To Believe in Jesus – Part 41
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 5:13-15
13འོན༌ཀྱང༌། ནད་ལས་ཐར་བའི་མི་དེས་ནད་འཇོམས་མཁན་དེ་སུ་ཡིན་པ་མི་ཤེས༌ཏེ། གནས་དེར་མི་ཚོགས་མང་ཞིང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུའང་ཁོ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་གྲས་སུ་ཕེབས་པས༌སོ།། 14དེའི་རྗེས༌སུ། སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་མཆོད་ཁང་དུ་ནད་ལས་ཐར་བའི་མི་དེ་རྙེད་ནས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ལྟོས་དང་། ཁྱོད་རང་ད་ལྟ་ནད་ལས་ཐར་ཏེ་ལུས་ཁམས་བདེ༌བས། ཕྱིས་སུ་དེ་ལས་ལྷག་པའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ཆེན་པོ་མི་མྱང་བའི་ཕྱིར་སྡིག་པ་མ་བྱེད་ཅེས་གསུངས་སོ།། 15དེ་ནས་མི་དེ་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་གམ་དུ་སོང༌སྟེ། རང་གི་ནད་འཇོམས་པར་མཛད་མཁན་དེ་ནི་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་ཡིན་པར་སྨྲས༌སོ།།
John 5:13-15
13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. 14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.
The man who was healed initially did not know it was Jesus who healed him.
Later he knows because Jesus met with him and spoke with him.
Throughout the records of the Four Gospel we read many incidents of miraculous healing but on rare occasion the person who received healing was told directly about the connection between his sin and sickness. This incident in John 5 is one.
There was another incident of miraculous healing that involve a man born blind, recorded in John 9, and that incident Jesus specifically said not related to sin as His disciples were discussing and questioning whose’ sin was it that caused the man to be born blind.
Apparently not every sickness or disease suffered by any individuals is related to sin. But when Jesus does address it then we need to accept what Jesus said.
So how does sin apply to this case of miraculous healing in John 5?
14དེའི་རྗེས༌སུ། སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་མཆོད་ཁང་དུ་ནད་ལས་ཐར་བའི་མི་དེ་རྙེད་ནས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ལྟོས་དང་། ཁྱོད་རང་ད་ལྟ་ནད་ལས་ཐར་ཏེ་ལུས་ཁམས་བདེ༌བས། ཕྱིས་སུ་དེ་ལས་ལྷག་པའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ཆེན་པོ་མི་མྱང་བའི་ཕྱིར་སྡིག་པ་མ་བྱེད་ཅེས་གསུངས་སོ།།
14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”
Jesus would have known what he did but we do not know and there is no need for us to inquire further because Jesus did not disclose any more details.
Whatever he did, Jesus pointed out as “sin” and after he had received his healing there is the expectation he should keep his blessing of being healed. What Jesus warned him about did clarify the connection between his acts of sin and his sickness and that if he goes back to his old way of sinning he would suffer worst.
Why was this incident highlighted in John 5?
On the broader perspective this incident do point to a bigger problem that involves Israel’s relationship with God as a nation. In previous post I mentioned that if this healing incident did actually happen during Passover, and there was a crowd visiting the Temple to do obligation for the feast, the connection with water and the pool of healing would had reminded them of what happened back in Exodus when they left Egypt.
The observation of Passover has that clear direct connection to the children of Israel leaving Egypt and there was an incident they stop by a pool of water and it was a bitter sweet encounter – Exodus 15:22-27.
That incident recorded in Exodus, God intentionally made mention of sickness, diseases, and healing at that moment when the children of Israel wanted a drink of water. It was highly possible they needed something more than just a drink to quench their thirst. Therefore it was there the Lord God declared to them
“I am the Lord, your healer”
We know from history Israel’s relationship with God went back and forth. So they got their healing and restoration, and went back to their old ways and got into troubles, cried out to God for help but were told to deal with their sins.
The prophet Isaiah had a similar message of warning against sin
ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱ། 59:1-2
1ལྟོས་ཤིག དཀོན་མཆོག་ཡ་ཝཱེའི་ཕྱག་ཐུང་དྲགས་ནས་སྐྱོབ་མི་ནུས་པ་མ་ཡིན་ལ། ཁོང་གི་སྙན་རྟུལ་ནས་གསན་མི་ནུས་པའང་མ་ཡིན་པར། 2ཁྱོད་ཅག་གི་ཉེས་པས་ཁྱོད་ཅག་རང་གི་དཀོན་མཆོག་དང་ཕྲལ་ཞིང་། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སྡིག་པས་ཁོང་གི་ཞལ་རས་ཁྱོད་ཅག་གི་ཕྱོགས་སུ་སྦས་པ་དང་། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱི་གསོལ་འདེབས་ལ་ཁོང་གིས་གསན་མ་གྱུར།
Isaiah 59:1-2
Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
Israel was called of God to be a holy nation and they have the laws and commandments and were instructed to be careful how they conduct their life.
The message of Isaiah seems to suggest that it was addressed to people who were seeking salvation from God and seems beyond reach. And they had to be told what was it hindering them receiving the salvation of God. Apparently they were holding on to their iniquities and sins.
Let’s try to connect what happen in John 5 and the message of Isaiah 59.
For the situation in John 5, what Jesus said to the man could raise two important matters for us to consider
- Negligence – we are not to neglect our relationship with God. Apparently that man neglected his relationship with God.
- Being properly instructed to walk with God – the man who was sick for a long time and left alone, most likely he was not properly taught how to walk with God and to keep good relationship with God. It could be he was taught but neglected to practice good relationship with God.
So Jesus came in kindness and compassion, to heal, to restore, and to provide proper instruction how to walk with God, again.
This incident in John 5 although highlighted the pain and sufferings the man had to go through for many years, yet eventually the demonstration of God compassion was fulfilled through Jesus.
To believe in Jesus is to receive the compassion and forgiveness of God
To be continue …
David Z
The Life of Yeshu 