John 1:19-22

And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No”. So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

When they asked John ‘Who are you?’ what made them so curious? Did they wonder ‘Could this man be the Messiah King come to defeat the Roman army?’ (like the return of Gesar to destroy the Whites)

‘No? Then is he the incarnation of Elijah?’

‘What then? Perhaps the great prophet Moses was his human tulku ancestor?’

‘If not, then who?’

John 1:23

He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord’, as the prophet Isaiah said.”

The voice ringing out on the steppe was a warning, both for Isaiah’s time and for those of John’s time.

‘Get ready to meet the Lord. He will certainly come.

‘Clear the way –  like the straight Roman roads do, taming both mountains and rivers.  Make it quick and easy Him to come to you by repenting of your sins.’

John 1:14

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The man who wrote all these words, and now says ‘we looked at Yeshu’, who was he?

This man was John son of Zebedee, the writer of this gospel (see above). He along with the other close disciples used to camp out with Yeshu. A full three years they gazed on Him and saw His glory.

John 1:15

(John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.'”)

John’s great shout was like the loudhailer announcing ‘He’s here!’  as the motorcade sweeps into the townsquare.

Then a figure steps out of the important car. It is the President. Others move aside, but he mounts the platform.

John 1:16

And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

People who meditate may choose to do it in retreat (mtshams) . But John the Gospel-Writer said (see v.14), ‘We did not go on religious retreat. It was through daily walking and talking with Mashiga Yeshu that we received His blessing. It was because we 12 close disciples shared His life – even sleeping under the stars – that we heard His teaching and saw His amazing deeds.'(1)

[1. In his Gospel Book John has written just a few of Yeshu’s discussions both with ordinary people and with lamas; and has recorded some of the signs that He performed. See Chapter 20 verses 30 and 31:- “These are written so that you may believe that Yeshu is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.”]

John 1:17

For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Moses wrote The Noble Ten-fold Path of Religious Law. But because of  their deluded ignorance men have not earned liberation by trying to keep it.

Because the word of grace that Yeshu Mashiga spoke came from Father God, it was the Universal Law, a word giving liberation, and a word that is most certainly permanent.

John 1:18

No one has ever seen God; the only one, who is God, in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known.

God dwells in His heaven; He is invisible to man.

In order to make the Father known, Yeshu left His Father-Son intimacy and entered the world of samsara.  And because men could see the Son-become-man, they also saw Father-Son.

Yeshu was like one of those mammoth posters showing the likeness of a filmstar; but different, for He was alive, man-size and clearer than any such mere portrait. He was God on earth.

John 1:9

The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

The light of the sun changes to heat energy, also into the energy of oil, and to electrical energy; because of this it may be said to be destructible (mi rtag-pa). But the true light that came into the world 2000 years ago is the Messiah Yeshu Christ (1) Himself.

He not only had good character, but came to give men through His indestructible (rtag-pa) decree complete character, hope and the spread of happiness.

[1. Messiah and Christ have the same meaning, i.e. anointed one.]

John 1:10-11

He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

The Word, the Lord who had created the world, came down and became a mere babe in an ordinary home in Israel; and His mother called him Yeshu, which means Saviour in the Israeli language.

Being an ordinary villager, His fellow countrymen and even his own younger brothers and sisters did not want to recognize Him as being God’s Son.

Because their rejection of Him would cause them suffering in hell, it made Yeshu sad.

John 1:12-13

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

What a privilege! Believers are given spiritual rebirth in this lifetime.

For obtaining new birth the power of one’s own thought is not the key. A person cannot give birth to himself! The power of other persons cannot be the cause; not even the energy of a lama.

It is through belief alone that new birth comes as a gift from the very hand of God.