To Believe in Jesus – Part 112

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 10:22-30

22དེ་ནས་ཡེ་རུ་སཱ་ལེམ་གྱི་བསྔོ་བའི་དུས་ཆེན་ལ་སླེབས་ཤིང་། དུས༌དེ་ནི་དགུན་དུས་ཡིན། 23སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་མཆོད་ཁང་ནས་སོ་ལོ་མོན་ཞེས་པའི་ཁྱམས་རར་ཞབས་ཀྱིས་བཅགས་ཤིང་། 24ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཁོང་གི་མཐའ་བསྐོར་ཏེ་ན༌རེ། ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་དུས་ནམ་ཞིག་གི་བར་དུ་ངེད་ཅག་ལ་ཐེ་ཚོམ་སྐྱེས་སུ་འཇུག༌གམ། ཁྱེད་རང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་ཡིན་ན་ངེད་ཅག་ལ་གསལ་པོར་གསུང་བར་མཛོད་ཅེས་ཞུས་སོ།། 25དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། བདག་གིས་སྔ་མོ་ནས་སྨྲས་ཀྱང་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཡིད་མ་ཆེས། བདག་གིས་རང་གི་ཡབ་ཀྱི་མཚན་གྱི་སྒོ་ནས་མཛད་པའི་ལས་དེ་དག་གིས་ང་རང་ལ་བདེན་དཔང་བྱེད༌པ་ཡིན། 26འོན་ཀྱང་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ནི་བདག་གི་ལུག་མིན་པས་བདག་ལ་ཡིད་མི་ཆེས༌ཤིང་། 27ངའི་ལུག་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ངའི་སྐད་ལ་ཉན་པ༌དང༌། ངས་ཀྱང་ལུག་དེ་དག་ངོ་ཤེས་ཏེ་ལུག་རྣམས་ཀྱང་བདག་གི་རྗེས་སུ་འབྲང༌ངོ་།། 28ཡང་བདག་གིས་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཚེ་སྲོག་སྩོལ༌བས། དེ་དག་ནམ་ཡང་འཇིག་པར་མི་འགྱུར་ཞིང་སུས་ཀྱང་བདག་གི་ལག་ནས་དེ་རྣམས་འཕྲོག་མི་ནུས། 29བདག་གི་ཡབ་ཀྱིས་ལུག་དེ་རྣམས་བདག་ལ་གནང་ཞིང་ཁོང་ཉིད་ནི་ཐམས་ཅད་ལས་མཆོག་ཏུ་གྱུར་པ་ཡིན༌ཏེ། སུ་ཞིག་གིས་ཀྱང་བདག་གི་ཡབ་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་ནས་ལུག་དེ་རྣམས་འཕྲོག་པར་མི་ནུས། 30བདག་དང་ཡབ་ནི་ངོ་བོ་གཅིག་རང་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།

John 10:22-30

22 At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. 24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

 

The gospel writer made a special note about when and where the next confrontation between fanatic Jews and Jesus took place – the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem.

I mentioned fanatic Jews because it was not just the Pharisees – as assumed by many Christian pastors and preachers – who were nitpicking with Jesus and being antagonistic. Bad religious leadership is one problem but their supporters who do blind allegiances and are ready to attack anyone who do not agree with their policies can do more harm very destructive harm. Therefore Jesus warned His disciples often about persecution for righteousness sake, for the sake of the gospel, and for sake of His name.

If we read records of the gospel and what happen in the Book of Acts, it was usually these fanatic supporters of bad religious leaderships who first started persecuting believes of Jesus and eventually when the issues gets blown up believers and disciples of Jesus were dragged to courts for unfair trial and punishment according to their religious doctrines.

About this Feast of Dedication in John 10, this should be important to note as this particular feast is not one of the three major feasts of the Lord requested by God Yahweh with specific instructions given to Moses at Mount Sinai.

In fact there was no such thing as the Feast of Dedication even for the returning Jews from the Babylonian Exile who rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem and the Temple.

 

So why is this Feast of Dedication mentioned here in John 10 and why were the Jews observing it? And more important – why did this gospel writer made specific note of it?

 

What most Christians know about the Old Testament Canons – the same list of 39 books listed in the Hebrew Bible – have no trace no references to the Feast of Dedication whatsoever.

However, there is a list of books not officially accepted in into either Old or New Testament Canons and it does contain references to the Feast of Dedication. This list of records and literature is commonly known as the Biblical Apocrypha, and few of the Christians denominations use them. The book of 1 and 2 Maccabees found in the Apocrypha provides background to the Feast of Dedication we read about in John 10.

This Feast of Dedication mentioned in John 10 was also known as Feast of the Maccabees in memory of the Maccabean Revolt – a Jewish rebellion about 150 years before Jesus and John the Baptist, against the Seleucid Empire of Antiochus IV Epiphanes.

The Maccabean Revolt brought liberation for the Jews in Jerusalem they had hope for, but that freedom and independence from foreign rule was short lived because the Romans soon took control of Jerusalem.

 

The connection between the Feast of Dedication, the Maccabean Revolt, and the Messiah should not be overlooked.

 

For us modern day Christians and believers we may not see any of these connections but for those Jews in the days of Jesus and John the Baptist the connections was so strong and the memory of the Maccabean Revolt still fresh in their minds, therefore these Jews in John 10 demanded of Jesus

 

24ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཁོང་གི་མཐའ་བསྐོར་ཏེ་ན༌རེ། ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་དུས་ནམ་ཞིག་གི་བར་དུ་ངེད་ཅག་ལ་ཐེ་ཚོམ་སྐྱེས་སུ་འཇུག༌གམ། ཁྱེད་རང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་ཡིན་ན་ངེད་ཅག་ལ་གསལ་པོར་གསུང་བར་མཛོད་ཅེས་ཞུས་སོ།།

24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”

 

This question was directed at Jesus during the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem and it happened right at that area in the Temple named in honor of King Solomon.

All these that was happening during the Feast of Dedication was no coincidence – the gospels records shows about 3 years of Jesus’ public ministry and these Jews had many opportunities to question and debate with Jesus but it had to be this moment at the Feast of Dedication they raised that questions “If you are the Christ”.

Can you feel the sense of urgency and heaviness these Jews were directing that kind of question to Jesus? I think they came to Jesus, surrounded Jesus, put Jesus in a corner and demanded an immediate answer. It was a kind of upfront personal interrogation.

In various previous post I pointed out at that time of John the Baptist and Jesus, many of the Jews were waiting and expecting a coming Messiah to liberate the Jews living in Jerusalem from foreign rule and restore the nation of Israel to sovereignty. The Maccabean Revolt seems to have had achieved that but because it was short lived and the Roman soon conquered Jerusalem, those Jews who remember that incident abandoned the idea the kingdom of God had arrived with the result of the Maccabean Revolt and with their God appointed and long awaited Messiah. But they continued to hope for and wait for the coming Messiah to be revealed, and remember the Maccabean Revolt happened just about 150 years before Jesus.

By the time of John the Baptist and Jesus, expectations was running high and thus the repeated questions recorded in the gospel, Jews asking Jesus if the kingdom of God is here.

It is important to note and remember what Jesus actually said about the kingdom of God

 

མད་ཐཱ། 4:17 – དེ་ནས་བཟུང་ཡེ་ཤུས་ཆོས་བསྟན་འགོ་ཚུགས་གནང་སྟེ་  “དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་རྒྱལ་སྲིད་འཐོན་ལ་ཉེ་བར་སླེབས་པས། ཁྱེད་ཚོས་སྤྱོད་པ་ངན་པ་རྣམས་སྤངས་ནས་སེམས་བསྒྱུར་དགོས་”  ཞེས་གསུངས།  ཉེ་གནས་ཐོག་མ།

Matthew 4:17 – From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

 

Jesus was calling for repentance to be ready for the kingdom of God.

Of course Jesus’ message did not go well with these fanatic Jews who were expecting a military campaign to overthrow the Romans and liberate Jerusalem from foreign power.

Today we have the benefit of hindsight and we know

 

Jesus is the Messiah chosen of God but not the type of messiah the Jews wanted at that time

 

But not every Jews rejected Jesus and therefore the Jewish community was divided.

 

To be continue …

David Z

To Believe in Jesus – Part 111

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 10:19-21

19 ཡེ་ཤུས་དེ་ལྟར་གསུངས་པས་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པའི་ནང་ན་ཡང་བསྐྱར་ལྟ་བ་མི་མཐུན་པ་བྱུང༌། 20 དེ་ཚོའི་ནང་ནས་མི་མང་པོས་ “མི་འདི་འདྲེ་ཞུགས་ཏེ་སྨྱོས་པས་ཁྱོད་ཚོས་ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་ཉན་” ཞེས་བཤད། 21 འོན་ཀྱང་གཞན་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ “གཏམ་འདི་ནི་འདྲེ་ཞུགས་པ་ཞིག་གི་གཏམ་མ་ཡིན། འདྲེ་ཡིས་མི་ལོང་བའི་མིག་གསོ་བར་བྱེད་པ་དེ་ཅི་ལ་སྲིད་” ཅེས་བཤད།

John 10:19-21

19 There was again a division among the Jews because of these words. 20 Many of them said, “He has a demon, and is insane; why listen to him?” 21 Others said, “These are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

 

Divisions due to how people react and response to what Jesus said are very common.

The Four Gospel – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – recorded many repeated incidents of divisions among the Jews based on what Jesus said. Even among Jesus’ disciples there were disagreements and divisions.

After the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Book of Acts (མཛད་འཕྲིན།) recorded how the believer’s communities grew in numbers and along with it more divisions and disagreements. And today, Christians are divided according to the vast spectrum of denominations while many try to keep peace and harmony.

With regards to divisions and disagreements based on what Jesus said we must seek deeper understanding and get into more details, and find out what exactly people disagree about and that resulted in divisions.

Divisions can leads to separation or continue interactions.

 

I think the situation here in John 10 is basically about if these Jews will accept the authority of Jesus or not.

 

The situation in John 10, these Jews responding to what Jesus said is no stranger to debate and disagreement. Within the Jewish community especially during gatherings at synagogues, expressing one’s point of view in opposition to their Rabbis were not restricted and more learning through careful analysis, discussion and even disagreement were encouraged.

We have very interesting record of Paul being put on trial for preaching the gospel for Jesus at the hearing of the Sanhedrin written in the Book of Acts that revealed the public disagreements and division among the Pharisees, Sadducees and Priests, and they continue to function as one organization trying very hard to hold the Jewish community in Jerusalem together. (མཛད་འཕྲིན། Acts 23).

So back to the situation in John 10, I think the basis of division had to do with accepting Jesus’ authority and I will list a few areas of authority to consider

 

1. Authority to judge
2. Authority to interpret scripture
3. Authority over life and death
4. Authority of the Messiah chosen of God

 

We must bear in mind the kind of society the Jews embraced in the days of John the Baptist and Jesus was highly theocratic. Therefore religious leadership carries much influence over the daily lives of the people. And furthermore what people think and believe about the afterlife and what happen when a person die – what kind of judgement will befall that person? That kind of belief system makes the Jews more attentive to what was spoken by Jesus and John the Baptist and they will compare and contrast with what they had heard from their religious leaders at their synagogue meetings.

I need to point out, what added to the division here in John 10 was that at that time in Jerusalem, religious committed Jews were waiting and expecting the appearance of the Messiah and the restoration of the nation of Israel.

There were already noted divisions and disagreement about if this Jesus is the Messiah they had been waiting for, and thus the repeated questions “when will the kingdom of God appear?‘

Apparently those Jews who had been taught and educate by their religious leaderships were expecting a coming Messiah to lead a successful military campaign to defect the Romans and liberate Israel completely from foreign rule – and that based on how their religious leaderships interpreted scripture and prophesies about the coming Messiah.

Religious sectarianism among the Jews was widespread and noted in Jerusalem at the time of John the Baptist and Jesus and a lot of their disagreement seems to be related to the issue of the coming Messiah and the restoration of Israel, and most if not all had that expectation of a Messiah who will fully restore the nation of Israel to the time of one united glorious nation like the days of King Solomon and therefore the assumption of political campaign – military – to liberate Israel from Roman rule.

Whatever these Jews were thinking and expecting, let’s look at what Jesus said in Matthew 10:34-36 which is related –

 

མད་ཐཱ། 10:34-36

34ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ང་རང་འཇིག་རྟེན་འདིར་ཡོང་བ་ནི་མི་རྣམས་ལ་ཞི་བདེ་བསྐྱལ་ཡོང་བའི་ཆེད་དུ་ཡིན་པར་མ་སེམས༌ཤིག ངས་མི་རྣམས་ལ་ཞི་བདེ་བསྐྱལ་ཡོང་བ་མ་ཡིན་པར་རལ་གྲི་བསྐྱལ་བའི་ཕྱིར་ཡོང༌ངོ༌།། 35ང་ནི་བུ་དང༌ཕ། བུ་མོ་དང༌མ། མནའ་མ་དང་སྒྱུག་མོ་རྣམས་ཕན་ཚུན་དགྲ་རུ་ལང་བའི་ཕྱིར་ཡོང་བ༌ཡིན། 36མི་རྣམས་ཀྱི་དགྲ་བོ་ནི་རང་གི་ཁྱིམ་མི་དག་ཡིན་པར༌འགྱུར།

Matthew 10:34-36

34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.

 

In Matthew 10:34-36, Jesus was not preaching with a literal physical sword in His hand and waving it in the air.

Those Jews who heard what Jesus said would had understood the “sword” mentioned by Jesus in that context refers to judgement, separation and division, based on the His pure teachings and instructions of God revealed in scripture.

I pointed out in previous posts, how the existing religious leaderships had corrupted the pure teachings of God with their man-made doctrines and as more Jews themselves started to think deeper and compare notes with what they had been taught by their Rabbis and with what Jesus said, apparently the demand and desire for truth and clarity about the kingdom of God will cause them to be divided, to separate and make decision to follow Jesus or not.

 

What is at stake here with all these divisions about Jesus is – the true path to redemption and eternal life!

 

Jesus came to show us the true way to repentance and reconciliation with God and it is through this Messiah chosen of God – Jesus Christ – that we will receive our redemption from sin and death and with it the reward of eternal life with God.

Man-made doctrines appears to look good on the outside – doing things for show – but is of no eternal value and no power to redeem us from sin and death.

 

To be continue …

David Z