To Believe in Jesus – Part 105

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 10:7-18

7དེའི༌ཕྱིར། ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ངས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་ཡང་དག་པར་བདེན་པར་སྨྲ༌སྟེ། ལུག་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སྒོ་ནི་ང་རང་ཡིན། 8ངའི་སྔོན་དུ་ཡོང་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཇག་རྐུན་ཡིན་ཏེ་ལུག་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་དེ་དག་གི་ངག་ལ་མ་མཉན་ཏོ།། 9ང་རང་ནི་སྒོ་ཡིན༌ཏེ། ང་རང་བརྒྱུད་ནས་ནང་དུ་འགྲོ་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་སྐྱོབ་པར་འགྱུར༌ཞིང༌། ཕྱི་ནང་གང་དུ་སོང་ནའང་བཟའ་བྱའི་རྩྭ་འཐོབ་པར་འགྱུར། 10སྤྱིར་རྐུན་མ་ཐམས་ཅད་ནི་རྐུ་བྱེད་པ་དང་སྲོག་གཅོད་པའམ་མེད་པར་བྱེད་པ་བཅས་ཁོ་ནའི་ཆེད་དུ་ཡོང༌བ་ཡིན། འོན་ཀྱང་ང་རང་ནི་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་ཚེ་སྲོག་དཔག་ཏུ་མེད་པ་སྩོལ་བའི་ཕྱིར་ཡོང༌ངོ༌།།

11ང་རང་ནི་ལུག་རྫི་བཟང་པོ༌ཡིན་ཏེ། ལུག་རྫི་བཟང་པོས་ལུག་རྣམས་ཀྱི་དོན་དུ་རང་སྲོག་ཀྱང་བློས་གཏོང་བ༌ཡིན། 12གླ་བ་ནི་ལུག་རྫི་དངོས་མིན་ལ་ལུག་གི་བདག་པོའང་མ་ཡིན༌པས། ཁོས་སྤྱང་ཀི་ཡོང་བ་མཐོང་ཚེ་ལུག་རྣམས་བསྐྱུར་ནས་འབྲོ་བ༌དང༌། སྤྱང་ཀིས་ལུག་འཛིན་པ་དང་ལུག་ཁྱུའང་གཏོར་བར་བྱེད། 13དེས་ན་གླ་བ་དེ་བྲོས་འགྲོ་བའི་རྒྱུ་མཚན་ཅི་ཞེ༌ན། གླ་བ་ནི་གླས་པ་ཡིན་པས་ཁོས་ལུག་ལ་སེམས་ཁུར་མི་བྱེད་དོ།། 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། 16བདག་ལ་ལུག་ར་འདིའི་ལུག་ལས་གཞན་པའི་ལུག་ཀྱང་ཡོད༌དེ། ངས་ལུག་དེ་དག་ཚུར་འཁྲིད་དགོས་ཤིང་དེ་དག་གིས་ཀྱང་ངའི་སྐད་ལ་མཉན་ངེས་ཡིན། ལུག་དེ་ཐམས་ཅད་ལུག་ཁྱུ་གཅིག་ཏུ་འགྱུར་བ་དང་ལུག་རྫིའང་གཅིག་ལ་གཏོགས་པར་འགྱུར་རོ།། 17བདག་གི་ཡབ་ཀྱིས་ང་རང་ལ་བྱམས་ཤིང་གཅེས༌ཏེ། བདག་གིས་རང་སྲོག་བློས་གཏོང་བ་དང་རང་སྲོག་བཏང་རྗེས་སླར་ཡང་གསོན་པར་བྱེད་པའི་ཕྱིར༌ཡིན། 18བདག་ནི་རང་སྲོག་རང་གིས་བློས་གཏོང་བ་ལས་གཞན་སུས་ཀྱང་འཕྲོག་མི་ནུས༌ཏེ། བདག་ལ་རང་སྲོག་བློས་གཏོང་བའི་དབང་ཡོད་ལ་སླར་གསོན་པའི་དབང་ཡང་ཡོད། དེ་ནི་བདག་གི་ཡབ་ཀྱིས་ང་རང་ལ་བསྩལ་བའི་བཀའ་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།

John 10:7-18

7 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 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. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

 

Jesus made further clarification and explanation of what He said earlier about “thief and a robber” in contrast to “shepherd of the sheep” and it is recorded here in John 10 those who heard Him did not understand what He said initially.

 

6དེ་ལྟར་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་དཔེའི་སྒོ་ནས་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་གསུང་གནང་ནའང་ཁོ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་འདིའི་དོན་ཅི་ཡིན་མ་རྟོགས༌སོ།།

6 This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

 

In previous posts I pointed out who were “they” and “them” Jesus was speaking to – the Pharisees and fanatic Jews who oppose Jesus – and I further pointed out that apparently Jesus was comparing and contrasting Himself with the Pharisees, fanatic Jews, and perhaps any other religious establishments that misled the people through adulterated interpretations of scriptures.

There was a problem in Jerusalem in the days of Jesus and John the Baptist that the teachings and instructions of God revealed to Israel through Moses were being replaced by “traditions” and “commandments of men” (མད་ཐཱ། Matthew 15:1-9, མད་ཐཱ། Matthew 23:13-30, མར་ཀུ Mark 7:7)

So here in v7 we read a continuation

 

7དེའི༌ཕྱིར། ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ངས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་ཡང་དག་པར་བདེན་པར་སྨྲ༌སྟེ། ལུག་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སྒོ་ནི་ང་རང་ཡིན།

7 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.

 

Did Jesus know He was talking to a group of hardliner who were determined to holding on to their human traditions and doctrines and were ready to attack Him?

I believe Jesus knew what kind of people He was speaking to and I believe Jesus could have just walked away. There were occasions when Jesus did not continue engaging in further conversations with those who persistently oppose Him.

 

So why, did Jesus continued His discourse here in John 10?

 

Looking at the circumstances from John 9 that continued to John 10, there was a bigger group of common folks Jews who were turning their attention to this interesting conversation Jesus was having with the Pharisees and fanatic Jews as this was happening during festive events in Jerusalem when God-fearing Jews were under obligations to attend. And among them was the man who was born blind and got his sight restored by Jesus.

We know from record that the man born blind was excommunicated from the synagogue after he received his sight through Jesus and he refused to agree with those fanatic Jews that Jesus was a sinner!

 

So we have on record a man being persecuted for believing in Jesus and Jesus was there for Him!

 

Based on the records of the gospels, there were ongoing divisions among the Jews because of Jesus, and there was a mixed group who were observing what was happening between Jesus and His opponents.

I believe Jesus’ teaching and explanation here is more for the sake of those who would listen and believe.

 

What Jesus did here actually showed forth His amazing grace and patience for the sake of those who believed and received Him!

 

So here Jesus makes a direct revelation about Himself – “I am the door of the sheep.”

If we could imagine the context of this message was with reference to a sheep pen – a protected area for sheep – and this “door” Jesus said could imply the designated “entrance” and “pathway” set by the shepherd for safety and protection and so we can do a cross reference with this message to what Jesus Himself said in John 14.6

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 14:5-6

5དེ་ནས་ཐོ་མཱ་ན༌རེ། གཙོ་བོ༌ལགས། ངེད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཁྱེད་ཉིད་གང་དུ་ཕེབས་པའང་མི་ཤེས་པས་ལམ་དེ་ཇི་ལྟར་ཤེས་སམ་ཞེས་ཞུས་པ༌ན། 6སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། བདག་ནི་ལམ་དེ་ཉིད་དང༌། བདེན་པ༌ཉིད། ཚེ་སྲོག་ཉིད་བཅས་ཡིན༌ནོ། །ང་རང་མ་བརྒྱུད་པར་མི་སུའང་ཡབ་ཀྱི་དྲུང་དུ་འགྲོ་མི་ཐུབ་བོ།།

John 14:5-6

5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

 

Today, with benefit of hindsight and we know the death and resurrection of Jesus as historical facts, we know Jesus is teaching us, showing us, the true way to eternal life. Therefore Jesus said “I am the door of the sheep.”

I mentioned earlier

 

What Jesus did here (in John 10) actually showed forth His amazing grace and patience for the sake of those who believed and received Him!

 

So while Jesus was answering questions to His opponents, those who were listening and believing were learning more! And all these important teachings and lessons were recorded for our learning!

To be continue …

 

David Z

To Believe in Jesus – Part 104

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 10:2-5

2འོན་ཀྱང་སྒོ་ལམ་བརྒྱུད་ནས་ལུག་རའི་ནང་དུ་འགྲོ་བ་དེ་ནི་ད་གཟོད་ལུག་རྫི་ཡིན༌ཏེ། 3སྒོ་སྲུང་གིས་དེ་ལ་སྒོ་འབྱེད་ཅིང་ལུག་དག་གིས་ཀྱང་དེའི་སྐད་ལ་མཉན༌པ་དང་། དེས་ཀྱང་རང་གི་ལུག་དག་གི་མིང་ནས་བོས་ཏེ་ཕྱི་རོལ་ཏུ་ཁྲིད༌ཅིང༌། 4རང་གི་ལུག་རྣམས་ཕྱིར་གཏོང་ཞིང་ཁོ་ནི་མདུན་དུ་འགྲོ་བའི་དུས། ལུག་དག་གིས་ཀྱང་ཁོའི་སྐད་ཤེས་པས་རྗེས་སུ་འབྲང་བ་ཡིན་ནོ།། 5ལུག་དེ་དག་མི་རྒྱུས་མེད་ཀྱི་རྗེས་སུ་མི་འབྲང༌ལ། མི་དེའི་སྐད་ཀྱང་མི་ཤེས་པས་འབྲོ་བར་འགྱུར་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།།

John 10:2-5

2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”

 

Let’s continue to analyze more into the message of John 10 where Jesus was using figure of speech “thief and a robber” in contrast to “shepherd of the sheep”.

Jesus specifically highlighted a form of communication between shepherd and sheep – voice – and it is mentioned three times within this sentence.

 

I believe that was done on purpose and His audience would have noted what was Jesus pointing at.

 

Back in the days of Jesus and John the Baptist, common folks Jews would had been familiar with shepherding and farming, herding of sheep and domestication of animals.

Herding of sheep involves various ways and methods and the shepherd’s use of voice command is not the only option but Jesus’ message highlighted that.

Those who are experienced in shepherding flocks will know that sheep are safety conscious, and can be sensitive to know if the shepherd herding them is protecting them from danger.

Within the context and background of Jesus’ public ministry, there seem to be an obvious reason why Jesus highlighted sheep knowing the voice of the shepherd.

In those days, how people hear the gospel, learn the ways of God, and be educated in the instructions and teachings of God – mostly through spoken words in designated gatherings.

In the days of John the Baptist and Jesus, the synagogues were places of gatherings where Jews learn the Torah and that usually happens during the Sabbath.

Few have access to scripture records. The availability of scripture documents was limited to start with, and it was usually the rabbis and their disciples, scribes and religious elite who had access to scripture records. And furthermore only the selected few among the religious elite were recognized to have authority to interpret scriptures. It was expected there were constant debates and disagreements what kind of authorities these religious elite had and who appointed them to interpret scripture and what ought to be practiced.

 

The situation in John 10, apparently Jesus was comparing and contrasting Himself with the Pharisees and fanatic Jews who runs the synagogues, because the common folks who came to Jesus were doing the comparison as well as they were talking among themselves about it and that’s why we read in the gospels about all these divisions that was going on.

 

Remember those disciples of Jesus, before they followed Jesus, most of them were either first from the synagogues and they switched camp to followed John the Baptist and finally Jesus.

John the Baptist knew his disciples left to follow Jesus and he gave them the blessing to do so because he knew and confessed Jesus is of higher authority.

The Pharisees and fanatic Jews were not happy more Jews were turning to follow Jesus and cutting their commitments to the synagogues.

The Sadducees were not happy that more Jews who turned to follow Jesus were not giving monies to the Temple but instead listened to Jesus and gave to the poor and needy!

 

There was an obvious division among the Jews and they were comparing Jesus to the religious establishments.

 

It is an understatement to say that these Pharisees and fanatic Jews who had overwhelming influence and control of how scripture should be interpreted, they knew how they could use their influence against Jesus and John the Baptist.

Therefore in the records of the Four Gospels, there was that repeated questioning of Jesus’ authority by His oppositions especially the Pharisees and fanatic Jews.

While all those debates and disagreements were going on between Jesus and the Pharisees and fanatic Jews, the common folks were watching and paying attention.

Today we have easy and wide access to scripture knowledge.

1) Digital publications – free

2) Online Commentaries – free

3) Videos – free

Common folks today have more access to scripture knowledge and we have no excuse not to spend more time to properly and carefully study scripture to know the will of God and how our redemption in Christ works.

 

We need to make sure we are on the right path to eternal life with Jesus.

 

We can have study groups, discussion groups, there is so much we can do today with all the available tools we have to learn the truth of God’s words and the appointment of  the Messiah chosen of God – Jesus – to redeem Man from sin and death.

Back to the situation in John 10, if we would do a general observation and comparison of Jesus’ ministry to that of the Pharisees, I think what is recorded in Matthew 11 can provide us a clear distinction between Jesus and the religious establishments of that time –

 

མད་ཐཱ། 11:28-30

28དཀའ་སྡུག་ཆེན་པོ་མྱོང་བ་དང་ཁུར་བོ་ལྕི་མོས་མནན་ཡོད་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་བདག་གི་དྲུང་དུ་ཤོག༌དང༌། བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་ངལ་གསོ་སྟེར་བར༌བྱའོ།། 29བདག་གི་གཉའ་ཤིང་ཁུར་ལ་བདག་ནས་སློབས༌དང༌། བདག་ནི་གཤིས་རྒྱུད་འཇམ་ཞིང་སྙེམས་ཆུང༌ཡིན། དེ་ལྟར་བྱས༌ན། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སེམས་སུ་ངལ་གསོ་འཐོབ་ངེས༌ཡིན། 30རྒྱུ་མཚན་ནི་བདག་གི་གཉའ་ཤིང་བདེ་ཞིང་ངའི་ཁུར་བོའང་ཡང་ངོ་ཞེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།

Matthew 11:28-30

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

 

The Pharisees and fanatic Jews were notorious for putting extra heavy burdens on the people with their excessive demands and obligations about rituals and purification.

The Sadducees who runs the Temple, people knew they were greedy for money and they had the support of Herod.

As for the Sanhedrin – common folks would rather avoid them unless they were being called up, summoned, to answer issues they wished to avoid.

We can read it ourselves in the records of the Four Gospels – the common folks who came to Jesus; they were drawn to Jesus because they saw the grace and glory of God in how Jesus ministered to people. Those who were poor and needy they came seeking for Jesus and they were satisfied.

I think the most definitive description of Jesus’ ministry can be found recorded in Luke 4 –

ལོ་ཀུ 4:18-19

18གཙོ་བོའི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་ང་ཡི་སྟེང་དུ༌བཞུགས།།

དབུལ་ཕོངས་རྣམས་ལ་འཕྲིན་བཟང་སྒྲོག་པའི༌ཕྱིར།།

ཁོང་གིས་བདག་ལ་བྱུགས་ཤིང༌བསྐོས་པ་འོ།།

བཙོན་པ་རྣམས་ལ་ཐར་པའི་འཕྲིན་བཟང༌དང༌།།

ལོང་བ་གསོ་བའི་འཕྲིན་བཟང་སྒྲོག་ཕྱིར༌དང༌།།

མནར་བ་རྣམས་ནི་སྒྲོལ་དུ་འཇུག་པ༌དང༌།།

19ཁོང་གི་ཐུགས་རྗེའི་གནམ་ལོ་སྒྲོག་ཕྱིར༌དུ།།

གཙོ་བོ་ཁོང་གིས་བདག་ནི་མངགས་པ༌ཡིན།།

ཞེས་པ་དེ་བཀླགས༌སོ།།

Luke 4:18-19

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

 

Imagine in those days and circumstances, who does not want to follow Jesus?

The ministry of Jesus brought to light division and separation between those who seek the truth of God and those who do not but instead determined to keep their human traditions and doctrines as what religious establishments do.

There were very obvious reasons on the ground why more Jews were turning to Jesus, switching camps from the synagogues, and the Pharisees and fanatic Jews were not happy.

 

To be continue …

David Z