To Believe in Jesus – Part 99

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 9:18-23

18དེ་ནས་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་དེ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སྔོན་ཆད་དམུས་ལོང་ཡིན་ཞིང་རྗེས་སུ་མིག་གིས་མཐོང་བར་གྱུར་པའི་དོན་དེ་ལ་ཡིད་མ་ཆེས༌པར། ཁོའི་ཕ་མ་གཉིས་བོས་ཏེ་ན༌རེ། 19མི་འདི་ནི་ཁྱོད་གཉིས་ཀྱི་བུ་ཡིན༌ནམ། ཁྱོད་ཕ་མ་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་བཤད་པ་ལྟར་ན་ཁོ་ནི་སྐྱེས་མ་ཐག་ནས་ལོང་བ་ཡིན༌ཟེར། འོ་ན་ད་ལྟ་ཁོའི་མིག་གིས་ཇི་ལྟར་མཐོང་བར་གྱུར་རམ་ཞེས་དྲིས་པ༌ལ། 20ཕ་མ་གཉིས་ན༌རེ། ཁོ་ནི་ངེད་གཉིས་ཀྱི་བུ་ཡིན་ཞིང་སྐྱེས་མ་ཐག་ནས་ལོང་བ་ཡིན་པ་ངེད་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་ཤེས་སོ།། 21འོན་ཀྱང་ད་ལྟ་ཁོའི་མིག་གིས་ཇི་ལྟར་མཐོང་བར་གྱུར་པ་དང་། སུ་ཞིག་གིས་ཁོའི་མིག་ཟུང་གསོས་པར་མཛད་པའི་དོན་ནི་ངེད་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་མི་ཤེས༌ཏེ། ཁོ་རང་ནར་སོན་པས་ཁོ་རང་ལ་དྲིས་དང་སྨྲ་ངེས་ཡིན་ཞེས་སྨྲས་སོ།། 22ཁོའི་ཕ་མ་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་དེ་སྐད་སྨྲས་པ་ནི་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ལ་འཇིགས༌པ་རེད། རྒྱུ་མཚན་ནི་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མི་སུ་ཞིག་གིས་ཡེ་ཤུ་ནི་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་ཡིན་ཟེར༌ན། མི་དེ་ཆོས་ཁང་ནས་ཕྱི་རུ་འདོན་པར་གྲོས་ཐག་བཅད་ཡོད་པའི་རྐྱེན༌གྱིས། 23ཁོའི་ཕ་མ་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་ཁོ་རང་ནར་སོན་པས་ཁོ་ལ་དྲིས་ཤིག་ཅེས་སྨྲས་པ་ཡིན༌ནོ།།

John 9:18-23

18 The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight 19 and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” 20 His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. 21 But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” 22 (His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. 23 Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”)

 

The ‘Jews” mentioned here most likely refers to a distinct identity differentiated from the religious groups leadership of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Gospel writers do make separate distinct mentions of Jews, Pharisees and Sadducees. The intentional mention of “Jews” was to identify a particular group of the community instead of referring to every Jewish person living in Jerusalem at that time.

During the time of the gospels records, the word “Jews” was commonly used to identify those who claim ancestry to the southern kingdom of Judah that was exiled during the time of Babylonian conquest and later returned during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah to rebuild the Temple and Jerusalem.

The “Jews” mentioned here in gospel records separated and distinguished themselves from those from Galilee and Samaria, and they were based in Jerusalem.

There are bible historians who noted that these particular distinct groups of Jews systematically, deliberately, and in public, opposed Jesus! Among the many reasons for their dislike of Jesus, the one reason which they would not easily admit was that – Jesus was known to be from Galilee!

 

Class Discrimination!

 

There were evident from bible history that these Jews view and treated fellow Israelite from Galilee as lower class citizens, and that could had formulated their assumptions and preconceived ideas about Jesus.

Back to the situation in John 9 – it was not surprising these Jews went into a state of deliberate denial. Considering the situation whereby the man born blind had made repeated confession he got his healing from Jesus and these Jews refused to believe.

 

It was a willful deliberate rejection of Jesus!

 

The gospel writer note that these Jews’ demand for testimony from his parents was just an effort to double-down on their rejection and public persecution against Jesus –

 

22ཁོའི་ཕ་མ་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་དེ་སྐད་སྨྲས་པ་ནི་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ལ་འཇིགས༌པ་རེད། རྒྱུ་མཚན་ནི་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མི་སུ་ཞིག་གིས་ཡེ་ཤུ་ནི་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་ཡིན་ཟེར༌ན། མི་དེ་ཆོས་ཁང་ནས་ཕྱི་རུ་འདོན་པར་གྲོས་ཐག་བཅད་ཡོད་པའི་རྐྱེན༌གྱིས།

22 (His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.

 

To be put out of the synagogue meant to excommunicate, to outcast, to deny any means of community support, and it was a form of passive-aggressive behavior to deliberately destroy the livelihood of that person who is rightfully part of the same community. The more extremist minded Jews might do direct confrontation either through physical attack or through a collective organized effort to destroy that person’s life usually by means of death. That was how eventually there was a collective effort, organized and coordinated between these Jews and the Sanhedrin, to put Jesus to death. Although they tried deflecting responsibility by using the Romans to destroy Jesus – what they did was so obvious even the Roman governor Pontius Pilate saw through it!

The situation in John 9 – before Jesus restored the sight of the man born blind He said

 

3སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ལོང་བ་འདིས་སྡིག་པ་བྱས་པའི་རྐྱེན་མིན༌ལ། ཁོའི་ཕ་མས་སྡིག་པ་བྱས་པའི་རྐྱེན་ཡང་མིན༌པར། དེ་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་ངོ་མཚར་བའི་མཛད་པ་ཁོའི་སྟེང་ནས་མངོན་པའི་ཕྱིར་དེ་ལྟར་བྱུང༌ངོ་།། 4བདག་ཅག་གིས་ཉིན་མོའི་དུས་སུ་ང་རང་མངགས་མཁན་གྱི་བསྒྲུབ་འོས་པའི་དོན་བྱེད་དགོས༌ཤིང༌། མི་སུས་ཀྱང་ལས་ཅི་ཡང་བྱེད་མི་ཐུབ་པའི་མཚན་མོའི་དུས་ཤིག་སླེབ་ངེས༌ཡིན། 5ང་རང་འཇིག་རྟེན་དུ་བཞུགས་དུས་བདག་ནི་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་འོད་ཟེར་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས༌རྗེས།

3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

 

Note – Jesus declared “I am the light of the world” and that was not the only time He said that.

In the midst of all these organized systematic and collective hostility against Jesus, few important observations can be made from this gospel account

1) Jesus being the light of the world show us the true way to eternal life with God

2) The man born blind and had received his sight from Jesus, his testimony and confession exposed the misleading doctrines and teachings of religious establishments of that time.

3) The words of God presented and taught by Jesus, separate and divide truth and falsehood.

 

གསུང་མགུར། 119:105 – ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་བཀའ་ནི་མདུན་གྱི་སྒྲོན་མེ༌དང༌། །ང་ཡི་ལམ་གྱི་འོད་ཟེར་དེ་ཡང༌ཡིན།།

Psalm 119: 105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

 

Apparently what Jesus did to restore and heal the man born blind, was not just to restore the physical sight of this man, but also to address human blindness to the truth.

Jesus did have a small circle of followers and disciples who stood with Him and paid careful attention to His teachings and they are Jewish. They are different from those Jews who oppose and persecuted Jesus. After the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, this small group of faithful disciples carried on Jesus’ mission to teach the message of God’s redemption to the Gentiles.

 

To be continue …

David Z