To Believe in Jesus – Part 93

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 8:45-53

45འོན་ཀྱང་བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་ཅག་ལ་བདེན་པ་སྨྲས་པའི་རྐྱེན་གྱིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་བདག་ལ་ཡིད་མི་ཆེས། 46ཡང་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལས་སུ་ཞིག་གིས་བདག་ལ་སྡིག་པ་ཡོད་ཅེས་བདེན་དཔང་བྱེད་ནུས༌སམ། བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་བདེན་པ་སྨྲས༌ནའང༌། ཁྱོད་ཅག་བདག་ལ་ཡིད་མི་ཆེས༌པ་ཅི་ཡིན་ནམ། 47དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་གཏོགས་པའི་མི་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་ལ་མཉན༌ཞིང༌། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་མི་གཏོགས་པས་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་ལའང་མི་མཉན་ཞེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།

48དེ་ནས་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། ངེད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཁྱོད་ནི་སཱ་མར་ཡ་པ་ཡིན་ཞིང་གདོན་འདྲེ་ཞུགས་འདུག་ཅེས་སྨྲས་པ་མི་བདེན་ནམ་ཞེས་སྨྲས་པ༌ལ། 49སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། བདག་ལ་གདོན་འདྲེ་ཞུགས་པ་མ་ཡིན། བདག་གིས་རང་གི་ཡབ་ལ་གུས་པ་བྱེད་ཀྱང་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་བདག་ལ་སྨད༌པ་རེད། 50བདག་གིས་རང་ལ་བཀུར་སྟི་མི་འཚོལ༌ཞིང༌། བདག་ལ་བཀུར་སྟི་འཚོལ་མཁན་ནི་བདེན་རྫུན་འབྱེད་མཁན་ཏེ་དཀོན་མཆོག༌ཡིན་ནོ།། 51བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་ཡང་དག་པར་བདེན་པར་སྨྲ༌སྟེ། བདག་གི་བཀའ་སྲུང་མཁན་སུ་ལའང་ནམ་ཡང་འཆི་བ་མེད་ཅེས་གསུངས་པ༌ན། 52ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། ཁྱོད་རང་ལ་གདོན་འདྲེ་ཞུགས་ཡོད་པ་ད་ལྟ་ངེད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཤེས་བྱུང་། ཨབ་ར་ཧམ་དང་ལུང་སྟོན་པ་རྣམས་སྔ་མོ་ནས་ཚེ་ལས་འདས་ཟིན༌མོད། འོན་ཀྱང་ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་ད་དུང་བདག་གི་བཀའ་སྲུང་མཁན་སུ་ལའང་ནམ་ཡང་འཆི་བ་མེད་ཅེས་སྨྲས༌པས། 53ཁྱོད་ནི་ངེད་ཅག་གི་མེས་པོ་ཨབ་ར་ཧམ་ལས་ཀྱང་ཆེན་པོ་ཞིག་ཡིན༌ནམ། ཨབ་ར་ཧམ་དང་ལུང་སྟོན་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱང་གཤེགས་ཟིན༌མོད། འོན་ཀྱང་ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་རང་ཉིད་ནི་སུ་ཡིན་པར་རློམ་མམ་ཞེས་སྨྲས་སོ།།

John 8:45-53

45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. 46 Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? 47 Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”

48 The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” 49 Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. 50 Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. 51 Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” 52 The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ 53 Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?”

 

Continue with Jesus’ conversation with a specific group of Jews who were at Jerusalem during the Festival of Booths (Sukkot).

I pointed out in previous posts that Jesus was speaking to a group of Jews who believed Him as the gospel writer had noted, but apparently they were holding on to doctrines and teachings of the Pharisees and Sadducees which hinder them developing deeper relationship with Jesus as disciples.

What these Jews said to Jesus may sound rude and offensive but it was another one of those cultural expressions at that time used by Jews to discriminate Samaritans.

Remember back in John 4, Jesus had an encounter with a woman at the well who was a Samaritan and there Jesus spoke of living water. And it was one of those rare occasions where Jesus explicitly disclosed His identity as the coming Messiah spoken of by the prophets of old.

Cultural expression of discrimination against the Samaritans by the Jews developed over long period of time and what added to the anger, resentment, and bitterness was their ancestral blood relationships that had been smeared by acts of betrayals and unfaithfulness.

 

The Samaritans were known to be from the northern kingdom of Israel.

 

History – the reign of Solomon was recon as the Golden Era of Israel as that was the only period of time when the 12 tribes of Israel were united under one king. David fought many battles and prepared the way for the unification of Israel and handed the leadership to Solomon.

After the death of Solomon the kingdom of Israel broke apart due to civil war and so the united kingdom of Israel was short lived – only about 40 years. The history of Israel although can be traced back thousands of years but was mostly marred by in-fighting, external warfare, defeat and dispersion.

After Solomon, Israel was divided into two – the northern kingdom of Israel headed by Jeroboam and the south kingdom of Judah by Rehoboam (1 Kings 12:16-33).

Jeroboam in his attempt to prevent those Israelite who followed him returning to Jerusalem for the festivals of God, instituted his own version of temple worship involving golden calves which was against the commandments of God!

Down the centuries after the norther kingdom was attacked and overran by the Assyrian, the Israelite there intermarried with Gentiles. Eventually when the north kingdom of Israel was conquered and fell under the reign of Assyria the Israelite were deported and dispersed and today we have the identification “10 Lost Tribes of Israel”.

 

Questions – were these Israelite from the 10 Lost Tribes completely rejected by God to the point of no return?

 

In John 4 we read Jesus reaching out to the Samaritans!

In the book of Acts we read of Samaritans coming to faith in Christ!

 

We see the redemption and restoration of the lost and outcast through the work of Christ!

 

Back to the situation in John 8, these intense arguments and contentions exposed misleading man-made doctrines of various religious establishments that blinded them from the truth of God which Jesus presented.

Jesus spoke the truth in dual format –

 

1. By showing the true way to eternal life (John 14.6)
2. By exposing false doctrines of man-made religious establishments

 

The intense conversation recorded in John 8 is another reminder that the truth of God’s words will cause separation and division so we know true teachings and instructions of God and what else are man-made doctrines of human religious establishments.

 

ལེགས་བཤད། 20:26 – རྒྱལ་པོ་མཁས་པས་ངན་པ་རྣམས་གཏོར༌ཞིང༌། །དེ་དག་འཁོར་ལོས་བཅག་བཅག་བྱེད་པ༌ཡིན།།

Proverbs 20:26 – A wise king winnows the wicked and drives the wheel over them.

 

This message of Proverbs speaks of sifting – Jesus the Messiah and King of kings chosen of God received power, authority and wisdom from the Father to separate truth and falsehood.

Furthermore, what these Jews refuted Jesus about death exposed more of their own error

 

51བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་ཡང་དག་པར་བདེན་པར་སྨྲ༌སྟེ། བདག་གི་བཀའ་སྲུང་མཁན་སུ་ལའང་ནམ་ཡང་འཆི་བ་མེད་ཅེས་གསུངས་པ༌ན། 52ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། ཁྱོད་རང་ལ་གདོན་འདྲེ་ཞུགས་ཡོད་པ་ད་ལྟ་ངེད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཤེས་བྱུང་། ཨབ་ར་ཧམ་དང་ལུང་སྟོན་པ་རྣམས་སྔ་མོ་ནས་ཚེ་ལས་འདས་ཟིན༌མོད། འོན་ཀྱང་ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་ད་དུང་བདག་གི་བཀའ་སྲུང་མཁན་སུ་ལའང་ནམ་ཡང་འཆི་བ་མེད་ཅེས་སྨྲས༌པས། 53ཁྱོད་ནི་ངེད་ཅག་གི་མེས་པོ་ཨབ་ར་ཧམ་ལས་ཀྱང་ཆེན་པོ་ཞིག་ཡིན༌ནམ། ཨབ་ར་ཧམ་དང་ལུང་སྟོན་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱང་གཤེགས་ཟིན༌མོད། འོན་ཀྱང་ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་རང་ཉིད་ནི་སུ་ཡིན་པར་རློམ་མམ་ཞེས་སྨྲས་སོ།།

 

51 Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” 52 The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ 53 Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?”

 

At that time in Jerusalem, the Sadducees were known to reject the idea of life after death and they do not believe and accept writings of the prophets about resurrection and the life after. But the Pharisees do believe in resurrection and the life after!

Those who believe in the resurrection and were waiting for the coming Messiah were most likely aware of the promised future blessings of God.

Jesus came to show us the way to eternal life but apparently the Sadducees rejected such possible blessing of God!

 

To be continue …

David Z