To Believe in Jesus – Part 83

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 7:45-52

45དེ་ནས་སྲུང་དམག་རྣམས་མཆོད་དཔོན་ཆེན་པོ་དག་དང་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་གམ་དུ་ཕྱིར་ལོག་པ༌ན། དེ་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་མི་དེ་བཙན་ཁྲིད་མ་བྱས་སམ་ཞེས་དྲིས་པ༌ལ། 46སྲུང་དམག་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། ཁོང་གིས་གསུངས་པ་དེ་ལྟ་བུ་མི་སུས་ཀྱང་གསུངས་མ་མྱོང་ཞེས་ཞུས་སོ།། 47ཡང་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། ཁོས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱང་བསླུ་བྲིད་བྱས༌སམ། 48ཆོས་དཔོན་ནམ་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་ལས་སུ་ཞིག་དེ་ལ་དད་པར་གྱུར༌རམ། 49འོན་ཀྱང་བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་མི་ཤེས་པའི་མི་ཚོགས་འདི་ལ་སྡིགས་དམོད་ཆེན་པོ་ཕོག་པ་ཡིན་ཞེས་སྨྲས་སོ།། 50དེ་ནས་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པའི་ཁྲོད་དུ་ནེ་ཀོ་དེམ་ཟེར་བ་སྔོན་ཆད་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུར་མཇལ་མྱོང་བ་དེས་ཆོས་དཔོན་རྣམས་ལ་འདི་ལྟར་སྨྲས་ཏེ། 51བདག་ཅག་གི་བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་ལྟར་ངེད་ཅག་གིས་མི་དེའི་ངག་ལས་ཉེས་པ་ཅི་བྱས་པ་ལ་མ་བརྟག་མ་ཤེས་པར་ཁྲིམས་ཐག་གཅོད་པར་བྱེད་དམ་ཞེས་པ༌ལ། 52ཆོས་དཔོན་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། ཁྱོད་རང་ཡང་ག་ལིལ་ཡུལ་ནས་འོངས་པའི་མི་ཞིག་ཡིན༌ནམ། ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་རྟོག་དཔྱོད་བྱོས༌དང༌། ག་ལིལ་ཡུལ་ནས་ལུང་སྟོན་པ་ཞིག་འབྱུང་མི་སྲིད་ཅེས་སྨྲས་སོ།།

John 7:45-52

45 The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” 46 The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!” 47 The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? 48 Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? 49 But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” 50 Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, 51 “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” 52 They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”

 

The gospel writer John noted that even those enforcement officers sent by the Sanhedrin to arrest Jesus were convinced by what Jesus said that they did not arrest Him as instructed! They defiled orders of the religious establishment because of what Jesus said and for what purpose? Jesus was speaking about the way to true redemption and eternal life and obviously these officers knew at that moment what Jesus had to offer was what they actually wanted.

 

Does that mean they came to a realization or some sort of spiritual awakening that their own religious leaders had been deceiving them with empty promises?  

 

The chief priests and Pharisees were furious how Jesus could even convince their officers to defile orders! How the Pharisees responded and recorded here in John 7 exposed another bigger problem –

 

47ཡང་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། ཁོས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱང་བསླུ་བྲིད་བྱས༌སམ། 48ཆོས་དཔོན་ནམ་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་ལས་སུ་ཞིག་དེ་ལ་དད་པར་གྱུར༌རམ། 49འོན་ཀྱང་བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་མི་ཤེས་པའི་མི་ཚོགས་འདི་ལ་སྡིགས་དམོད་ཆེན་པོ་ཕོག་པ་ཡིན་ཞེས་སྨྲས་སོ།།

47 The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? 48 Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? 49 But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.”

 

The Pharisees here made a bold statement about the people being accursed for not knowing the law.

However, what I need to point out is, the “law” mentioned here by the Pharisees may not be referring strictly to Moses’ written laws but something else the common folks in Jerusalem would be familiar with, especially those who were brought up and educated through the synagogue system operated by the Pharisees.

 

Halakha הֲלָכָה

 

Referring to a set of Jewish laws covering every aspect of daily lives and identity of men and women born into Jewish family or claimed Jewishness and these laws were based on how their religious leaders interpreted the written laws of Moses.

The development of Halakha הֲלָכָה and the synagogue system can be tracked back as far as the Babylonian Exile after the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem the Jewish diaspora were determined to keep faith and traditions without the Temple service and living away from the Promised Land.

With reference to Moses’ written law namely the five books of Moses and with specific instructions for the children of Israel who left Egypt and went to live in the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua – there were a long list of instructions how they should conduct their lives within the boundaries of Promised Land, and what exactly they should or should not do about sacrifices and offerings to God and how their priest should mediate between God and men doing their services within the one and only chosen place of sacrifice which eventually became the Temple build by Solomon.

The very fact these Jews were exiled from Jerusalem was due to their sin and disobedience against God’s teachings and warnings. It came a point they – especially their priests and kings and tribal leaders – were deliberately breaking God’s rule and doing things against God’s teachings that eventually judgement fell on them and they went into exile and Jerusalem was under Gentile rule even till the days of Jesus.

So those Jewish diaspora who were deported from Jerusalem and living in foreign lands without the Temple – there were endless questions and debates how should they keep covenant with God if there was any hope of restoration?

The development of the synagogue system was first started to help Jewish diaspora gather together to encourage each other to remember the teachings of God with hope of restoration for the nation of Israel and the rebuilding of the one and only Temple approved by God. The synagogue leaderships eventually had to interpret and re-interpret, define and re-define, either to resist assimilation into foreign culture or to contextualize certain laws so that Jewish people living in exiles could continue to keep faith and traditions till the promised Messiah should appear and the full restoration of the nation of Israel.

Interestingly why did they continue upholding their re-defined customs and traditions with the Second Temple reconstructed and modified by Herod? In previous post No: 81, I pointed out that although the Temple structure was restored but the most important piece of furniture – the Ark of the Covenant – was not there! Apparently the religious establishments already knew there was some sort of religious scam going on at the Temple and they knew they were still waiting for the Messiah for the full restoration of the nation with the return of the Ark of the Covenant.

Furthermore, Jerusalem at that time of Jesus was under Rome, Israel was under foreign rule. An important reason for their observation of Halakha הֲלָכָה was based on their interpretation of how to be prepared for the coming Messiah and the full restoration of Israel with the Temple service.

 

Question – were they doing the right thing?

 

Jesus actually spoken against these kinds of laws and exposed them as man-made doctrines and traditions which goes against the righteous teachings of God

 

མད་ཐཱ། 15:1-3

1དེ་ནས་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་དང་མཁན་པོ་རྣམས་ཡེ་རུ་སཱ་ལེམ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུའི་དྲུང་དུ་ཡོང༌སྟེ། 2ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་ཐུགས་སྲས་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་གནའ་མིའི་ལུགས་སྲོལ་དང་འགལ་བར་བྱེད༌དམ། ཁོ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ལག་པ་མ་བཀྲུས་པར་བག་ལེབ་ཟའོ་ཞེས་པ༌ལ། 3སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་རང་གི་ལུགས་སྲོལ་བསྲུང་ཕྱིར་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་དང་འགལ་བར་བྱེད་པ༌ཅི།

Matthew 15:1-3

Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” 3 He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?

 

མཱཪ་ཀུ 7:5-9

5དེ་ནས་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་དང་མཁན་པོ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ༌ལ། ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་ཐུགས་སྲས་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་གནའ་མིའི་ལུགས་སྲོལ་བཞིན་མི་བྱེད༌པར། ལག་པ་མི་གཙང་ནའང་བག་ལེབ་ཟའམ་ཞེས་དྲིས་པ༌དང༌། 6སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ཚུལ་འཆོས་པ་ཁྱོད་ཅག་གི་སྐོར་ལ་ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱ་ཡིས་ལེགས་པར་གསུངས་པ་འདི་ལྟ༌སྟེ།

མི་སྡེ་འདི་ཡིས་ངག་ནས་ང་རང་བཀུར་ན༌ཡང༌།།

ཁོ་ཚོའི་སེམས་ནི་ང་དང་ཡོངས་སུ་བྲལ་བ༌ཡིན།།

7འཇིག་རྟེན་མི་ཡིས་བརྩམས་པའི་བསླབ་བྱ་སྣ་ཚོགས༌པ།།

བདེན་པའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་གཞུང་ལུགས་ཡིན་ཁུལ་སྟོན་བྱེད༌པས།།

བསྙེན་བཀུར་དེ་འདྲ་བདག་ལ་བྱས་ཀྱང་སྙིང་པོ༌མེད།།

ཅེས་བཀོད་པ༌ལྟར། 8ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་སྤངས་ནས་མིའི་ལུགས་སྲོལ་སྲུང་བཞིན་འདུག་ཅེས་གསུངས་པ༌དང༌། 9ཡང་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་རང་གི་ལུགས་སྲོལ་སྲུང༌ཕྱིར། དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་རིང་དུ༌སྤངས།

Mark 7:5-9

5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” 6 And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

“‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!

 

Very strong words of criticism Jesus used against the religious establishment of His days!

Jesus was speaking the truth and exposing the misleading teachings of these religious leaders who were definitely not helping the people to find true redemption and eternal life in God!

In our modern time, what we know about Jews and Judaism is about Halakha הֲלָכָה and why does such laws have binding powers on the Jewish people is due to rabbinic authority. And it is a fundamental issue about how they interpret the written laws of Moses revealed by God on Mount Sinai.

Back to John 7, Nicodemus defended Jesus!

 

50དེ་ནས་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པའི་ཁྲོད་དུ་ནེ་ཀོ་དེམ་ཟེར་བ་སྔོན་ཆད་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུར་མཇལ་མྱོང་བ་དེས་ཆོས་དཔོན་རྣམས་ལ་འདི་ལྟར་སྨྲས་ཏེ། 51བདག་ཅག་གི་བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་ལྟར་ངེད་ཅག་གིས་མི་དེའི་ངག་ལས་ཉེས་པ་ཅི་བྱས་པ་ལ་མ་བརྟག་མ་ཤེས་པར་ཁྲིམས་ཐག་གཅོད་པར་བྱེད་དམ་ཞེས་པ༌ལ།

50 Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, 51 “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?”

 

Remember Nicodemus who came to see Jesus in John 3. After that encounter with Jesus, he could have known something about Jesus that he was bold enough to speak up for Jesus!

In the days of John the Baptist and Jesus, those Jewish folk who had been waiting for the Messiah with hope of redemption and eternal life, they would had been convinced and convicted this Jesus is the Messiah they had been waiting for.

However, many of these Jewish folks who met Jesus continue to struggles with their belief due to pressure and coercion from the Sanhedrin and the distress of being excommunicated from their synagogues.

If we know Jesus is our true redemption and the only way to eternal life, what would we do in their position?

 

To be continue …

 

David Z