་མཐུ་ལྡན་ཞིང་རལ་གྲི་ཁ་གཉིས་མ་ལས་ཀྱང་རྣོ་བ༌དང༌། ཐ་ན་ཡིད་དང༌སེམས། རུས་ཚིགས་དང་རུས་རྐང་བཅས་ཀྱང་དབུག་ཅིང་གཤག་ནུས༌ལ། ཡིད་ཀྱི་བསམ་ཚུལ་དང་འདོད་ཚུལ་ལའང་བརྡར་ཤ་གཅོད་ནུས་སོ།།

Hebrews 4:12

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

 

The words of Jesus judge the thoughts and intentions of our hearts and minds and will demand a response.

I think some of the most important questions we need to address within our hearts and minds are – who do we trust for redemption and salvation? Do we believe what Jesus had spoken about sin and judgement? Are we going to answer Jesus’ call for repentance?

 

Jesus expected trust and obedience from those who seek to follow Him.

 

Those who believe and obey will eventually go separate way from those who refuse to believe and obey. So here in John 6 we see the majority rejecting Jesus!

And then we read of Peter’s response

 

68སི་མོན་པེ་ཏྲོ་ན༌རེ། གཙོ་བོ༌ལགས། ངེད་རྣམས་སུ་ཡི་དྲུང་དུ་འགྲོའམ། ཁྱེད་ལ་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཚེ་སྲོག་གི་བཀའ་རྣམས་མངའ་བའོ༎ 69ངེད་རྣམས་ཁྱེད་ལ་དད་ཅིང་ཁྱེད་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་སྐྱེས་བུ་དམ་པ་དེ་ཉིད་ཡིན་པའང་ཤེས་ཞེས་ཞུས་སོ།།

68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

 

Peter stood his ground and will not leave Jesus and that was his confession.

Did Peter understand all of what Jesus said about the bread and the blood?

Maybe, but perhaps not 100% as we see later how Peter reacted when Jesus was on trial and later crucified on the cross. It was after Jesus’ resurrection Peter understood a lot more of what Jesus said.

Peter’s decision to stay at that moment in John 6 could be related to another incident recorded in Matthew 16

 

མད་ཐཱ། 16:15-16

15ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། འོ༌ན། ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་ང་རང་ནི་སུ་ཡིན་པར་གླེང་ངམ་ཞེས་དྲིས་པ༌ལ། 16སི་མོན་པེ་ཏྲོ་ན༌རེ། ཁྱེད་ནི་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་སྟེ་གཏན་དུ་གསོན་པོར་བཞུགས་པའི་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་སྲས་ཡིན་ཞེས་ཞུས༌སོ།།

Matthew 16:15-16

15 He (Jesus) said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

 

Peter was convinced this Jesus is the Messiah chosen of God. Therefore Peter said of Jesus – You have the words of eternal life.

Back to the record of John 6, the author identified Judas who would betray Jesus and this must be taken into account the Gospel of John was written much later after the death and resurrection of Jesus and by then those who read would had known about it.

As a general observation, the difference between Peter and Judas –

Judas response – repeated rejection to the point of betrayal

Peter response – continue trust and obedience to eternal life

 

To be continue …

 

David Z