To Believe in Jesus – Part 108
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 10:14-15
14ང་རང་ནི་ལུག་རྫི་བཟང་པོ༌ཡིན་ཏེ། ངས་རང་གི་ལུག་རྣམས་ངོ་ཤེས༌ཤིང༌། ངའི་ལུག་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་ང་རང་ངོ་ཤེས༌པ་ཡིན། 15བདག་གི་ཡབ་ཀྱིས་ང་རང་ངོ་ཤེས་པ་དང་ངས་ཀྱང་ཁོང་ཉིད་ངོ་ཤེས་པ༌ལྟར། བདག་གིས་ལུག་རྣམས་ཀྱི་དོན་དུ་རང་སྲོག་བློས་གཏོང་བ་ཡིན།
John 10:14-15
14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.
Continuing Jesus’ discourse on being the good shepherd and here He provided more explanation why He is the good shepherd.
Relationship
What kind of relationship was Jesus referring to?
Relationship between shepherd and sheep, and Jesus said the kind of relationship similar to His relationship with the Father.
What Jesus said here should prompt us to reflect deeper what this relationship between Jesus and the Father.
This “father and son” relationship has long been a major Christian theological debate and discussion and Christians often talks about it.
If we look back to church history, churches and denominations had split and even denounced each other over disagreement about Jesus’ relationship with the Father.
Why so serious?
While many theological debates centers around the divinity of Christ due to His relationship with the Father, I think what Jesus said here in John 10 in this particular context could refer to something we humans can easily relate to in our everyday lives and not so much in the philosophical aspect.
I think it’s more about
- Care and concern within and among human communities
- Sincerity and commitment for welfare for the sake of communal benefits
- Risk and sacrifices for the sake of those we love and cherish
- The Father figure as compared with the shepherd more of a provider and protector and not the corrupted human leadership way of abuse of power and control that we could often hear about.
- As Jesus is under the care and provision of the Father, the sheep are under the care and provision of the shepherd
I think the idea of Jesus being the good shepherd have had shaped and formed how churches across denominations should do their pastoral care for brothers and sisters in Christ.
Back to the message in John 10, Jesus pointed to something that should catch our attention “lay down my life for the sheep“.
I do not think Jesus was using figure of speech about this because based on the records of the Gospels Jesus had been risking His life preaching and teaching the truth. How many times we read of fanatic Jews wanting to stone Jesus to death and I believe there were more incidents not recorded.
The very fact that the Gospels recorded how the Sanhedrin and fanatic Jews plotted together to put Jesus to death showed how much danger Jesus was exposed to before He was eventually crucified on the cross.
This “lay down my life for the sheep” has been an inherent character of Jesus!
We can read from the records of Acts of the Apostles, those leaders chosen and approved of God all follow the same practice of Jesus – “lay down my life for the sheep”.
Today with benefits of hindsight, we can look back to history and known facts and truth, Jesus sacrificed His life and blood on the cross according to the Father’s will and that because of the ultimate blessing for His sheep. And those disciples of Jesus who followed the same practice continues to be fruitful worldwide
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 12:24 – ངས་ཁྱེད་ཚོར་བདེན་པ་བདེན་པར་ཟེར་རྒྱུར། གྲོའི་འབྲུ་རྡོག་སའི་ནང་ལྷུངས་ནས་མ་ཤི་ན་འབྲུ་རྡོག་ཁོ་ནར་ལུས། འོན་ཀྱང་ཤི་ན་འབྲུ་རྡོག་དེ་འབྲས་བུ་མང་པོ་སྐྱེ་བར་འགྱུར།
John 12:24 – Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
What Jesus said in John 12:24 is prophetic
We know after Jesus’ resurrection how multitudes turned to repentance and obey the true and living God who has chosen Jesus as the Messiah to redeem us from sin and eternal death.
It is through this relationship between Jesus and the Father we learn to relate to our heavenly Father
We have many questions about God and how we should relate to our Father in heaven and from now we can learn from Jesus.
What qualify Jesus as the good shepherd is that – there is that relationship with the Father in heaven and there is that relationship with His sheep and these two spheres of relationship actually overlaps.
It is also through recognizing and following Jesus as the good shepherd that we also learn to relate to the Father in heaven in a meaningful way that will help us to maturity and fruitfulness
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 14:8-11
8 ཕི་ལིབ་ཀྱིས་ “གཙོ་བོ་ལགས། ཡབ་དེ་ང་ཚོ་ལ་སྟོན་པར་མཛོད་དང༌། ཚིམ་པར་འགྱུར་” ཞེས་བཤད།
9 ཡེ་ཤུས་ “ཕི་ལིབ། ང་རང་ཁྱོད་ཚོ་དང་མཉམ་དུ་ཡུན་རིང་པོར་བསྡད་ཀྱང༌། ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་ད་དུང་ང་སུ་ཡིན་པ་མི་ཤེས་སམ། ང་མཐོང་མཁན་དེས་ཡབ་མཐོང་བས། ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་ཡབ་དེ་ང་ཚོ་ལ་སྟོན་པར་མཛོད་ཅེས་ཟེར།
10 ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་ང་ཡབ་ཀྱི་ནང་ན་ཡོད་པ་དང་ཡབ་ངའི་ནང་ན་ཡོད་པར་དད་པ་མི་བྱེད་དམ། ངས་ཁྱོད་ཚོར་བཤད་པའི་གཏམ་དེ་རྣམས་ང་རང་རང་ཐོག་ནས་མ་བཤད་དེ། ཡབ་ངའི་ནང་དུ་གནས་པ་དེས་རང་གི་ལས་རྣམས་མཛད།
11 ང་ཡབ་ཀྱི་ནང་ན་ཡོད་པ་དང་ཡབ་ངའི་ནང་ན་ཡོད་པར་ཡིད་ཆེས་ཤིག དེ་མ་བྱས་ནའང་ངས་བྱས་པའི་འཕྲིན་ལས་ཉིད་ཀྱི་ཕྱིར་ཡིད་ཆེས་བྱོས།
John 14:8-11
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
As we follow Jesus the good shepherd we are drawing near to our Father in heaven.
To be continue …
David Z
The Life of Yeshu 