To Believe in Jesus – Part 97

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 9:8-12

8དེ་ནས་ཁོའི་ཁྱིམ་མཚེས་དང་སྔར་ཁོ་སྤྲང་པོ་ཡིན་པ་མཐོང་མྱོང་མཁན་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། མི་འདི་ནི་སྔོན་ཆད་སློང་མོ་བྱེད་མཁན་དེ་མ་ཡིན་ནམ་ཞེས་སྨྲས༌ཤིང༌། 9མི་འགའ་ཞིག་གིས་ཁོ་རང་ཡིན་ཞེས་སྨྲས་པ༌དང༌། ཡང་འགའ་ཞིག་གིས་ཁོ་རང་མ་ཡིན་ཏེ་ཁོ་རང་དང་བྱད་གཟུགས་འདྲ་བ་ཞིག་རེད་ཅེས་སྨྲས་པ༌ན། ཁོས་ང་རང་ཡིན་ཞེས་ཡང་ཡང་སྨྲས་པ༌དང༌། 10མི་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་མིག་ཟུང་ཇི་ལྟར་སོས་སམ་ཞེས་དྲིས་པ༌ལ། 11ཁོ་ན༌རེ། ཡེ་ཤུ་ཟེར་བའི་སྐྱེས་བུ་དེས་འཇིམ་པ་བརྫིས་ཏེ་ངའི་མིག་ཟུང་ལ་བསྐུས༌རྗེས། སི་ལོ་ཨམ་རྫིང་བུའི་ནང་དུ་མིག་ཟུང་བཀྲུ་བར་སོང་ཞིག་ཅེས་སྨྲས་པ༌དང༌། ང་རང་སོང་སྟེ་བཀྲུས་པ་ན་མིག་གིས་མཐོང་བར་གྱུར་ཞེས་སྨྲས་སོ།། 12དེ་ནས་མི་དེ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མི་དེ་གང་དུ་ཡོད་ཅེས་དྲིས་པ༌ལ། ཁོས་མི་ཤེས་ཞེས་སྨྲས༌སོ།།

John 9:8-12

8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” 10 So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” 12 They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

 

The writer of the gospel of John recorded much detail about this man who was born blind and received his sight.

What is interesting about this incident is that, the name of this person born blind and received His sight from Jesus was not mentioned!

The details being covered involve reactions from different groups of people around him! But his name is not mentioned!

 

What was the writer pointing at? What was the purpose of this message?

 

First noted reactions from common folks around him was his neighbors who knew him before and what draws their curiosity was

 

10མི་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་མིག་ཟུང་ཇི་ལྟར་སོས་སམ་ཞེས་དྲིས་པ༌ལ།

10 So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?”

 

We must bear in mind this is not the only incident Jesus healed someone of physical blindness. I believe people around Jerusalem, especially local residents already heard of Jesus miraculous work, how He ministered to the sick, poor, and those in needs.

In all the records of the Four Gospels there were multiple incidents of blind individuals receiving their sights through Jesus but what made this incident in John 9 stands out was –

 

1) The writer in particular noted this man was born blind.

2) The writer made specific detail how Jesus made mud in the process of restoring his sight

 

The above two points have cause much biblical and theological debates that

 

3) The possibility this man was born without eyeballs?

4) What Jesus did was re-enactment of Genesis creation account when Man was created from the dust of the ground

 

བཀོད་པ། 2:7 – དཀོན་མཆོག་ཡ་ཝཱེས་ས་རྡུལ་གྱིས་སྐྱེས་པ་ཞིག་བཟོས་པ༌དང༌། དེའི་སྣ་ཁུང་ལ་ཚེ་སྲོག་གི་ཞལ་ཕུ་བརྒྱབ་ནས་སྲོག་དང་ལྡན་པའི་མི་ཞིག་ཏུ་འགྱུར་བར་མཛད༌དོ།།

Genesis 2:7 – then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

 

This incident in the gospel of John recorded a unique work of Christ only those who knew Genesis creation account can related such act only to the creator God.

I believe this is a powerful hidden message here we must not miss. And it is hidden not in the sense of being mysterious and obscure but not explicitly stated by the writer.

This is where a systematic bible study approach that can help us makes all the connections about God’s relationship with Man all the way from Genesis account till the time of the gospel will bring to light what we need to know about the Messiah chosen of God – Jesus Christ – and His relationship with the Father in heaven.

We have noted how the message of John repeatedly highlighted Jesus relationship with God the Father.

This incident in John 9 is very “thought-provoking“, and it is expected this incident became a big issue among the Jews in Jerusalem!

As we read through the whole chapter 9 we would discover few key notable reactions from people about this miracle Jesus did

 

A) We already noted Jesus disciples’ reactions

B) We read more of common folks and members of public reactions

C) How his parents reacted for fear of persecution

D) How the Pharisees reacted using the incident to persecute Jesus and excommunicated the blind man

 

In all these reactions from different groups of people related to the man born blind, some will begin their soul-searching, some will harden theirs hearts, and some would want to rejoice in the Lord but were suppressed.

 

How do we react to these signs and wonders?

 

Although we are warned not to pursue signs and wonders but these specific signs and wonders recorded in the gospels testify to the unique ministry of Jesus and how His disciples and apostles will continue His ministry after His resurrection.

Important point is – all these miracles were done to glorify God the Father and the Messiah chosen of God – Jesus the Christ.

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 20:30-31

30སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་ཐུགས་སྲས་རྣམས་ཀྱི་མདུན་དུ་གྲུབ་རྟགས་གཞན་མང་པོ་མཛད་ཀྱང་མདོ་འདིའི་ནང་དུ་མ་བཀོད་དོ།། 31འོན་ཀྱང་འདིར་བཀོད་པའི་དོན་རྣམས་ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་ཡེ་ཤུ་ནི་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་སྟེ་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་སྲས་ཡིན་པར་དད་པ་བྱེད་ཅིང་། ཁོང་ལ་དད་པ་བྱས་ཏེ་ཁོང་གི་མཚན་གྱི་སྒོ་ནས་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཚེ་སྲོག་འཐོབ་པའི་ཕྱིར་ཡིན༌ནོ།།

John 20:30-31

30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

 

To be continue …

David Z