To Believe in Jesus – Part 100

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 9:24-34

24དེའི༌ཕྱིར། ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སླར་ཡང་སྔོན་ཆད་ལོང་བ་ཡིན་པ་དེ་ཉིད་བོས་ཡོང་སྟེ་ན༌རེ། ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་བསྔགས་བརྗོད་བྱོས༌ཤིག མི་དེ་ནི་སྡིག་ཅན་ཞིག་ཡིན་པ་ངེད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཤེས་པ་ཡིན་ཞེས་སྨྲས་པ༌ལ། 25ཁོ་ན༌རེ། མི་དེ་ནི་སྡིག་ཅན་ཞིག་ཡིན་མིན་ངས་མི་ཤེས༌ལ། སྔོན་ཆད་ང་རང་ནི་དམུས་ལོང་ཡིན་ཡང་ད་ལྟ་མིག་གིས་མཐོང་བ་འདི་བདག་གིས་ཤེས་ཞེས་སྨྲས་སོ།། 26ཡང་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། མི་དེས་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཅི་བྱས་པ་ཡིན༌ནམ། ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་མིག་ཟུང་ཇི་ལྟར་སོས་པ་ཡིན་ནམ་ཞེས་དྲིས་པ༌ན། 27ཡང་ཁོ་ན༌རེ། ངས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་ལན་གཅིག་བཤད་ཀྱང་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མ་མཉན། ད་ནི་ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་མཉན་འདོད༌དམ། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱང་མི་དེའི་རྗེས་འབྲང་པ་བྱེད་འདོད་པ་ཡིན་ནམ་ཞེས་སྨྲས་པ༌ལ། 28དེ་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། ཁྱོད་ནི་མི་དེའི་རྗེས་འབྲང་པ་ཡིན་ཞིང་ངེད་ཅག་ནི་མོ་ཤེའི་རྗེས་འབྲང་པ་ཡིན། 29དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་མོ་ཤེ་ལ་གསུང་གླེང་མཛད་མྱོང་བའི་དོན་དེ་ངེད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཤེས་སོ།། འོན་ཀྱང་མི་དེ་ཡུལ་གང་ནས་ཡོང་བ་མི་ཤེས་ཞེས་སྡིགས་དམོད་བྱས་སོ།། 30ཡང་ཁོ་ན༌རེ། ཁོང་གིས་ངའི་མིག་གསོས་པར་མཛད་ཅིང་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཁོང་ནི་ཡུལ་གང་ནས་ཡོང་བའང་མི་ཤེས་པས་ཡ་མཚན༌ཆེ། 31དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་མི་སྡིག་ཅན་གྱི་གསོལ་འདེབས་ལ་མི་གསན་ཞིང༌། དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་དད་གུས་ལྡན་པ་དང་ཁོང་གི་དགོངས་པ་བཞིན་དུ་བྱེད་མཁན་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་གསོལ་བ་བཏབ་པ་ལ་ཁོང་གིས་གསན་ངེས་པ་བདག་ཅག་གིས་ཤེས་སོ།། 32འཇིག་རྟེན་བཀོད་པའི་ཚུན་ལ་མི་སུས་ཀྱང་དམུས་ལོང་གི་མིག་ཟུང་གསོས་པར་མཛད་པའི་དོན་ཐོས་མ་མྱོང༌། 33གལ་ཏེ་མི་དེ་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་ནས་བྱུང་བ་མིན༌ན། དོན་ཅི་ཡང་མཛད་མི་ནུས་ཞེས་སྨྲས་པ༌ལ། 34ཡང་དེ་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། ཁྱོད་ནི་སྐྱེས་པའི་དུས་ནས་སྡིག་ཅན་ཤ་སྟག་ཡིན་ཞིང་ད་དུང་ངེད་རྣམས་ལ་བསླབ་བྱ་གཏོང་འདོད་དམ་ཞེས་སྨྲས་ཏེ་ཁོ་རང་ཕྱི་རུ་བཏོན༌ཏོ།།

John 9:24-34

24 So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” 25 He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” 26 They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27 He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” 28 And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” 30 The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. 32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” 34 They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out.

 

The gospel writer made a specific note “for the second time“.

Well, this is getting serious! It reflected the determinations of the opponents of Jesus.

Previous post I pointed out, the “they” here were referring to a particular group of Jews who systematically and deliberately oppose Jesus. It is very obvious they demanded a second questioning from the man born blind not because they wanted to do more positive detail observation about this miracle done by Jesus but to coerce the man into denial of Jesus’ acts of miracle.

The man born blind was specifically targeted and viciously subjected to verbal assault because he alone received this blessing of restoration of sight from Jesus and his testimony will eventually cause more Jews to turn to Jesus!

 

For the very fact he was born blind, and being already a grown man, to receive restoration of sight form Jesus in the witness and hearing of many others of the same time and circumstances, his testimony will be very convincing. The other Jews around him who can testify and agree with him will eventually become collective witness for Jesus!

 

Apparently this man born blind was able to handle the situation better than what the opposing Jews had expected.

I believe for all those years growing up blind and subjected to discrimination and verbal abuses he would have learned not to trust the religious establishments and those who think highly of themselves as upper-class citizen.

I have reason to believe that before this miracle he could have already heard of Jesus and what Jesus did doing good for the poor and needy. And perhaps he was praying in his heart that one day Jesus might visit him.

Looking at the initial response, he seems wise to answer his opponent

 

25ཁོ་ན༌རེ། མི་དེ་ནི་སྡིག་ཅན་ཞིག་ཡིན་མིན་ངས་མི་ཤེས༌ལ། སྔོན་ཆད་ང་རང་ནི་དམུས་ལོང་ཡིན་ཡང་ད་ལྟ་མིག་གིས་མཐོང་བ་འདི་བདག་གིས་ཤེས་ཞེས་སྨྲས་སོ།།

25 He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”

 

I think he already saw through how these religious fanatics and arrogant classy people will user tricky of questioning to poison his thoughts about Jesus. Thus he refused to agree that Jesus was a sinner. And so he kept his testimony “I was blind, now I see”. However when these fanatics were persistent he loses patience.

 

26ཡང་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། མི་དེས་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཅི་བྱས་པ་ཡིན༌ནམ། ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་མིག་ཟུང་ཇི་ལྟར་སོས་པ་ཡིན་ནམ་ཞེས་དྲིས་པ༌ན། 27ཡང་ཁོ་ན༌རེ། ངས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་ལན་གཅིག་བཤད་ཀྱང་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མ་མཉན། ད་ནི་ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་མཉན་འདོད༌དམ། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱང་མི་དེའི་རྗེས་འབྲང་པ་བྱེད་འདོད་པ་ཡིན་ནམ་ཞེས་སྨྲས་པ༌ལ།

26 They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27 He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?”

 

Note the details of the questioning – the focus on the “what” and “how” and they did not even bother to ask if he could now see wonderful colors of this world!

We must bear in mind these fanatic interrogators most likely were not of medical experts and seeking scientific methods of healing and restoration for the man born blind.

Apparently these religious fanatics and determined opponent of Jesus were “picking bones from eggs” (nitpicking) going the extra miles to proof that Jesus had broken the Sabbath and therefore a sinner. Means to say, their approach was to exercise their religious doctrines to persecute and condemn Jesus and the man who received his restoration of sight.

The gospel writer made extra note the parents of the man born blind were pressured and threatened by these same fanatic Jews not to acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ!

 

The details of this conversation recorded by the gospel writer exposed more of their theological divide and what do they already determined to be of God and not of God.

 

These Jews who claim to know Moses and identify themselves as disciples of Moses – how did they read and interpret God’s teachings revealed through Moses?

They claim to be disciples of Moses but did they not hear Jesus said Moses spoke of Him?

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 5:46-47

46གལ་ཏེ་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་མོ་ཤེ་ལ་ཡིད་ཆེས་ཡོད་ན་བདག་ལའང་ཡིད་ཆེས་ཡོད་དགོས༌ཏེ། ཁོང་གིས་བདག་གི་སྐོར་ཡི་གེར་བཀོད་ཡོད་པའི་ཕྱིར༌རོ།། 47འོན༌ཀྱང༌། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་མོ་ཤེའི་མདོ་རྣམས་ལ་ཡིད་ཆེས་མེད་ན་བདག་གིས་སྨྲས་པའི་གཏམ་ལ་ཇི་ལྟར་ཡིད་ཆེས་སམ་ཞེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།

John 5:46-47

46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”

 

The writings of Moses advocate obedience to the will of the Father.

Jesus teaches obedience to the Father and to do the will of the Father (Matthew 7:21-23 མད་ཐཱ། 7:21-23)

These Jews who claimed to be disciples of Moses, how did they interpret the writings of Moses and what do they perceive as the will of the Father? And what was the basis of their opposition against Jesus?

 

To be continue …

David Z