To Believe in Jesus – Part 108

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 10:14-15

14ང་རང་ནི་ལུག་རྫི་བཟང་པོ༌ཡིན་ཏེ། ངས་རང་གི་ལུག་རྣམས་ངོ་ཤེས༌ཤིང༌། ངའི་ལུག་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་ང་རང་ངོ་ཤེས༌པ་ཡིན། 15བདག་གི་ཡབ་ཀྱིས་ང་རང་ངོ་ཤེས་པ་དང་ངས་ཀྱང་ཁོང་ཉིད་ངོ་ཤེས་པ༌ལྟར། བདག་གིས་ལུག་རྣམས་ཀྱི་དོན་དུ་རང་སྲོག་བློས་གཏོང་བ་ཡིན།

John 10:14-15

14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.

 

Continuing Jesus’ discourse on being the good shepherd and here He provided more explanation why He is the good shepherd.

 

Relationship

 

What kind of relationship was Jesus referring to?

Relationship between shepherd and sheep, and Jesus said the kind of relationship similar to His relationship with the Father.

What Jesus said here should prompt us to reflect deeper what this relationship between Jesus and the Father.

This “father and son” relationship has long been a major Christian theological debate and discussion and Christians often talks about it.

If we look back to church history, churches and denominations had split and even denounced each other over disagreement about Jesus’ relationship with the Father.

 

Why so serious?

 

While many theological debates centers around the divinity of Christ due to His relationship with the Father, I think what Jesus said here in John 10 in this particular context could refer to something we humans can easily relate to in our everyday lives and not so much in the philosophical aspect.

I think it’s more about

 

1. Care and concern within and among human communities
2. Sincerity and commitment for welfare for the sake of communal benefits
3. Risk and sacrifices for the sake of those we love and cherish
4. The Father figure as compared with the shepherd more of a provider and protector and not the corrupted human leadership way of abuse of power and control that we could often hear about.
5. As Jesus is under the care and provision of the Father, the sheep are under the care and provision of the shepherd

 

I think the idea of Jesus being the good shepherd have had shaped and formed how churches across denominations should do their pastoral care for brothers and sisters in Christ.

Back to the message in John 10, Jesus pointed to something that should catch our attention “lay down my life for the sheep“.

I do not think Jesus was using figure of speech about this because based on the records of the Gospels Jesus had been risking His life preaching and teaching the truth. How many times we read of fanatic Jews wanting to stone Jesus to death and I believe there were more incidents not recorded.

The very fact that the Gospels recorded how the Sanhedrin and fanatic Jews plotted together to put Jesus to death showed how much danger Jesus was exposed to before He was eventually crucified on the cross.

 

This “lay down my life for the sheep” has been an inherent character of Jesus!

 

We can read from the records of Acts of the Apostles, those leaders chosen and approved of God all follow the same practice of Jesus – “lay down my life for the sheep”.

Today with benefits of hindsight, we can look back to history and known facts and truth, Jesus sacrificed His life and blood on the cross according to the Father’s will and that because of the ultimate blessing for His sheep. And those disciples of Jesus who followed the same practice continues to be fruitful worldwide

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 12:24 – ངས་ཁྱེད་ཚོར་བདེན་པ་བདེན་པར་ཟེར་རྒྱུར། གྲོའི་འབྲུ་རྡོག་སའི་ནང་ལྷུངས་ནས་མ་ཤི་ན་འབྲུ་རྡོག་ཁོ་ནར་ལུས། འོན་ཀྱང་ཤི་ན་འབྲུ་རྡོག་དེ་འབྲས་བུ་མང་པོ་སྐྱེ་བར་འགྱུར།

John 12:24 – Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

 

What Jesus said in John 12:24 is prophetic

We know after Jesus’ resurrection how multitudes turned to repentance and obey the true and living God who has chosen Jesus as the Messiah to redeem us from sin and eternal death.

It is through this relationship between Jesus and the Father we learn to relate to our heavenly Father

We have many questions about God and how we should relate to our Father in heaven and from now we can learn from Jesus.

What qualify Jesus as the good shepherd is that – there is that relationship with the Father in heaven and there is that relationship with His sheep and these two spheres of relationship actually overlaps.

It is also through recognizing and following Jesus as the good shepherd that we also learn to relate to the Father in heaven in a meaningful way that will help us to maturity and fruitfulness

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 14:8-11

8 ཕི་ལིབ་ཀྱིས་ “གཙོ་བོ་ལགས། ཡབ་དེ་ང་ཚོ་ལ་སྟོན་པར་མཛོད་དང༌། ཚིམ་པར་འགྱུར་” ཞེས་བཤད།

9 ཡེ་ཤུས་ “ཕི་ལིབ། ང་རང་ཁྱོད་ཚོ་དང་མཉམ་དུ་ཡུན་རིང་པོར་བསྡད་ཀྱང༌། ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་ད་དུང་ང་སུ་ཡིན་པ་མི་ཤེས་སམ། ང་མཐོང་མཁན་དེས་ཡབ་མཐོང་བས། ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་ཡབ་དེ་ང་ཚོ་ལ་སྟོན་པར་མཛོད་ཅེས་ཟེར།

10 ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་ང་ཡབ་ཀྱི་ནང་ན་ཡོད་པ་དང་ཡབ་ངའི་ནང་ན་ཡོད་པར་དད་པ་མི་བྱེད་དམ། ངས་ཁྱོད་ཚོར་བཤད་པའི་གཏམ་དེ་རྣམས་ང་རང་རང་ཐོག་ནས་མ་བཤད་དེ། ཡབ་ངའི་ནང་དུ་གནས་པ་དེས་རང་གི་ལས་རྣམས་མཛད།

11 ང་ཡབ་ཀྱི་ནང་ན་ཡོད་པ་དང་ཡབ་ངའི་ནང་ན་ཡོད་པར་ཡིད་ཆེས་ཤིག དེ་མ་བྱས་ནའང་ངས་བྱས་པའི་འཕྲིན་ལས་ཉིད་ཀྱི་ཕྱིར་ཡིད་ཆེས་བྱོས།

John 14:8-11

8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

 

As we follow Jesus the good shepherd we are drawing near to our Father in heaven.

To be continue …

 

David Z

To Believe in Jesus – Part 107

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 10:11-15

11ང་རང་ནི་ལུག་རྫི་བཟང་པོ༌ཡིན་ཏེ། ལུག་རྫི་བཟང་པོས་ལུག་རྣམས་ཀྱི་དོན་དུ་རང་སྲོག་ཀྱང་བློས་གཏོང་བ༌ཡིན། 12གླ་བ་ནི་ལུག་རྫི་དངོས་མིན་ལ་ལུག་གི་བདག་པོའང་མ་ཡིན༌པས། ཁོས་སྤྱང་ཀི་ཡོང་བ་མཐོང་ཚེ་ལུག་རྣམས་བསྐྱུར་ནས་འབྲོ་བ༌དང༌། སྤྱང་ཀིས་ལུག་འཛིན་པ་དང་ལུག་ཁྱུའང་གཏོར་བར་བྱེད། 13དེས་ན་གླ་བ་དེ་བྲོས་འགྲོ་བའི་རྒྱུ་མཚན་ཅི་ཞེ༌ན། གླ་བ་ནི་གླས་པ་ཡིན་པས་ཁོས་ལུག་ལ་སེམས་ཁུར་མི་བྱེད་དོ།། 14ང་རང་ནི་ལུག་རྫི་བཟང་པོ༌ཡིན་ཏེ། ངས་རང་གི་ལུག་རྣམས་ངོ་ཤེས༌ཤིང༌། ངའི་ལུག་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་ང་རང་ངོ་ཤེས༌པ་ཡིན། 15བདག་གི་ཡབ་ཀྱིས་ང་རང་ངོ་ཤེས་པ་དང་ངས་ཀྱང་ཁོང་ཉིད་ངོ་ཤེས་པ༌ལྟར། བདག་གིས་ལུག་རྣམས་ཀྱི་དོན་དུ་རང་སྲོག་བློས་གཏོང་བ་ཡིན།

John 10:11-15

11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.

 

Here Jesus stated that He is the good shepherd and this is probably the most recognizable statement and identity about Jesus most Christians will know and often used for evangelism and encouragement to follow Jesus.

What Jesus said here is not some kind of isolated stand-alone declaration but a continuation of a long detail discourse of what He said back in John 9:39-41 –

 

39དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ང་ནི་འཇིག་རྟེན་འདི་ལ་ལེགས་ཉེས་ཀྱི་ཤན་འབྱེད་དུ་ཡོང་བ་ཡིན༌ཏེ། ལོང་བ་རྣམས་ལ་མཐོང་བར་བྱེད་ཅིང་མཐོང་བ་རྣམས་ནི་ལོང་བར་འགྱུར་བའི་ཕྱིར་རོ་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།། 40དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུའི་དྲུང་དུ་ཡོད་པའི་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་འགའ་ཞིག་གིས་ཀྱང་གསུངས་དེ་ཐོས་ནས་འདི༌ལྟར། དེས་ན་ངེད་རྣམས་ཀྱང་ལོང་བ་ཡིན་ནམ་ཞེས་དྲིས་པ༌ན། 41ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། གལ་ཏེ་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལོང་བ་ཡིན་ན་སྡིག་པའང་མེད། འོན་ཀྱང་ད་ལྟ་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མིག་གིས་མཐོང་བ་ཡིན་ཞེས་ཟེར༌བས། ཁྱོད་ཅག་གི་རྒྱུད་དུ་ད་དུང་སྡིག་པ་ཡོད་ཅེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།

39 Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” 40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.

 

And this message in John 9:39-41 is inked back to what Jesus said in John 9:5 before He performed His miracle on the man born blind and restored his sight –

 

5ང་རང་འཇིག་རྟེན་དུ་བཞུགས་དུས་བདག་ནི་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་འོད་ཟེར་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས༌རྗེས།

5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

 

So Jesus is continuing His teaching and revelation that He is the light of the world!

There is that connection between Jesus being the light of the world and Jesus being the good shepherd.

In the context of Jesus’ teaching and explanation He compared and contrasted Himself with man-made religious establishment of this world that misled people away from the true living God who will actually redeem us from sin and eternal death. The Jewish religious establishments of that time although claiming to be followers of Moses and God were exposed to be fake!

If we are to consider the totality of this message from Jesus in the complete context of the Gospel of John, we can link back further to John 1:4

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 1:4 ཁོང་གི་ནང་ན་དཔག་ཏུ་མེད་པའི་ཚེ་ཡོད་པ་དང༌། ཚེ་དེ་ནི་མི་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་འོད་ཡིན་ནོ།

John 1:4 In Him (Jesus) was life, and the life was the light of men.

 

Putting this entire context together we need to ask a very important question

What does it mean to recognize Jesus as The Good Shepherd?

 

1) To see Jesus as the true revelation of the true living God who have the ultimate power and authority to redeem us from sin and eternal death

2) To see Jesus as showing us, leading us, the true path to eternal life with the true living God.

3) To receive and accept Jesus’ teaching as the standard of righteousness approved of God and also to accept and believe what Jesus define as sin and disobedience against the will of God.

4) To see Jesus as showing us the true example of repentance and obedience for us to do the will of God.

5) To see Jesus as the God appointed Messiah to bring about complete redemption for Mankind.

 

Jesus’ message was in direct confrontation against false and misleading teachings that denied people of the true way to redemption.

We live in a world flooded with confusion and false religions that make empty promises of deliverance.

In our world today, there are people who are in search of truth and salvation.

We are faced with the same situation with regards to the widespread divisions recorded in the gospels among the Jews about the identity of Jesus. And it is in this context and situation that Jesus said “I am the good shepherd“.

 

To be continue …

David Z

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