To Believe in Jesus – Part 36
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 4:41 – ཁོང་གིས་ཆོས་གསུངས་པས་དད་པ་བྱེད་མཁན་ཡང་སྔར་ལས་ཇེ་མང་དུ་གྱུར་ཏོ།།
John 4:41 – And many more believed because of his word.
So the Samaritans invited Jesus to stay and preach to them because they wanted to hear directly from the person whom they expected to be the Messiah after what the woman at the well told them.
The author of the Gospel of John intentionally recorded Jesus stayed two days with them. This piece of information may not be significance for us today but to compare and contrast the circumstances Jesus went through during His years of public ministry this revealed something important about preaching the kingdom of God and calling for repentance and how people would react and response.
Remember the opening few verse of John 4, we read of why Jesus had to move and change location to continue His ministry
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 4:1-4
1དེ་ཡང་གཙོ་བོས་རྗེས་འབྲང་པ་བསྡུས་པ་དང་ཁྲུས་གསོལ་མཛད་པ་ནི་ཁྲུས་གསོལ་མཁན་ཡོ་ཧ་ནན་ལས་ཀྱང་མང་པོ་ཡིན་པ་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཐོས་སོ།། 2དོན་དམ་དུ་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་དངོས་སུ་ཁྲུས་གསོལ་མཛད་པ་མ་ཡིན་པར་ཁོང་གི་ཐུགས་སྲས་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཁྲུས་གསོལ་བྱས་པ༌ཡིན། 3དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་ཁོང་ཉིད་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱའི་ཡུལ་དང་ཁ་བྲལ་ནས་ག་ལིལ་ཡུལ་དུ་ཕྱིར་ཕེབས༌སོ།།
4ཁོང་ཉིད་སཱ་མར་ཡ་ཡུལ་བརྒྱུད་ནས་ཕེབས་དགོས༌ཤིང༌།
John 4:1-4
Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria.
Throughout the records of the Four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, how often we read of Jesus having to move and change locations to continue His ministry of preaching due to opposition, persecution, possible dangers and disruptions? And the most telling situation when they needed to move was when they were not welcomed due to disbelieve. All these happened too often that Jesus’ disciples were expecting it wherever they went.
Apparently when the Gospels record of positive responses there seem to be with element of surprises. Remember when Jesus was amazed by the faith of a Roman Centurion.
So now here in John 4, Jesus was invited to stay and preach more to the Samaritans! Does that surprise the disciples? Why did these Samaritans react so differently?
Because they believed in what Jesus said and wanted to hear more!
Here in the Gospel of John the author deliberated highlighted many more believed
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 4:41 – ཁོང་གིས་ཆོས་གསུངས་པས་དད་པ་བྱེད་མཁན་ཡང་སྔར་ལས་ཇེ་མང་དུ་གྱུར་ཏོ།།
John 4:41 – And many more believed because of his word.
The author of the Gospel of John did not disclose details of what Jesus spoke of to these Samaritans whereas we do read of the conversation between Jesus and the woman at the well.
We wish we could hear what they heard from Jesus in those two days Jesus stayed with them.
What did Jesus said to them?
We could assume Jesus spoke from the same message about living water which He spoke to the woman. And we could expect more.
In previous post I mentioned the Samaritans were prepared to meet Jesus with references to events surrounding the birth of Christ and words had been spreading.
Let’s consider a very powerful testimony John the Baptist made of Jesus
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 1:29
དེའི་ཕྱི༌ཉིན། ཁྲུས་གསོལ་མཁན་ཡོ་ཧ་ནན་གྱིས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་རང་གི་གམ་དུ་ཕེབས་པ་མཐོང་སྟེ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ལྟོས༌དང༌། དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་ལུ་གུ་
John 1:29
The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
The multitudes of people who came to John the Baptist recognized him to be a great prophet of God and many even thought this could be the Messiah.
And when John the Baptist declared that he is not the Messiah but was sent to prepare the way for the Messiah, those who heard him and believed his testimony stayed closed to him because they knew if they wanted to meet the real Messiah then John the Baptist is the man pointing the way to the real Messiah.
In those days these people who believe, both Jews and Gentiles, and waiting for the Messiah were also holding on to the hope and expectation that the Messiah would save them from the judgement and condemnation of sin, and eventually save them from the wrath of God.
Their faith in the Messiah was with the expectation of deliverance from the wrath of God and redemption from the condemnation of sin. Therefore the message of finding eternal life through the Messiah was very appealing and the Gospel of John testifies that this Jesus is the Messiah!
The same group of people who believed in the Messiah also did know of what kind of sin they had to bear of which only God can forgive and provide atonement.
They carried with them the guilt of knowing they had to deal with breaking of God’s moral laws, God spoken commandments, which only the Messiah could help resolve.
Forgiveness and redemption is a foundational issue of believing in Jesus the Messiah chosen of God. Therefore when John the Baptist said
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
They knew this Jesus is the one they were waiting for. And so for the Samaritans who invited Jesus to stay two days, we can expected Jesus spoke to them many words about sin and redemption, about finding grace and forgiveness in God, and how God would redeem man from sin and death through the atonement work of Christ.
Let’s consider what else can be expected of the outcome of these Samaritans who believed in Jesus –
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 1:9-13
9གཟི་འོད་དེ་ཉིད་འོད་ཟེར་དངོས་མ༌སྟེ།།
འཇིག་རྟེན་ཡོངས་སུ་འཕྲོས་ནས་མི་ཀུན༌གསལ།།
10དེ་ཡང་ཁོང་ཉིད་འཇིག་རྟེན་འདིར་བཞུགས༌ཤིང༌།།
ཁོང་ཉིད་བརྒྱུད་ནས་འཇིག་རྟེན་བསྐྲུན་ན༌ཡང༌།།
འཇིག་རྟེན་མི་ཡིས་ཁོང་ཉིད་ཤེས་མ༌གྱུར།།
11ཁོང་ནི་རང་ཡུལ་ཕྱོགས་སུ་ཕེབས་ན༌ཡང༌།།
རང་ཡུལ་མི་ཡིས་ཁོང་ལ་བསུ་བ༌མེད།།
12ཁོང་ཉིད་བསུ་ཞིང་ཁོང་གི་མཚན་ལ་ནི།།
དད་པའི་མི་རྣམས་དཀོན་མཆོག་བུ་ཕྲུག་ལ༎
འགྱུར་བར་མཛད་པའི་དབང་ཡང་ཁོང་གིས༌གནང༌།།
13དད་ལྡན་སྐྱེ་བོ་སོ་སོ་དེ་རྣམས༌ནི།།
མི་ཡི་ཁྲག་ལས་སྐྱེས་པ་མ་ཡིན༌ལ།།
མི་ཡི་འདོད་ཆགས་དབང་གིས་མ་སྐྱེས༌ཤིང༌།།
མི་ཡི་འདོད་མོས་བཞིན་དུ་སྐྱེས་པའང༌མིན།།
དེ་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཉིད་ལས་སྐྱེས་པ་ལགས།།
John 1:9-13
9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
Believing in Jesus brings hope of restored relationship with God
These Samaritans who were despised and rejected by the Synagogue leaderships found grace and forgiveness in Christ and were received as sons and daughters of God.
To be continue …
David Z
The Life of Yeshu 