To Believe in Jesus – Part 17
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 4:15
ཡང་བུད་མེད་ན༌རེ། ཇོ་བོ་ལགས། དེས་ན་ཆུ་དེ་བདག་ལ་གནང་བར༌མཛོད། ངས་ཆུ་དེ་འཐུངས་ན་ང་རང་སྐོམ་མི་སྲིད་ལ་ལམ་རིང་པོ་འདི་ལྟ་བུར་ཆུ་ལེན་དུའང་ཡོང་མི་དགོས་ཞེས་སྨྲས་སོ།།
John 4:15
The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
This woman who heard what Jesus said to her in person, her immediate response and openness to Jesus sowed the seed for future harvest among her community within days and into the future times of Acts of the Apostle –
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 4:39-42
39དེ་ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་བདག་གིས་ཅི་བྱས་ཐམས་ཅད་གསུངས་བྱུང་ཞེས་བུད་མེད་དེས་བདེན་དཔང་བྱས༌པས། སི་གར་གྲོང་རྡལ་གྱི་སཱ་མར་ཡ་པ་མང་པོ་ཞིག་གིས་ཀྱང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་ལ་དད་པ་བྱས་པ་རེད། 40དེ་ནས་སཱ་མར་ཡ་པ་རྣམས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུའི་དྲུང་དུ་ཡོང་ནས་ཁོ་རྣམས་དང་མཉམ་དུ་བཞུགས་པར་ཞུས་པ༌ན། ཁོང་ཡང་ཉིན་གཉིས་ཀྱི་རིང་ལ་གནས་དེར་བཞུགས། 41ཁོང་གིས་ཆོས་གསུངས་པས་དད་པ་བྱེད་མཁན་ཡང་སྔར་ལས་ཇེ་མང་དུ་གྱུར་ཏོ།། 42དེ་ནས་སཱ་མར་ཡའི་དད་ལྡན་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་བུད་མེད་དེ༌ལ། ད་ལྟ་ངེད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དད་པ་བྱེད་པ་ནི་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་གཏམ་ཐོས་པས་མ་ཡིན༌ཏེ། ངེད་ཅག་གིས་རང་གི་རྣ་བས་དངོས་སུ་ཐོས་པས་ཁོང་ནི་དངོས་གནས་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡིན་པ་ཤེས་ཞེས་སྨྲས༌སོ།།
John 4:39-42
39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”
མཛད་འཕྲིན། 8:4-8
4དེ་ནས་ཁ་ཐོར་དུ་སོང་བའི་མི་དེ་རྣམས་ཡུལ་སོ་སོར་སོང་ནས་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་བསྒྲགས་སོ།། 5ཕི་ལིབ་ཀྱང་མར་སཱ་མར་ཡ་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་དུ་སོང་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀའི་ཆོས་བསྒྲགས༌ཤིང༌། 6མི་ཚོགས་ཀྱིས་ཆོས་ཐོས་པ་དང་ཕི་ལིབ་ཀྱིས་བསྟན་པའི་གྲུབ་རྟགས་རྣམས་ཀྱང་མཐོང་སྟེ་བློ་སེམས་གཅིག་མཐུན་གྱིས་ཁོང་གི་གསུང་ལ་མཉན་ཏོ།། 7མི་མང་པོ་གདོན་འདྲེས་བཟུང་ཡོད་ཅིང་གདོན་འདྲེ་དེ་དག་གིས་སྐད་ཆེན་པོ་བརྒྱབ༌སྟེ། ཁོ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ལུས་ནས་ཕྱིར་བུད་པ༌དང༌། གཞན༌ཡང༌། ཞ་བོ་དང་གྱོལ་པོ་མང་པོ་ཡོད་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱང་ནད་ལས་ཐར་བས། 8གྲོང་ཁྱེར་དེའི་ནང་དུ་དགའ་སྤྲོ་ཆེན་པོ་བྱུང༌ངོ༌།།
Acts 8:4-8
4 Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. 5 Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. 6 And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. 7 For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. 8 So there was much joy in that city.
This conversation Jesus had with the woman at the well ought to be a proper case study for real evangelism that is effective and fruitful.
What happened among the Samaritans, how they responded to Jesus’s preaching and teaching clearly demonstrated the powerful dynamics of trust and believe in what Jesus actually said and His promise of eternal life.
To believe in Jesus the gateway to eternal life!
How was it that this woman was receptive to what Jesus said? Even more amazing, the response of the many others from her community who came forward to meet Jesus!
This incident in John 4 had a clear contrast to the multiple hostile encounters Jesus had with Jewish religious leaders of that time. A casual observation and comparison would reveal two opposite –
(1). The Samaritans were responding as according to their inner needs and expectation of waiting for the Messiah. They know they needed help and here was the Messiah among them, and they were happy to receive Jesus! And furthermore Jesus’ offer of eternal life is what they had been waiting for!
(2). Jewish religious leaders of that time already had their pre-determined demands that whoever should be the Messiah must liberate the nation of Israel from foreign rule and at that time means to expel Roman forces from the land! These Jewish leaders knew Jesus had the quality of the Messiah except that Jesus had consistently downplayed the idea of forming an army to expel the Romans. So apparently the multiple rejections towards Jesus among the Jewish community were organized, institutionalized, and systematically endorsed by the Sanhedrin and enforced especially through the Pharisee’s control of the many established synagogues surrounding Jerusalem. And it was in this situation that we see small groups of individual Jews following Jesus and trying very hard to avoid public persecution from the own fellow Jews.
So back to the positive response of the Samaritans which led to happy ending with Jesus extending His stay at the village and preaching more of the kingdom of God.
Lesson to be learnt here – the more we desire of Jesus the more receptive we are to the words of God, and the more we are able to learn.
All those amazing positive response of the Samaritans, we need to explore deeper that conversation Jesus had with the woman at the well.
How Jesus was able to speak to her in such a way she did not felt intermediated, threaten, despised, discriminated, as she would expect from the known widespread hostilities between Jews and Samaritans?
How did Jesus do it?
ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱ། 50:4
4ངས་ཉམ་ཐག་རྣམས་ལ་གཏམ་གླེང་ནས་ཇི་ལྟར་སྐྱོང་བ་རྟོགས་པའི་ཆེད་དུ་གཙོ་བོ་ཡ་ཝཱེས་བསླབ་བྱ་ལེན་པའི་ལྗགས་ལྕེ་ང་ལ་གནང་ཞིང་། ཁོང་གིས་ཞོགས་པ་རེ་རེར་ང་གཉིད་ལས་བསླངས་ཏེ། བསླབ་བྱ་ལེན་པའི་སྐྱེས་བུ་བཞིན་ངའི་རྣ་བ་སྤྱང་པོར་མཛད་ཡོད།
Isaiah 50:4
4 The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.
Jesus had the habit of listening and learning from the Father.
Because we believe in Jesus we will also want to open our ears and hearts to learn of the Father’s will.
Because we believe in Jesus we want to be like Jesus having the ability to speak with wisdom and encouragement to those who are weary that they may seek true refuge in the LORD and to find the path to eternal life.
David Z
