To Believe in Jesus – Part 104

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 10:2-5

2འོན་ཀྱང་སྒོ་ལམ་བརྒྱུད་ནས་ལུག་རའི་ནང་དུ་འགྲོ་བ་དེ་ནི་ད་གཟོད་ལུག་རྫི་ཡིན༌ཏེ། 3སྒོ་སྲུང་གིས་དེ་ལ་སྒོ་འབྱེད་ཅིང་ལུག་དག་གིས་ཀྱང་དེའི་སྐད་ལ་མཉན༌པ་དང་། དེས་ཀྱང་རང་གི་ལུག་དག་གི་མིང་ནས་བོས་ཏེ་ཕྱི་རོལ་ཏུ་ཁྲིད༌ཅིང༌། 4རང་གི་ལུག་རྣམས་ཕྱིར་གཏོང་ཞིང་ཁོ་ནི་མདུན་དུ་འགྲོ་བའི་དུས། ལུག་དག་གིས་ཀྱང་ཁོའི་སྐད་ཤེས་པས་རྗེས་སུ་འབྲང་བ་ཡིན་ནོ།། 5ལུག་དེ་དག་མི་རྒྱུས་མེད་ཀྱི་རྗེས་སུ་མི་འབྲང༌ལ། མི་དེའི་སྐད་ཀྱང་མི་ཤེས་པས་འབྲོ་བར་འགྱུར་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།།

John 10:2-5

2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”

 

Let’s continue to analyze more into the message of John 10 where Jesus was using figure of speech “thief and a robber” in contrast to “shepherd of the sheep”.

Jesus specifically highlighted a form of communication between shepherd and sheep – voice – and it is mentioned three times within this sentence.

 

I believe that was done on purpose and His audience would have noted what was Jesus pointing at.

 

Back in the days of Jesus and John the Baptist, common folks Jews would had been familiar with shepherding and farming, herding of sheep and domestication of animals.

Herding of sheep involves various ways and methods and the shepherd’s use of voice command is not the only option but Jesus’ message highlighted that.

Those who are experienced in shepherding flocks will know that sheep are safety conscious, and can be sensitive to know if the shepherd herding them is protecting them from danger.

Within the context and background of Jesus’ public ministry, there seem to be an obvious reason why Jesus highlighted sheep knowing the voice of the shepherd.

In those days, how people hear the gospel, learn the ways of God, and be educated in the instructions and teachings of God – mostly through spoken words in designated gatherings.

In the days of John the Baptist and Jesus, the synagogues were places of gatherings where Jews learn the Torah and that usually happens during the Sabbath.

Few have access to scripture records. The availability of scripture documents was limited to start with, and it was usually the rabbis and their disciples, scribes and religious elite who had access to scripture records. And furthermore only the selected few among the religious elite were recognized to have authority to interpret scriptures. It was expected there were constant debates and disagreements what kind of authorities these religious elite had and who appointed them to interpret scripture and what ought to be practiced.

 

The situation in John 10, apparently Jesus was comparing and contrasting Himself with the Pharisees and fanatic Jews who runs the synagogues, because the common folks who came to Jesus were doing the comparison as well as they were talking among themselves about it and that’s why we read in the gospels about all these divisions that was going on.

 

Remember those disciples of Jesus, before they followed Jesus, most of them were either first from the synagogues and they switched camp to followed John the Baptist and finally Jesus.

John the Baptist knew his disciples left to follow Jesus and he gave them the blessing to do so because he knew and confessed Jesus is of higher authority.

The Pharisees and fanatic Jews were not happy more Jews were turning to follow Jesus and cutting their commitments to the synagogues.

The Sadducees were not happy that more Jews who turned to follow Jesus were not giving monies to the Temple but instead listened to Jesus and gave to the poor and needy!

 

There was an obvious division among the Jews and they were comparing Jesus to the religious establishments.

 

It is an understatement to say that these Pharisees and fanatic Jews who had overwhelming influence and control of how scripture should be interpreted, they knew how they could use their influence against Jesus and John the Baptist.

Therefore in the records of the Four Gospels, there was that repeated questioning of Jesus’ authority by His oppositions especially the Pharisees and fanatic Jews.

While all those debates and disagreements were going on between Jesus and the Pharisees and fanatic Jews, the common folks were watching and paying attention.

Today we have easy and wide access to scripture knowledge.

1) Digital publications – free

2) Online Commentaries – free

3) Videos – free

Common folks today have more access to scripture knowledge and we have no excuse not to spend more time to properly and carefully study scripture to know the will of God and how our redemption in Christ works.

 

We need to make sure we are on the right path to eternal life with Jesus.

 

We can have study groups, discussion groups, there is so much we can do today with all the available tools we have to learn the truth of God’s words and the appointment of  the Messiah chosen of God – Jesus – to redeem Man from sin and death.

Back to the situation in John 10, if we would do a general observation and comparison of Jesus’ ministry to that of the Pharisees, I think what is recorded in Matthew 11 can provide us a clear distinction between Jesus and the religious establishments of that time –

 

མད་ཐཱ། 11:28-30

28དཀའ་སྡུག་ཆེན་པོ་མྱོང་བ་དང་ཁུར་བོ་ལྕི་མོས་མནན་ཡོད་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་བདག་གི་དྲུང་དུ་ཤོག༌དང༌། བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་ངལ་གསོ་སྟེར་བར༌བྱའོ།། 29བདག་གི་གཉའ་ཤིང་ཁུར་ལ་བདག་ནས་སློབས༌དང༌། བདག་ནི་གཤིས་རྒྱུད་འཇམ་ཞིང་སྙེམས་ཆུང༌ཡིན། དེ་ལྟར་བྱས༌ན། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སེམས་སུ་ངལ་གསོ་འཐོབ་ངེས༌ཡིན། 30རྒྱུ་མཚན་ནི་བདག་གི་གཉའ་ཤིང་བདེ་ཞིང་ངའི་ཁུར་བོའང་ཡང་ངོ་ཞེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།

Matthew 11:28-30

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

 

The Pharisees and fanatic Jews were notorious for putting extra heavy burdens on the people with their excessive demands and obligations about rituals and purification.

The Sadducees who runs the Temple, people knew they were greedy for money and they had the support of Herod.

As for the Sanhedrin – common folks would rather avoid them unless they were being called up, summoned, to answer issues they wished to avoid.

We can read it ourselves in the records of the Four Gospels – the common folks who came to Jesus; they were drawn to Jesus because they saw the grace and glory of God in how Jesus ministered to people. Those who were poor and needy they came seeking for Jesus and they were satisfied.

I think the most definitive description of Jesus’ ministry can be found recorded in Luke 4 –

ལོ་ཀུ 4:18-19

18གཙོ་བོའི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་ང་ཡི་སྟེང་དུ༌བཞུགས།།

དབུལ་ཕོངས་རྣམས་ལ་འཕྲིན་བཟང་སྒྲོག་པའི༌ཕྱིར།།

ཁོང་གིས་བདག་ལ་བྱུགས་ཤིང༌བསྐོས་པ་འོ།།

བཙོན་པ་རྣམས་ལ་ཐར་པའི་འཕྲིན་བཟང༌དང༌།།

ལོང་བ་གསོ་བའི་འཕྲིན་བཟང་སྒྲོག་ཕྱིར༌དང༌།།

མནར་བ་རྣམས་ནི་སྒྲོལ་དུ་འཇུག་པ༌དང༌།།

19ཁོང་གི་ཐུགས་རྗེའི་གནམ་ལོ་སྒྲོག་ཕྱིར༌དུ།།

གཙོ་བོ་ཁོང་གིས་བདག་ནི་མངགས་པ༌ཡིན།།

ཞེས་པ་དེ་བཀླགས༌སོ།།

Luke 4:18-19

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

 

Imagine in those days and circumstances, who does not want to follow Jesus?

The ministry of Jesus brought to light division and separation between those who seek the truth of God and those who do not but instead determined to keep their human traditions and doctrines as what religious establishments do.

There were very obvious reasons on the ground why more Jews were turning to Jesus, switching camps from the synagogues, and the Pharisees and fanatic Jews were not happy.

 

To be continue …

David Z