To Believe in Jesus – Part 70

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 6:52-59

52དེ་ནས་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། མི་འདིས་ཁོའི་ཤ་ནི་བདག་ཅག་གི་ཟས་སུ་ཅི་ལྟར་སྟེར་ནུས་སམ་ཞེས་རྩོད་གླེང་བྱས་པ༌ན། 53སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་ཡང་དག་པར་བདེན་པར་སྨྲ༌སྟེ། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མིའི་བུ་ཁོང་གི་ཤ་མི་བཟའ་ཞིང་ཁྲག་ཀྱང་མི་འཐུང༌ན། ཁྱོད་ཅག་ལ་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཚེ་སྲོག་འཐོབ་མི་སྲིད། 54བདག་གི་ཤ་ཟ་ཞིང་ཁྲག་འཐུང་མཁན་རྣམས་ལ་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཚེ་སྲོག་ཐོབ་ཡོད་པ་དང་མཐའ་མའི་ཉིན་མོར་ཡང་བདག་གིས་དེ་རྣམས་སླར་གསོན་དུ་འཇུག༌རྒྱུ་ཡིན། 55བདག་གི་ཤ་ནི་ཁ་ཟས་དངོས་ཡིན་ཞིང་བདག་གི་ཁྲག་ནི་བཏུང་བ་དངོས་ཀྱང་ཡིན། 56བདག་གི་ཤ་ཟ་ཞིང་ཁྲག་འཐུང་མཁན་དེ་ནི་བདག་གི་ནང་དུ་གནས༌ཤིང༌། ང་རང་ཡང་ཁོའི་ནང་དུ་མཆིས་སོ།། 57གཏན་དུ་གསོན་པོར་བཞུགས་པའི་ཡབ་ཀྱིས་ང་རང་འཇིག་རྟེན་དུ་མངགས་ཤིང་ང་རང་ཡང་ཁོང་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་གསོན་པོར་གནས་པ༌བཞིན། བདག་གི་ཤ་ཟ་མཁན་ཡང་བདག་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་གསོན་པོར་གནས༌པ་ཡིན། 58འདི་ནི་ནམ་མཁའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་ནས་འོངས་པའི་བག་ལེབ་སྟེ། བག་ལེབ་འདི་ཟ་མཁན་རྣམས་ལ་ནམ་ཡང་འཆི་བ་མེད་ཅིང་གཏན་དུ་གསོན་པོར་གནས༌པ་ཡིན། དེ་ནི་ཁྱོད་ཅག་གི་ཕ་མེས་ཡང་མེས་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མཱན་ནཱ་ཟོས་ཀྱང་ཐ་མར་ཤི་བ་དང་མི་འདྲ་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།། 59གསུང་དེ་དག་ནི་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་ཀཱ་ཕར་ན་ཧུམ་གྱི་ཆོས་ཁང་དུ་ཆོས་གསུང་བའི་དུས་སུ་གསུངས་པ་ཡིན༌ནོ།།

John 6:52-59

52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.

 

Keeping in mind that Jesus was still addressing the same group of Jews who came seeking Him after being fed the day before. They were hungry and Jesus provided food for them and they were satisfied.

Remember how Jesus blessed the five barley loaves and two fish offered by a boy and fed thousands. That happened just yesterday!

That was the background context of this conversation recorded in John 6. It was the same group of Jews that Jesus was speaking to who had gathered with Jesus and His disciples the day before and shared food together.

I believe Jesus was using language and words that first related to their craving for food and at the same time teaching them to differentiate between what is of eternal value and what is not.

 

What is food for the stomach and what is food for our soul.

 

Within this chapter – John chapter 6 – while Jesus was addressing this same group of Jews, He repeated the call for eternal life multiple times! And we must remember the Gospel of John carry the theme of believing in Jesus the way to eternal life.

So I believe what Jesus was saying to the Jews here in John 6 was a message of comparison and contrast.

The food that we eat to fill our stomach and after which we will go hungry again, is being contrasted to  spiritual food that feed our soul that will leads the way to eternal life with the true and living God.

What Jesus said here in John 6 can be related to what Paul wrote

 

ཕི་ལིབ་པི་པ། 3:20-21

20འོན༌ཀྱང༌། བདག་ཅག་ནི་ནམ་མཁའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་ཀྱི་འབངས་མི་ཡིན༌ལ། ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཏེ་གཙོ་བོ་ཡེ་ཤུ་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་ཕེབས་ཡོང་བར་རེ་བ་ཆེན་པོས་སྒུག༌པ་ཡིན། 21ཁོང་གིས་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་དངོས་པོ་ཐམས་ཅད་རང་ཉིད་ཀྱི་དབང་འོག་ཏུ་བསྡུ་ནུས་པའི་མཐུ་རྩལ་ཆེན་པོར་བརྟེན༌ནས། བདག་ཅག་གི་ལུས་པོ་ཐ་མལ་བ་འདིའི་རྣམ་པ་བསྒྱུར༌ཏེ། ཁོང་རང་ཉིད་ཀྱི་གཟི་བརྗིད་ལྡན་པའི་སྐུ་ལུས་དང་མཚུངས་པར་མཛད་ངེས༌སོ།།

Philippians 3:20-21

20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

 

It is part of our human nature to care for our body and we do learn to depend on God for survival and our daily needs.

Jesus actually taught us to pray and ask God the Father to provide our daily needs but we must know that our physical body is being subjected to corruption and death because of sin and the consequence of sin is being separated from eternal life and fellowship with God.

Today we can look back in history and know Jesus, who laid down His life at the cross, His death and resurrection redeem us from sin and death but we must also know about our future resurrection in Christ when we will receive a new body that is not corruptible.

Today for us who trust and obey Jesus, we are to prioritize and look forward to our new creation in Christ so that we can live in eternal fellowship with God.

For our current daily living and survival, the provision from God to continue our daily life is to help us focus on our relationship with God that we should set our hearts and mind on things of eternal value.

God’s ultimate redemption for Man is the provision of eternal life, not in this physical body but in the promise of God for a better one through the works of the Messiah, and it was after the resurrection of Jesus we know we have hope of resurrection for ourselves to eternal life.

Jesus mention of blood which appears shocking and horrifying to these Jews but it was a clear connection to God’s law for atonement, if they remember what was written in Moses.

Jesus was speaking to Jews who came to Jerusalem for the Passover and these people who were committed to keeping God’s appointed feast would had been familiar with God’s law and commandments for atonement written in Leviticus

 

ལེ་ཝིའི་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས། 17:11

11གང་ལ་ཞེ་ན། སྲོག་ཆགས་ཀྱི་ཚེ་སྲོག་ནི་ཁྲག་གི་ནང་དུ་ཡོད་ཅིང་། ཁྲག་ནི་ཚེ་སྲོག་ཡིན་ལ་སྡིག་པ་བཤག་ནུས་པས། མཆོད་ཁྲིའི་སྟེང་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ཚེ་སྲོག་གི་ཕྱིར་སྡིག་པ་བཤག་པའི་ཆེད་དུ། བདག་གིས་ཁྲག་ནི་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་སྤྲད་པ་ཡིན་ནོ། །

Leviticus 17:11

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.

 

I believe Jesus’ disciple would have understood that. Especially those who had been paying attention what was happening at the Temple and the sacrifice services.

So what Jesus said here, although sounded horrifying to the Jews who became hostile against Him, was a message of contrast and comparison.

Bread being contrasted to the living words of God

The bread that we eat deals with our human hunger. But the living words of God show us the way to eternal life.

The blood atonement of Christ that make full and complete reconciliation between Man and God that we may be fully restored to eternal fellowship and peace with God.

The blood of innocent animals used for atonement in Temple service and eventually Jesus’ own blood offered for ultimate and complete atonement for those who trust and obey Him.

 

To be continue …

 

 

David Z