To Believe in Jesus – Part 106

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 10:7-10

7དེའི༌ཕྱིར། ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ངས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་ཡང་དག་པར་བདེན་པར་སྨྲ༌སྟེ། ལུག་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སྒོ་ནི་ང་རང་ཡིན། 8ངའི་སྔོན་དུ་ཡོང་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཇག་རྐུན་ཡིན་ཏེ་ལུག་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་དེ་དག་གི་ངག་ལ་མ་མཉན་ཏོ།། 9ང་རང་ནི་སྒོ་ཡིན༌ཏེ། ང་རང་བརྒྱུད་ནས་ནང་དུ་འགྲོ་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་སྐྱོབ་པར་འགྱུར༌ཞིང༌། ཕྱི་ནང་གང་དུ་སོང་ནའང་བཟའ་བྱའི་རྩྭ་འཐོབ་པར་འགྱུར། 10སྤྱིར་རྐུན་མ་ཐམས་ཅད་ནི་རྐུ་བྱེད་པ་དང་སྲོག་གཅོད་པའམ་མེད་པར་བྱེད་པ་བཅས་ཁོ་ནའི་ཆེད་དུ་ཡོང༌བ་ཡིན། འོན་ཀྱང་ང་རང་ནི་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་ཚེ་སྲོག་དཔག་ཏུ་མེད་པ་སྩོལ་བའི་ཕྱིར་ཡོང༌ངོ༌།།

John 10:7-10

7 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

 

What Jesus said here is getting serious for those who were listening to Him.

Jesus had repeated His comparison and contrast about Himself being the opposite of thieves and robbers who will steal, kill, and destroy the sheep!

In previous posts I pointed out who were “they” and “them” Jesus was speaking to – Pharisees and fanatic Jews who oppose Jesus. Although Jesus had various other opponents but these two groups stands out. And I mentioned a notable problem in Jerusalem at that time – the teachings and instructions of God revealed to Israel through Moses were being replaced by “traditions” and “commandments of men” (མད་ཐཱ། Matthew 15:1-9, མད་ཐཱ། Matthew 23:13-30, མར་ཀུ Mark 7:7)

Now in this continuation of discourse Jesus said sometime direct that we need to look deeper into history to help us better understand the context because I believe those who heard Him would have been in shock and horror –

 

8ངའི་སྔོན་དུ་ཡོང་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཇག་རྐུན་ཡིན་ཏེ་ལུག་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་དེ་དག་གི་ངག་ལ་མ་མཉན་ཏོ།།

8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.

 

Who were those who came before Jesus?

Who among them would have that kind of leadership capacity to move the masses to trust and obey God or to abuse that kind of position to influence people?

I do not think Jesus was referring to John the Baptist because John the Baptist was known to be the forerunner of Christ and it was all in the prophesy of Malachi

Jesus Himself testified of John the Baptist to be a great prophet of God!

 

མཱལ་ཨ་ཀེ 3:1-4

1དཔུང་ཚོགས་ཀུན་གྱི་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཡ་ཝཱེས་འདི་སྐད་དུ། ལྟོས་དང་། ངས་རང་གི་ཕོ་ཉ་མངགས་ཏེ་ངའི་མདུན་དུ་ལམ་གྲ་སྒྲིག་བྱེད་པ་དང་། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་འཚོལ་བའི་གཙོ་བོ་ནི་གློ་བུར་ཉིད་ལ་ཁོང་གི་མཆོད་ཁང་ནང་དུ་ཕེབས་ངེས་ཤིང་། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཡིད་སྨོན་བྱེད་པའི་ཞལ་ཆད་ཀྱི་ཕོ་ཉ་དེ་འོང་བར་འགྱུར་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ། ། 2ཡིན་ནའང་ཁོང་སླེབས་པའི་དུས་དེ་སུ་ཞིག་གིས་བཟོད་ནུས་སམ། ཁོང་མངོན་པའི་དུས་ལ་སུ་ཞིག་ཚུགས་ཐུབ་བམ། ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་ཞེ་ན། ཁོང་ནི་གསེར་བཙོ་སྦྱང་བྱེད་མཁན་གྱི་མེ་དང་། གོས་འཁྲུད་མཁན་གྱི་བ་ཚྭ་དང་འདྲའོ། ། 3ཡང་ཁོང་ནི་དངུལ་བཙོ་སྦྱང་བྱས་ནས་དེ་གཙང་མར་བཟོ་མཁན་གྱི་མི་དང་འདྲ་བར་བཞུགས་ཤིང་། ཁོང་གིས་ལེ་ཝི་པ་རྣམས་གཙང་མར་མཛད་ཅིང་། གསེར་དང་དངུལ་ལ་བཙོ་སྦྱང་བྱེད་པ་བཞིན་དུ་དེ་རྣམས་གཙང་མར་མཛད་པ་དང་། དེ་ནས་ཁོ་ཚོས་དྲང་བདེན་གྱི་ངང་ནས་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཡ་ཝཱེར་མཆོད་པ་འབུལ་བར་བྱའོ། ། 4གནའ་བོའི་དུས་དང་སྔོན་ཆད་ཀྱི་ལོ་ཟླ་ནང་བཞིན། དེའི་དུས་སུ་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་དང་ཡེ་རུ་སཱ་ལེམ་གྱིས་ཕུལ་བའི་མཆོད་པར་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཡ་ཝཱེ་ཐུགས་མཉེས་ནས་བཞེས་པར་འགྱུར།

Malachi 3:1-4

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. 2 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. 4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.

 

Today we have the benefit of hindsight and we know this prophesy of Malachi is referring to John the Baptist who prepared the way for Jesus the Christ!

Furthermore this message from Malachi can help provide some understanding what happened in that land from the time of Malachi to the appearing of John the Baptist and Jesus, and why Jesus said what He said.

Since the time of Malachi, those Jews who returned to Jerusalem from the Babylonian exile and who tried to rebuild the Temple had been told about the coming Messiah.

 

Question is – how did they read and interpret scriptures? And how did they prepare for the coming Messiah?

 

That period of time from Malachi to John the Baptist, the Jewish community in and around Jerusalem had gone through more wars – Greeks and the Romans – and their religious and community leaderships had become very fragmented and sectarianism followed. What makes situation more complex was that in between the Greeks and Romans, there was the Maccabean Revolt led by fanatic Jews who were against fellow Jews who assimilated to Greek Hellenism supporting the Seleucid Empire of Antiochus IV.

Question – what does all these political situations had to do with the prophetic message of Malachi, John the Baptist, and Jesus the Christ?

I mentioned earlier about Malachi’s message of the coming Messiah

 

How did they (the Jews who were waiting for the Messiah) read and interpret scriptures? And how did they prepare for the coming Messiah?

 

Those fanatic Jews who were determined to oppose Jesus – they were expecting a messiah who is to be a king of Israel and to lead a successful military campaign to liberate Israel from foreign rule and to restore sovereignty to the nation of Israel.

In short they expected the messiah to return the land – especially Jerusalem – to them as the rightful owner. And that kind of expectations and teachings had been spreading in and around Jerusalem for long period of time before Jesus and that is why we have factual historical records of a few notable false messiahs before Jesus –

 

1. Judas, son of Ezekias who led an armed revolt – against Roman rule – following the death of King Herod in 4 BC.
2. Simon of Perea who claim kingship after the death of Herod the Great in 4 BCE and his revolt were put down by the Romans.
3. Athronges incited and led insurrection against Roman rule shortly after Herod’s death.

 

The above lists are but only tiny fractions of many more cases. And it is interesting to note that that period of time when John the Baptist and Jesus appears – there were already growing consensus about timing of events, about the Day of the Lord and the appearing of the messiah, and many believed and expected they were living at that moment!

 

Remember a common question the Pharisees and fanatic Jews had kept asking Jesus? When will the kingdom of God appear?

 

Why did they keep repeating that question to Jesus? Because they believed the time is now! They believe and expected they were living in that moment when the kingdom of God should appear and the nation of Israel to be fully restored!

Another important questions for us – why and how did ideas of revolt and insurrection against Roman rule at that time seems to gain monument easily and would quickly draw crowds of followers as it seems popular? Why were the people quick to support revolt against the Roman?

It had everything to do with how the fanatic Jews interpreted scriptures and those prophesy of the coming messiah and what had they taught to the common folks!

By the time of John the Baptist, Jews – especially those living in and around Jerusalem – many had been sold out to the idea of a coming messiah who will be king of Israel and will liberate Israel from foreign rule and that anybody anyone who think and say otherwise will be quickly condemned as anti-Israel.

 

It was in that kind of situation Jesus was warning them about false prophets and false messiah.

 

All those divisions among the Jews we read about in the records of the gospels exposed the widespread misleading teachings they had been subjected to which gave opportunities to false prophets taking advantage of situation and eventually false messiahs leading people to destruction while thinking they were liberating themselves.

Even after the resurrection of Jesus, fanatic Jews continued to hold on to their doctrines and continued to seek opportunity to repel Roman rule and eventually led to the Jewish Roman Wars and the complete destruction – again – of Jerusalem in AD 70.

Jesus’ warning for them remains true and accurate – “the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy”.

 

To be continue …

David Z