Category: Gospel of John

THE STORY OF THOMAS

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THE  STORY  OF  THOMAS

Thomas was one of the twelve apostles who accompanied Jesus in his ministry while walking around Galilee and Judea. In this story we join the party as they walk south in their final visit to Jerusalem. Three times Jesus had told them that he would die, saying that he must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.

 

Mark Ch 8 v.31

དེ་ནས་ཁོང་གིས་ཉེ་གནས་ཚོར་མིའི་རིགས་ཀྱི་བུ་ནི་ངེས་པར་དུ་སྡུག་བསྔལ་མང་པོ་མྱོང་ཞིང༌། ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པའི་མི་རིགས་ཀྱི་རྒན་པོ་དང་བླ་ཆེན་རྣམས། ཆོས་ཁྲིམས་ལ་མཁས་པའི་མིས་ཁོ་རང་དོར་ནས་གསོད་པར་འགྱུར་ལ། ཡང་ཉིན་གསུམ་གྱི་རྗེས་འཆི་བ་ནས་སླར་གསོན་པར་ལང་ངོ་ཞེས་གསུངས།

And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.

 

They didn’t understand. They believed he was Messiah; surely he would become Israel’s victorious and undying King, not be rejected by the Jewish sangha and then be killed. They walked on, then up the long rough uphill road to Jerusalem. Great crowds followed, and others came out from the city to greet him. A donkey was brought and he rode it just as the prophet Zechariah said the Messiah King would do. (What a joyous time! You can read about in Mark’s Gospel Ch 10:1-11)

In the next few days too he was popular with the listening crowds. But on his last night, when eating the supper of the Passover Festival with the twelve, he said, “I am with you a little longer, and then I am going where you cannot follow now.”

 

John 13:33

ཕྲུ་གུ་རྣམས། ང་ད་དུང་ཁྱོད་ཚོ་དང་མཉམ་དུ་དུས་ཐུང་ངུ་ཞིག་ཡོད། ཁྱོད་ཚོས་ང་བཙལ་ཡང༌། སྔར་ངས་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ལ་བཤད་པ་བཞིན་དུ་ད་ཁྱོད་ཚོར་ཡང་ཟེར་རྒྱུར། ང་གང་དུ་འགྲོ་བའི་གནས་སུ་ཁྱོད་ཚོ་ཡོང་མི་སྲིད།

Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’

 

They wondered what he meant, and Peter asked, ‘Why can’t we?’ Jesus explained, ‘I am going to my Father’s house, and I will then come back and take you there. You know the way.’

 

John 14:2-4

ངའི་ཡབ་ཀྱི་ཕོ་བྲང་ལ་གནས་ཁང་མང་པོ་ཡོད། དེ་ལྟར་མ་ཡིན་ན་ངས་ཁྱེད་རྣམས་ལ་སྔ་མ་ནས་བཤད་ཡོད། ང་ཁྱེད་ཚོའི་དོན་དུ་གནས་གྲ་སྒྲིག་བྱེད་དུ་འགྲོ། ང་སོང་ནས་ཁྱེད་ཚོའི་དོན་དུ་གནས་གྲ་སྒྲིག་བྱས་ན། ང་ཕྱིར་ལོག་སྟེ་ཁྱེད་ཚོ་ངའི་རྩར་འདྲེན་པར་བྱ། དེ་ནས་ང་རང་གང་དུ་ཡོད་པ་དེར་ཁྱེད་ཚོའང་ཡོད་པར་འགྱུར།  ང་རང་འགྲོ་རྒྱུ་ཡིན་པའི་ལམ་དེ་ཁྱེད་ཚོས་ཤེས་” ཞེས་གསུངས་པ་དང༌།

In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.  And you know the way to where I am going.”

 

But to Thomas a ‘way’ meant a stony, dusty path that led to a town or a house. He said, ‘We don’t know where, and so we don’t know the way.’

 

John 14:5

ཐོ་མཱས་ཁོང་ལ་ “གཙོ་བོ་ལགས། ཁྱེད་རང་གང་དུ་ཕེབས་པ་ང་ཚོས་མི་ཤེས་ཏེ་ལམ་དེ་ཇི་ལྟར་ཤེས་” ཞེས་ཞུས།

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

 

Jesus said to him, “I am the way.”

 

John 14:6

ལན་དུ་ཡེ་ཤུས་ “ང་ནི་ལམ་དང༌། བདེན་པ་ཉིད། དཔག་ཏུ་མེད་པའི་ཚེའང་ཡིན། ང་མ་བརྒྱུད་པར་སུ་ཡང་ཡབ་ཀྱི་དྲུང་དུ་འགྲོ་བའི་ལམ་མེད་དོ།

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

 

And after an evening of talking the apostles finally understood that he had come from God; he was the ‘Way’ to Father God. (A full account of Jesus’s talk with them can be read in John’s Gospel Chapters 13 to 16)

What a change next evening when they saw Jesus’s bloodstained and broken corpse being taken down from the cross! They no longer understood; their hopes were destroyed.

They hid in despair and fear, until on the third morning news was brought to the apostles that Jesus had risen; but Thomas was absent. For Thomas, a corpse was a very dead person – just as, a ‘way’ was a road. So, when they told him Jesus was alive, he said, ‘I’ll never believe; that is, unless I can see and feel those nail-pierced hands.’

 

John 20:24,25

འོན་ཀྱང་ཉེ་གནས་བཅུ་གཉིས་པོའི་ནང་ནས་མཚེ་མ་ཟེར་བའི་ཐོ་མཱ་ནི་ཡེ་ཤུ་ཕེབས་པའི་ཚེ་ཁོ་རྣམས་དང་མཉམ་དུ་མེད་པས། ཉེ་གནས་གཞན་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཁོ་ལ་ “ང་ཚོས་གཙོ་བོ་མཐོང་ངོ་” ཞེས་ཟེར། འོན་ཀྱང་ཁོས་དེ་ཚོར་ “གལ་ཏེ་ངས་ཁོང་གི་ཕྱག་ལ་གཟེར་གྱི་ཤུལ་མཐོང་བ་དང༌། ངའི་མཛུག་གུ་གཟེར་གྱི་ཤུལ་ལ་འཇུག་པ། ལག་པ་ཡང་ཁོང་གི་གཞོགས་ཀྱི་མདུང་ཤུལ་ནང་དུ་བཅུག་ན་མ་གཏོགས། ངས་རྩ་བ་ནས་ཡིད་ཆེས་མི་བྱེད་” ཅེས་བཤད།

Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin,[d] was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

 

But Jesus was kind to Thomas, and came again on another day, and said to him, ‘Thomas, look here, and feel with your fingers my nail-pierced hands, and feel here the wound in my body. Believe me.’

 

John 20:27

དེ་ནས་ཁོང་གིས་ཐོ་མཱ་ལ་ “ད་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་མཛུག་གུ་འདི་རུ་ཞོག་ཅིག ངའི་ལག་པ་ལ་ལྟོས། ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་ལག་པ་བརྐྱངས་སྟེ་ངའི་གཞོགས་ཀྱི་ནང་དུ་ཆུག་ཅིག དད་མེད་ཀྱི་སེམས་སྤོངས་ལ་དད་པ་བྱོས་ཤིག་” ཅེས་གསུངས།

Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.”

 

And Thomas believed, and worshipped.

 

John 20:28

ལན་དུ་ཐོ་མཱས་ “ངའི་གཙོ་བོ་དང་ངའི་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལགས་” ཞེས་བཤད།

Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”

 

What gracious pity Jesus showed to Thomas!

 

John 20:29

ཡེ་ཤུས་ཁོང་ལ་ “ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་ང་མཐོང་བས་དད་པ་བྱེད་པ་ཡིན་ནམ། ང་མི་མཐོང་ཡང་དད་པ་རྣམས་བདེའོ་” ཞེས་གསུངས།

“Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

 

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Thomas would never forget that evening spent with Jesus in a locked room. He went on to spend his life walking in the way of faith and obedience to Jesus.

He went to South India where he preached the Good News.

Then one day priests of the Indian Sangha killed him with spears, as the Jewish Sangha had killed Jesus his Lord.

Churches founded in South India are still there today. They give honour to Thomas.

As for believers for whom Jesus is the Way of Salvation, they were not called Christians at first, but ‘People of the Way’.

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 14:27

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ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 14:27 – ངས་ཁྱེད་ཚོ་ཞི་བདེ་གནས་པར་བྱེད། ངའི་ཞི་བདེ་ཁྱེད་ཚོར་སྦྱིན། ངས་ཞི་བདེ་སྦྱིན་ཚུལ་ནི་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱིས་ཞི་བདེ་སྟེར་ཚུལ་དང་མི་འདྲ་བས། ཁྱེད་ཚོའི་སེམས་མ་འཁྲུགས་ཤིང་མ་འཇིགས་ཤིག

 

John 14:27 –  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

 

यूहन्ना 14:27 – “म तिमीहरूलाई मेरो शान्ति छोड्दछु, यो मेरो आफ्नै शान्ति तिमीहरूलाई दिंदछु। म तिमीहरूलाई शान्ति दिन्छु, यो त्यो शान्ति होइन जुन संसारले दिन्छ। यसकारण तिमीहरूको हृदय विचलित नहोस् अनि कुनै विषयमा पनि नडराऊ।

 

約 翰 福 音 14:27 – 我 留 下 平 安 給 你 們 ； 我 將 我 的 平 安 賜 給 你 們 。 我 所 賜 的 ， 不 像 世 人 所 賜 的 。 你 們 心 裡 不 要 憂 愁 ， 也 不 要 膽 怯 。

PETER APOSTLE OF JESUS CHRIST

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                                PETER  APOSTLE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST

John Chapter 21 verses 1-19 – Jesus says three times, “Simon feed my sheep”

When Jesus rose from death, it was some loyal women who found the tomb empty (Mark 16:1-7), and inside the tomb was an angel who gave them a message. He said, ‘Go, tell the disciples (Matthew 28:7); and remind them that Jesus had told them that he would meet them back in Galilee after he had risen’ (Mark 14:28).

So they went, and while waiting seven of them spent a night fishing. But they caught nothing.

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In today’s passage the apostle John tells us how they met Jesus beside the Lake of Galilee.

Away on the shore in the first light of dawn stood a figure. Who was he?

Tenderly he calls, ‘Children have you caught any?’ ‘No’ they said, as once before. ‘Try on the right side’ he said.

And so many were caught! That too had happened once before (Luke 5:1-11). John recalls it, and whispers to Peter, ‘It’s Jesus!’. Peter leaps into the water, leaving the others and the fish, as he splashes through the shallow water! ‘Bring some’ said Jesus. So Peter went back to help.

Now they all come, and what was said at breakfast – if anything at all – we do not know, as He who was God lovingly met with them and broke the bread. As once he had broken bread and blessed it when he fed 5000 with seven loaves and two fishes (Mark 6:34-44), so now too he hands bread and fish to them. Emotions were deeper than any speech.

After that Jesus takes Peter aside to speak with him. ‘Simon son of John are you the most loving of my disciples? do you really love me?’ Three times he asks it. Three times Peter is forced to say, ‘Yes, Lord; you know it.’

No more does Jesus call him Peter the Rock but just Simon son of John. No more must he compare himself with the other disciples, but he does reappoint him as apostle; three times he says, “Feed my sheep”; but, indeed, more than that: ‘Yes; you will die for me.’

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Next time we will be reading in the Book of Acts how the Holy Spirit came in Jesus’s place – as he had promised – to help Peter and all his disciples to turn round and be courageous. Self-confident Peter had needed to convert (and so do we); Jesus had said to him, “When you are converted, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:32).

The Book of Acts is a wonderful account of how the believers were changed and helped in their following of Jesus when they received the Holy Spirit.