To Believe in Jesus – Part 118

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 10:40-42

40དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་ཁོང་ཡོར་དན་གཙང་པོའི་ཕ་རོལ༌ཏེ། སྔར་ཁྲུས་གསོལ་མཁན་ཡོ་ཧ་ནན་གྱིས་ཁྲུས་གསོལ་བྱས་མྱོང་བའི་གནས་དེར་ཕེབས་ནས་བཞུགས་པ་རེད། 41དེ་ནས་མི་མང་པོ་ཁོང་གི་དྲུང་དུ་ཡོང་སྟེ་ཕན་ཚུན་ན༌རེ། ཁྲུས་གསོལ་མཁན་ཡོ་ཧ་ནན་གྱིས་གྲུབ་རྟགས་ཅི་ཡང་མ་བསྟན༌ཀྱང་། ཁོས་སྐྱེས་བུ་འདིའི་སྐོར་ལ་སྨྲས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་བདེན་པ་རེད་ཅེས་སྨྲས་པ༌དང༌། 42ཡུལ་དེ་རུ་མི་མང་པོ་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་ལ་དད་པར་གྱུར༌ཏོ།།

John 10:40-42

40 He (Jesus) went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and there he remained. 41 And many came to him. And they said, “John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” 42 And many believed in him there.

Jesus walked away from those who wanted to kill Him.

The kind of hostile circumstances Jesus had to deal with, we know from gospels records the reasons why these fanatic Jews wanted to kill Him were basically their rejections of Jesus’ position and authority as the Son of God. Furthermore, in close examination under Moses’ law codes for capital punishments there were no valid grounds to punish Jesus.

Jesus had the rights to walked away from those who wanted to kill Him for no valid reason.

It is very interesting to note where exactly Jesus went to –

40དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་ཁོང་ཡོར་དན་གཙང་པོའི་ཕ་རོལ༌ཏེ། སྔར་ཁྲུས་གསོལ་མཁན་ཡོ་ཧ་ནན་གྱིས་ཁྲུས་གསོལ་བྱས་མྱོང་བའི་གནས་དེར་ཕེབས་ནས་བཞུགས་པ་རེད།

40 He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and there he remained.

To the very place those fanatic Jews would had avoided!

John the Baptist had a powerful public ministry calling sinners to repentance and remission of sins and those who came to him must provide explicit show of obedience through his water baptism ministry. And since the beginning of John the Baptist’s ministry there had been sharp divisions among the Jews – those who believed John’s message and prepared themselves for the coming Messiah and those who continued to follow certain sects of the Pharisees and Sadducee who rejected John’s ministry as of God.

Those fanatic Jews who rejected John the Baptist’s call for repentance would not had gone anywhere near him because they knew they will draw much public ire by approaching John the Baptist and not doing what everyone else was doing – get into the water and be baptized!

That particular area where John had established his ministry of water baptism, disciple’s communities had sprouted and they continued to live around that same area even after John was executed by Herod.

By the timing of John 10:40 John the Baptist had already been beheaded by Herod Antipas but his disciples and followers continued in their practices received from John the Baptist. And they knew it was through the testimony of John the Baptist they came to recognize Jesus as the coming Messiah while many still have their doubts as Jesus had not yet been glorified through His death and resurrection.

So here in John 10:40 Jesus came to a place where like-minded people were gathered and they welcomed Him and many more believed in Him.

The foundational and preparing part of John the Baptist’s ministry should not be dismissed.

Consider how John the Baptist started his ministry

མད་ཐཱ། 3:1-3

1དེའི་དུས༌སུ། ཁྲུས་གསོལ་མཁན་ཡོ་ཧ་ནན་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱའི་ཡུལ་གྱི་དབེན་གནས་སུ་བྱོན་ཏེ་ཆོས་བསྒྲགས༌ཤིང༌། 2ནམ་མཁའི་རྒྱལ་སྲིད་ཉེ་བར་སླེབས་པས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་འགྱོད་བཤགས་བྱོས་ཤིག་ཅེས་གསུངས༌སོ།། 3ཡོ་ཧ་ནན་ནི་ལུང་སྟོན་པ་ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱ་ཡིས།

དབེན་སྟོང་ཡུལ་ནས་གྲགས་པའི་འབོད་སྒྲ༌ཡིས།།

གཙོ་བོའི་ཕེབས་ལམ་སྟ་གོན་བྱེད་པ༌དང༌།།

ཁོང་གི་གཤེགས་ལམ་དྲང་པོར་བཟོ་བར༌གྱིས།།

ཞེས་ལུང་བསྟན་པའི་སྐྱེས་བུ་དེ་ཡིན༌ནོ།།

Matthew 3:1-3

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’”

John the Baptist started with the call for repentance and those who listen and followed continued in the practice of repentance in preparing themselves to be received of the coming Messiah and to enter the kingdom of God.

The beginning of Jesus’ ministry can be noted from མད་ཐཱ། Matthew 3:13 to Matthew 4:17

Jesus first went through water baptism under John the Baptist –

མད་ཐཱ། 3:13 – དེའི་དུས༌སུ། ཁྲུས་འཐོབ་པའི༌ཕྱིར། སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་ཁོང་ཉིད་ག་ལིལ་ཡུལ་ནས་ཡོར་དན་གཙང་པོའི་འགྲམ་དུ་ཁྲུས་གསོལ་མཁན་ཡོ་ཧ་ནན་གྱི་གམ་དུ་བྱོན༌ནའང༌།

Matthew 3:13 – Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.

Although Jesus is of higher status then John the Baptist yet He submitted to John’s ministry and that shows the importance of John’s ministry as foundational.

Immediately after baptism Jesus actually went through 40 days of fasting and it was towards the ending of His fasting period that He was confronted by the devil and overcame –

མད་ཐཱ། 4:1 – དེ་ནས་བདུད་ཀྱིས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུར་ཉམས་ཚོད་བྱེད་པའི༌ཕྱིར། དམ་པའི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་དབེན་སྟོང་དུ་ཁྲིད༌ཅིང༌།

Matthew 4:1 – Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

It was highly possible soon after Jesus was baptized John the Baptist was arrested by Herod Antipas and Jesus begin His public preaching calling people to repentance following the footsteps of John

མད་ཐཱ། 4:12-17

12སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་ཁྲུས་གསོལ་མཁན་ཡོ་ཧ་ནན་བཙོན་དུ་བཟུང་ཡོད་པ་གསན་པ་དང་ག་ལིལ་ཡུལ་དུ་ཕེབས༌ཤིང༌། 13དེ་ནས་ནཱ་ཙ་རེལ་ནས་ཀཱ་ཕར་ན་ཧུམ་དུ་གནས་སྤར་ཏེ༌བཞུགས། ཀཱ་ཕར་ན་ཧུམ་ཞེས་པ་མཚོ་ག་ལིལ་གྱི་འགྲམ་དུ། ཟེ་བུ་ལུན་དང་ནཱབ་ཐ་ལི་གཉིས་ཀྱི་ཡུལ་དུ་ཡོད༌དོ།། 14དོན་འདི་ནི་ལུང་སྟོན་པ་ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱ་ཡི་མདོ་ལས་ཇི་སྐད༌དུ།

15ཟེ་བུ་ལུན་དང་ནཱབ་ཐ་ལི་གཉིས༌ནི།།

ག་ལིལ་མཚོ་ཡི་ཕྱོགས་སུ་བགྲོད་ལམ༌དང༌།།

ཡོར་དན་གཙང་པོའི་ཕ་རོལ་ཡུལ་གྲུ༌སྟེ།།

ཕྱི་ཕྱོགས་མི་རྣམས་སྡོད་པའི་ག་ལིལ༌ཡུལ།།

16མུན་པའི་ནང་དུ་སྡོད་པའི་མི་རྣམས༌ཀྱིས།།

འོད་ཟེར་ཆེན་པོ་ཞིག་ནི་མིག་གིས༌མཐོང༌།།

འཆི་ཁའི་ཡུལ་གྱི་སྨག་རུམ་ཆེན་པོ༌རུ།།

སྡོད་པའི་མི་རྣམས་ལ་ནི་གཟི་འོད༌འཕྲོས།།

ཞེས་གསུངས་པ་བཞིན་འགྲུབ་པའི༌ཕྱིར། སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་དེ་ལྟར་མཛད་པ་ལགས༌སོ།། 17དུས་དེ་ནས་བཟུང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་ཆོས་སྒྲོག་འགོ་བརྩམས་ཏེ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ནམ་མཁའི་རྒྱལ་སྲིད་ཉེ་བར་སླེབས་པས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་འགྱོད་བཤགས་བྱོས་ཤིག་ཅེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།

Matthew 4:12-17

12 Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. 13 And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14 so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

15 “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— 16 the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.”

17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Both John the Baptist and Jesus’ ministry are founded on calling for repentance and to live in true obedience to God the Father.

For us called to preach and teach the truth of God’s words we must follow the same path of John the Baptist and Jesus as the following generations of true apostles of Christ did. The main tenet of the gospel message of Jesus must never be changed.

So back to the situation in John 10:40-42, what lessons can we learn from Jesus dealing with hostile circumstances that is none of our fault but simply from people who are antagonistic against the will of God?

Keep focus on the mission and purpose of Christ
Search for fruitful grounds and go there
If necessary stay away from hostile parties

To be continue …

David Z