To Believe in Jesus – Part 121
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 11:4
དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་གཏམ་དེ་གསན་ནས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ནད་དེ་ནི་འཆི་བའི་རྒྱུ་མ་ཡིན་པར་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་གཟི་བརྗིད་མངོན་པར་འགྱུར་བའི༌ཕྱིར་ཡིན་ལ། ནད་པ་དེ་ཉིད་བརྒྱུད་ནས་སྲས་དཀོན་མཆོག་གཟི་བརྗིད་དང་ལྡན་པར་འགྱུར་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།།
John 11:4
But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
Keeping our attention here on what Jesus said to His disciples prior to His trip to Bethany to raise Lazarus from the dead.
Previous post I had given attention to the prophesy of Ezekiel 37 about resurrection and restoration which I believe have very strong connection to the context of John 11.
Now let’s consider something interesting here.
Jesus first mentioned that Lazarus illness does not lead to death but moments later He speaks of Lazarus falling asleep and when His disciples did not understand what He was speaking of, Jesus simply said Lazarus is dead!
Does that sounds confusing?
I believe Jesus was referring to both physical death and eternal death.
Our human body physical death is often quoted in scripture as “falling asleep” or “fallen asleep” and that refers to those who died in faith and hope of God’s promises of future resurrection and restoration.
Our faith and hope of future resurrection and restoration is part of our foundation of faith in Jesus Christ the Messiah chosen of God Yah·weh יְהוָֹה to redeem Man from sin and death, and the provision of eternal life.
In the previous post #120 – I made specific note that
The events of John 11 and 12 was very near to the Passover and the last Passover Jesus will partake with His disciples in person.
Jesus was well prepared in advance for His own death and resurrection but His disciples most likely had not yet understood His way of suffering till after His resurrection.
For us believers today as we look back in history and having the benefits of hindsight and with all the letters of the apostles, we know the death and resurrection of Jesus fulfilled the will of God and is our foundation of hope in Christ for redemption and restoration and our path to eternal life with God Yah·weh יְהוָֹה
In the context of John 11, I pointed out, at that time before the death and resurrection of Jesus, it would had been very difficult for the Jews to know and understand how God Yah·weh יְהוָֹה will exalt, magnify, and glorify His Son through suffering, death and resurrection through obedience to the will of the Father.
And in various previous post I highlighted the underlying problems of how the religious establishments of that time had interpreted scripture according to their sectarianism and were advocating a coming Messiah who should be king of Israel and must lead a military campaign to liberate the land of Jerusalem from foreign rule and do a full restoration of the nation of Israel. Means Israel will regain their sovereignty of the land of Jerusalem. It was with that kind of expectations that fanatic Jews who were nationalistic had problems accepting Jesus as the Son of God. Especially when they knew for sure Jesus will not use His influences to mobilize the Jews against the Romans at that time.
The understanding and expectation of glorification with victorious conquest was more of the accepted norm and so therefore when Jesus went through the painful suffering of death being fully submitted to the will of the Father it appears to be some sort of a impediment for the Jews to see Him as the Messiah, but after His resurrection and ascension those who believe were fully convinced.
Here in John 11, Jesus speaks of His glorification which may had been difficult for His disciples to understand at that time but we do have a better idea from Paul’s letter to the Philippians
ཕི་ལིབ་པི་པ། 2
5ཁྱོད་ཅག་གི་བསམ་པ་ནི་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་ཡེ་ཤུའི་ཐུགས་དགོངས་བཞིན་ཡིན་དགོས་པ་འདི༌ལྟ་སྟེ།
6དེ་ཡང་ཁོང་ཉིད་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཇི་བཞིན༌དུ།།
ཐོག་མ་ཉིད་ནས་རང་བཞིན་མཚུངས་ན༌ཡང༌།།
དཀོན་མཆོག་ཉིད་དང་མཉམ་པའི་གོ་འཕང༌དེར།།
འཕྲོག་ཅིང་རྩོད་པའི་འགྲན་སེམས་ཡེ་ནས༌མེད།།
7རང་གི་གཟི་བརྗིད་དོར་ནས་ཁེངས་སྐྱུང༌གིས།།
རང་ཉིད་ཞབས་ཕྱི་པ་ཡི་རྣམ་པ༌བཞིན།།
འཇིག་རྟེན་ཕལ་བའི་མི་ཡི་གཟུགས་པོར༌གྱུར།།
8ཕལ་བའི་རྣམ་འགྱུར་བཟུང་ཞིང་དམན་ཚུལ༌གྱིས།།
དཀོན་མཆོག་ཉིད་ཀྱི་བཀའ་ལུང་ཇི་བཞིན༌དུ།།
རྒྱ་གྲམ་ཤིང་གི་རྩེ་ནས་གྲོངས་པར༌མཛད།།
9དེའི་ཕྱིར་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་ཁོང་ཉིད༌ནི།།
ཀུན་ལས་མཐོ་བའི་གནས་སུ་དྲངས་པ༌དང༌།།
ཀུན་ལས་འཕགས་པའི་མཚན་ཡང་གནང་བར༌གྱུར།།
10དེ་ནི་ས་སྟེང་ས་འོག་ས་བླ་ཀུན༎
སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུའི་མཚན་ལ་བཀུར་བའི༌ཕྱིར།།
པུས་མོ་ས་ལ་བཙུགས་ནས་ཕྱག་འཚལ༌ཞིང་།།
11ཡབ་ཆེན་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཉིད་ལ་བསྟོད་པའི༌ཕྱིར།།
ཀུན་གྱི་ངག་ལས་ཡེ་ཤུ་མཱ་ཤི༌ཀར།།
གཙོ་བོ་ལགས་ཞེས་སྨྲ་ཞིང་ཁས་ལེན༌བརྗོད།།
ཅེས་པ་བཞིན༌ནོ།།
Philippians 2:5-11
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Jesus was fully submitted to the will of the Father. We often read of Jesus making clear statement to the Jews that He is doing the will of the Father and we know from gospel records that the Jews were divided about Jesus.
It is very interesting to note that at this point of time in John 11, the religious establishments of the land – referring to Pharisees, Sadducees, and the ruling Sanhedrin – they all knew Jesus was getting glorified by the masses and they were loosing credibility. And it is here that Jesus said
that the Son of God may be glorified
By the time of John 11, many more of those Jewish pilgrims – Jewish diaspora – visiting Jerusalem were more convinced that Jesus is either a great prophet of God or perhaps He is the coming Messiah they had been waiting for and that kind of atmosphere was putting extra pressure on the fanatic nationalistic Jews who reject Jesus as the Son of God.
So why would those fanatic Jews be not happy with Jesus? Since Jesus was indeed popular and well received by the common folks?
Jesus was preaching and calling for repentance, and demanding that true worshippers of God be submitted to the will of God to live a life of obedience and that means the way of suffering for the sake of obedience if necessary.
Jesus was both preaching and leading by example and He was going to lay down His life for the will of the Father.
That was not the kind of message the fanatic Jews wanted as they were ready for a fight with the Romans to reclaim sovereignty, and they knew it’s time put Jesus to death so their plan will not be disrupted.
To be continue …
David Z
