To Believe in Jesus – Part 123
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 11:7-10
7ཁོང་གིས་ཐུགས་སྲས་རྣམས་ལ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། བདག་ཅག་སླར་ཡང་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱའི་ཡུལ་དུ་འགྲོའོ་ཞེས་གསུངས་པ༌ལ། 8ཐུགས་སྲས་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། རཱབ་པེ་ལགས། ཁ་སང་ཙམ་ནས་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཁྱེད་རྡོ་རུབ་གཏོང་བར་རྩོམ༌ཡང༌། ཁྱེད་རང་ད་དུང་ཡུལ་དེར་ཕེབས་སམ་ཞེས་ཞུས་པ༌ན། 9ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ཉིན་དཀར་གཅིག་ལ་ཆུ་ཚོད་བཅུ་གཉིས་ཡོད་པ་མ་ཡིན༌ནམ། ཉིན་མོར་ལམ་ལ་སྐྱོད་མཁན་དེས་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་འོད་སྣང་མཐོང་བས་སར་མི་འགྱེལ༌ཡང༌། 10མཚན་མོར་ལམ་ལ་སྐྱོད་མཁན་དེར་འོད་སྣང་མེད་པས་སར་འགྱེལ་བར་འགྱུར་ཞེས་གསུངས་པ༌དང༌།
John 11:7-10
7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” 9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10 But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”
Again Jesus said something which His disciples would had find it very difficult to understand. And if we had been there at that time we would find it very difficult to understand as well.
However since it was spoken by their Master, the disciples went along with what Jesus intended – “Let us go to Judea again.”.
The disciples of Jesus warned Him about going to Judea again because it was Jesus’ initiative on previous occasion to stay away from Judea due to intense hostility from fanatic Jews who wanted to kill Him.
So why is Jesus going to Judea again?
In previous post I mentioned of Jesus’ friendship with Lazarus’ family and His willingness to risk His life for a close friend.
Now His disciples raised a valid question which Jesus seems obligated to answer.
In Jesus’ explanation about going to Judea again, which He previously wanted to avoid, He now use the opposite comparison of day and night, contrast of light and darkness.
The disciples of Jesus should had known the difference between day and night, but what did He mean by saying that in this context and circumstances?
Was Jesus speaking in some kind of hidden languages? Some kind of secret message? Allegory? Metaphor? What was Jesus talking about?
I believe the key to understand what Jesus said here in John 11 is this particular remark He made in V9
light of this world.
I believe Jesus in saying what He said, can be considered a reminder to His disciples – where else did Jesus said about being “light of the world”? Sounds familiar?
Just 2 chapters before John 11, we read this
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 9:5 – ང་རང་འཇིག་རྟེན་དུ་བཞུགས་དུས་བདག་ནི་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་འོད་ཟེར་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས༌རྗེས།
John 9:5 – As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
Remember in John 9 Jesus healed a man who was born blind and restored his sight.
The man born blind was happy and grateful to Jesus for restoring his sight, but the fanatic Jews who were against Jesus they were furious with both Jesus and the man born blind for breaking the the sabbath rule as according to their sectarian doctrines.
That was the circumstance Jesus taught them a very important lesson – He is the light of the world – and in that circumstances it was life lesson in comparison and contrast between what Jesus do and teaches vs what the religious establishment had been enforcing.
And 1 chapter before Jesus heals the man born blind –
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 8:12
12དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་མི་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། བདག་ནི་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་འོད་ཟེར་ཡིན༌ཞིང༌། ངའི་རྗེས་སུ་འབྲང་མཁན་རྣམས་མུན་པའི་ནང་དུ་བགྲོད་པ་མ་ཡིན་པར་ཚེ་སྲོག་གི་འོད་དང་ལྡན་པར་འགྱུར་ཞེས་གསུངས་པ༌དང༌།
John 8:12
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
John 8:1-12 – the incident of the woman caught in adultery, there are disagreement if this incident was actually included in the original script. Nevertheless what Jesus said in John 8:12 is a continuous teaching lesson from John 7 in His responses to questions and disputes raised by the Pharisees and fanatic Jews about His teachings.
The events of John 7 happened during the Feast of Booths also known as the Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot for the Jews in Jerusalem. Remember it was in the midst of that event that Jesus said
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 7:38 – སུ་ཞིག་གིས་བདག་ལ་དད་པ་བྱེད་ན། གསུང་རབ་ལས་གསུངས་པ་ལྟར་མི་དེའི་ཁོག་ནས་ཚེ་སྲོག་དང་ལྡན་པའི་ཆུ་ནི་གཙང་པོ་བཞིན་དུ་འབབ་པར་འགྱུར་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།།
John 7:38 – Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”
The events of John 7 had the extra important background info as it was considered the only recorded incident whereby the Sanhedrin sent their temple guards to arrest Jesus but they – the temple guards – eventually held back from arresting Jesus and we had records of sharp division within the religious leadership that forms the Sanhedrin.
Apparently the temple guards did not follow through with instructions from the Sanhedrin to arrest Jesus due to their conviction Jesus spoke the truth, and there were members of the Sanhedrin and among the Pharisees who begin to believe Jesus was speaking the truth.
We can go back all the way to the opening chapter of the gospel of John and we read this
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 1:4-5
4ཁོང་གི་ནང་དུ་ཚེ་སྲོག་བཞུགས་པ་དང༌།།
ཚེ་སྲོག་དེ་ནི་མི་ཡི་གཟི་འོད་དོ།།
5གཟི་འོད་ཉིད་ནི་མུན་པར་འཕྲོ་བྱེད༌ཀྱང༌།།
མུན་པ་དེ་ལས་རྒྱལ༌བར་མ་གྱུར་ཏོ།།
John 1:4-5
4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Jesus in His plan and intention to go to Judea again to raise Lazarus from the dead as according the will of the Father will, the purpose is to let His light shine very brightly so that more people will see the truth and believe.
To be continue …
David Z
