To Believe in Jesus – Part 99

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 9:18-23

18དེ་ནས་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་དེ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སྔོན་ཆད་དམུས་ལོང་ཡིན་ཞིང་རྗེས་སུ་མིག་གིས་མཐོང་བར་གྱུར་པའི་དོན་དེ་ལ་ཡིད་མ་ཆེས༌པར། ཁོའི་ཕ་མ་གཉིས་བོས་ཏེ་ན༌རེ། 19མི་འདི་ནི་ཁྱོད་གཉིས་ཀྱི་བུ་ཡིན༌ནམ། ཁྱོད་ཕ་མ་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་བཤད་པ་ལྟར་ན་ཁོ་ནི་སྐྱེས་མ་ཐག་ནས་ལོང་བ་ཡིན༌ཟེར། འོ་ན་ད་ལྟ་ཁོའི་མིག་གིས་ཇི་ལྟར་མཐོང་བར་གྱུར་རམ་ཞེས་དྲིས་པ༌ལ། 20ཕ་མ་གཉིས་ན༌རེ། ཁོ་ནི་ངེད་གཉིས་ཀྱི་བུ་ཡིན་ཞིང་སྐྱེས་མ་ཐག་ནས་ལོང་བ་ཡིན་པ་ངེད་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་ཤེས་སོ།། 21འོན་ཀྱང་ད་ལྟ་ཁོའི་མིག་གིས་ཇི་ལྟར་མཐོང་བར་གྱུར་པ་དང་། སུ་ཞིག་གིས་ཁོའི་མིག་ཟུང་གསོས་པར་མཛད་པའི་དོན་ནི་ངེད་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་མི་ཤེས༌ཏེ། ཁོ་རང་ནར་སོན་པས་ཁོ་རང་ལ་དྲིས་དང་སྨྲ་ངེས་ཡིན་ཞེས་སྨྲས་སོ།། 22ཁོའི་ཕ་མ་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་དེ་སྐད་སྨྲས་པ་ནི་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ལ་འཇིགས༌པ་རེད། རྒྱུ་མཚན་ནི་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མི་སུ་ཞིག་གིས་ཡེ་ཤུ་ནི་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་ཡིན་ཟེར༌ན། མི་དེ་ཆོས་ཁང་ནས་ཕྱི་རུ་འདོན་པར་གྲོས་ཐག་བཅད་ཡོད་པའི་རྐྱེན༌གྱིས། 23ཁོའི་ཕ་མ་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་ཁོ་རང་ནར་སོན་པས་ཁོ་ལ་དྲིས་ཤིག་ཅེས་སྨྲས་པ་ཡིན༌ནོ།།

John 9:18-23

18 The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight 19 and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” 20 His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. 21 But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” 22 (His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. 23 Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”)

 

The ‘Jews” mentioned here most likely refers to a distinct identity differentiated from the religious groups leadership of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Gospel writers do make separate distinct mentions of Jews, Pharisees and Sadducees. The intentional mention of “Jews” was to identify a particular group of the community instead of referring to every Jewish person living in Jerusalem at that time.

During the time of the gospels records, the word “Jews” was commonly used to identify those who claim ancestry to the southern kingdom of Judah that was exiled during the time of Babylonian conquest and later returned during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah to rebuild the Temple and Jerusalem.

The “Jews” mentioned here in gospel records separated and distinguished themselves from those from Galilee and Samaria, and they were based in Jerusalem.

There are bible historians who noted that these particular distinct groups of Jews systematically, deliberately, and in public, opposed Jesus! Among the many reasons for their dislike of Jesus, the one reason which they would not easily admit was that – Jesus was known to be from Galilee!

 

Class Discrimination!

 

There were evident from bible history that these Jews view and treated fellow Israelite from Galilee as lower class citizens, and that could had formulated their assumptions and preconceived ideas about Jesus.

Back to the situation in John 9 – it was not surprising these Jews went into a state of deliberate denial. Considering the situation whereby the man born blind had made repeated confession he got his healing from Jesus and these Jews refused to believe.

 

It was a willful deliberate rejection of Jesus!

 

The gospel writer note that these Jews’ demand for testimony from his parents was just an effort to double-down on their rejection and public persecution against Jesus –

 

22ཁོའི་ཕ་མ་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་དེ་སྐད་སྨྲས་པ་ནི་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ལ་འཇིགས༌པ་རེད། རྒྱུ་མཚན་ནི་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མི་སུ་ཞིག་གིས་ཡེ་ཤུ་ནི་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་ཡིན་ཟེར༌ན། མི་དེ་ཆོས་ཁང་ནས་ཕྱི་རུ་འདོན་པར་གྲོས་ཐག་བཅད་ཡོད་པའི་རྐྱེན༌གྱིས།

22 (His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.

 

To be put out of the synagogue meant to excommunicate, to outcast, to deny any means of community support, and it was a form of passive-aggressive behavior to deliberately destroy the livelihood of that person who is rightfully part of the same community. The more extremist minded Jews might do direct confrontation either through physical attack or through a collective organized effort to destroy that person’s life usually by means of death. That was how eventually there was a collective effort, organized and coordinated between these Jews and the Sanhedrin, to put Jesus to death. Although they tried deflecting responsibility by using the Romans to destroy Jesus – what they did was so obvious even the Roman governor Pontius Pilate saw through it!

The situation in John 9 – before Jesus restored the sight of the man born blind He said

 

3སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ལོང་བ་འདིས་སྡིག་པ་བྱས་པའི་རྐྱེན་མིན༌ལ། ཁོའི་ཕ་མས་སྡིག་པ་བྱས་པའི་རྐྱེན་ཡང་མིན༌པར། དེ་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་ངོ་མཚར་བའི་མཛད་པ་ཁོའི་སྟེང་ནས་མངོན་པའི་ཕྱིར་དེ་ལྟར་བྱུང༌ངོ་།། 4བདག་ཅག་གིས་ཉིན་མོའི་དུས་སུ་ང་རང་མངགས་མཁན་གྱི་བསྒྲུབ་འོས་པའི་དོན་བྱེད་དགོས༌ཤིང༌། མི་སུས་ཀྱང་ལས་ཅི་ཡང་བྱེད་མི་ཐུབ་པའི་མཚན་མོའི་དུས་ཤིག་སླེབ་ངེས༌ཡིན། 5ང་རང་འཇིག་རྟེན་དུ་བཞུགས་དུས་བདག་ནི་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་འོད་ཟེར་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས༌རྗེས།

3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

 

Note – Jesus declared “I am the light of the world” and that was not the only time He said that.

In the midst of all these organized systematic and collective hostility against Jesus, few important observations can be made from this gospel account

1) Jesus being the light of the world show us the true way to eternal life with God

2) The man born blind and had received his sight from Jesus, his testimony and confession exposed the misleading doctrines and teachings of religious establishments of that time.

3) The words of God presented and taught by Jesus, separate and divide truth and falsehood.

 

གསུང་མགུར། 119:105 – ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་བཀའ་ནི་མདུན་གྱི་སྒྲོན་མེ༌དང༌། །ང་ཡི་ལམ་གྱི་འོད་ཟེར་དེ་ཡང༌ཡིན།།

Psalm 119: 105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

 

Apparently what Jesus did to restore and heal the man born blind, was not just to restore the physical sight of this man, but also to address human blindness to the truth.

Jesus did have a small circle of followers and disciples who stood with Him and paid careful attention to His teachings and they are Jewish. They are different from those Jews who oppose and persecuted Jesus. After the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, this small group of faithful disciples carried on Jesus’ mission to teach the message of God’s redemption to the Gentiles.

 

To be continue …

David Z

To Believe in Jesus – Part 98

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 9:13-17

13དེ་ནས་མི་དེ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སྔོན་ཆད་དམུས་ལོང་ཡིན་པ་དེ་ཉིད་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་དྲུང་དུ་ཁྲིད་པ་རེད། 14སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འཇིམ་པ་བརྫིས་ནས་དམུས་ལོང་གི་མིག་ཟུང་གསོས་པར་མཛད་པའི་ཉིན་ནི་ངལ་གསོ་བའི་ཉིན་མོ་ཡིན་ནོ།། 15དེ་ནས་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་ཁོའི་མིག་གིས་ཇི་ལྟར་མཐོང་བར་གྱུར་པ་དྲིས་པ༌ལ། ཁོ་ན༌རེ། མི་དེས་འཇིམ་པ་བརྫིས་ཏེ་ངའི་མིག་ལ་བསྐུས་ཤིང་། ངས་འཇིམ་པ་བཀྲུས་པ་དང་མིག་གིས་མཐོང་བར་གྱུར་ཞེས་སྨྲས་སོ།། 16དེ་ནས་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་རྣམས་ལས་འགའ་ཞིག་ན༌རེ། མི་དེས་ངལ་གསོ་བའི་ཉིན་མོའི་བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་སྲུང་བཞིན་མེད་པས་དཀོན་མཆོག་ནས་བྱུང་བ་མ་ཡིན་ནོ་ཞེས་སྨྲས་པ༌དང༌། ཡང་འགའ་ཞིག་ན༌རེ། མི་སྡིག་ཅན་གྱིས་དེ་ལྟ་བུའི་གྲུབ་རྟགས་རྣམས་སྟོན་ག་ལ་སྲིད་ཅེས་སྨྲས་པས་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་ལྟ་བ་མི་མཐུན་པ་བྱུང༌ངོ་༎ 17ཡང་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་དེ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སྔོན་ཆད་དམུས་ལོང་ཡིན་པ་དེ༌ལ། མི་དེས་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་མིག་ཟུང་གསོས་པར་མཛད༌པས། ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་མི་དེ་ནི་ཅི་ལྟ་བུ་ཡིན་བསམ་མམ་ཞེས་དྲིས་པ༌ལ། ཁོ་ན༌རེ། མི་དེ་ནི་ལུང་སྟོན་པ་ཞིག་ཡིན་ཞེས་སྨྲས་སོ།།

John 9:13-17

13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14 Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15 So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” 16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them. 17 So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”

 

The gospel writer noted “they” – referring to those neighbors who knew the man who was born blind – brought him to the Pharisees.

Why did they do that? What was the purpose of bringing him to the Pharisees?

The gospel writer specifically noted – this act of miracle by Jesus happened on the Sabbath.

As we read through all the four gospel records, there were multiple occasions whereby the Pharisees would find fault with Jesus about the Sabbath. Apparently the Pharisees had certain rules about what can be done on the Sabbath and what ought not to be done, and that according to how they read and interpreted scripture.

 

So, what’s wrong with healing someone on the Sabbath? Depends who you talk to!

 

This incident in John 9 had an interesting different take. It was the blind man’s neighbors who brought him to the Pharisees. It was not one of those occasions when the Pharisees themselves witnessed what Jesus did on the Sabbath and find fault with Jesus.

So they brought the man born blind to the Pharisees and they ended up with

 

1) More questions

2) More divisions

3) More debates

 

Could they have leaved him alone? Yes

Could they also rejoice with him that he got his healing from Jesus? Yes

So why did they had to bring the man born blind to the Pharisees?

In previous posts I had pointed out how Jesus in preaching the truth, speaking the truth, exposed a lot of those misleading teachings and doctrines of the Jewish religious establishments in Jerusalem in those days.

These two groups – the Pharisees and Sadducees – were mentioned often because they were the most influential among Jewish communities in Jerusalem and Israel.

The Pharisees runs the massive networks of synagogues, while the Sadducees controlled the Temple service. Both groups had joint leaderships running the Sanhedrin although they never seemed to fully agree with each other!

By this time in John 9, people in Jerusalem would have known enough of Jesus’s ministry. And I think there would be more and more Jews themselves doing their own soul-searching as they were debating among themselves if this Jesus is truly the Messiah they had been waiting for.

So it was not surprising after they brought the man born blind to the Pharisees they ended up with more questions and divisions.

The gospel writer noted this conversation between the Pharisees and those Jews who disagree –

 

16དེ་ནས་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་རྣམས་ལས་འགའ་ཞིག་ན༌རེ། མི་དེས་ངལ་གསོ་བའི་ཉིན་མོའི་བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་སྲུང་བཞིན་མེད་པས་དཀོན་མཆོག་ནས་བྱུང་བ་མ་ཡིན་ནོ་ཞེས་སྨྲས་པ༌དང༌། ཡང་འགའ་ཞིག་ན༌རེ། མི་སྡིག་ཅན་གྱིས་དེ་ལྟ་བུའི་གྲུབ་རྟགས་རྣམས་སྟོན་ག་ལ་སྲིད་ཅེས་སྨྲས་པས་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་ལྟ་བ་མི་མཐུན་པ་བྱུང༌ངོ་༎

16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them.

 

So apparently some of these common folks were beginning to take courage to questions and challenges the position of the Pharisees! I believe some of the Pharisees themselves also begin to questions their own doctrines.

As we consider our own journey of faith with Jesus, the more we know the truth of Jesus, we would want to questions and challenges some of those religious doctrines we had been influenced with from the society and community we grew up with. Even denominational differences needed to be re-examined according to the truth of what Jesus actually taught and very often what Jesus did not say had been misled by vast volumes of human ideology and theological-construct.

 

This is perhaps a good way when truth is being awakened in us, to know Jesus and His way to eternal life.

 

Back to John 9, eventually and finally they asked the opinion of the man born blind –

 

17ཡང་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་དེ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སྔོན་ཆད་དམུས་ལོང་ཡིན་པ་དེ༌ལ། མི་དེས་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་མིག་ཟུང་གསོས་པར་མཛད༌པས། ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་མི་དེ་ནི་ཅི་ལྟ་བུ་ཡིན་བསམ་མམ་ཞེས་དྲིས་པ༌ལ། ཁོ་ན༌རེ། མི་དེ་ནི་ལུང་སྟོན་པ་ཞིག་ཡིན་ཞེས་སྨྲས་སོ།།

17 So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”

 

The man born blind stood his ground!

 

To be continue …

David Z

To Believe in Jesus – Part 97

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 9:8-12

8དེ་ནས་ཁོའི་ཁྱིམ་མཚེས་དང་སྔར་ཁོ་སྤྲང་པོ་ཡིན་པ་མཐོང་མྱོང་མཁན་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། མི་འདི་ནི་སྔོན་ཆད་སློང་མོ་བྱེད་མཁན་དེ་མ་ཡིན་ནམ་ཞེས་སྨྲས༌ཤིང༌། 9མི་འགའ་ཞིག་གིས་ཁོ་རང་ཡིན་ཞེས་སྨྲས་པ༌དང༌། ཡང་འགའ་ཞིག་གིས་ཁོ་རང་མ་ཡིན་ཏེ་ཁོ་རང་དང་བྱད་གཟུགས་འདྲ་བ་ཞིག་རེད་ཅེས་སྨྲས་པ༌ན། ཁོས་ང་རང་ཡིན་ཞེས་ཡང་ཡང་སྨྲས་པ༌དང༌། 10མི་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་མིག་ཟུང་ཇི་ལྟར་སོས་སམ་ཞེས་དྲིས་པ༌ལ། 11ཁོ་ན༌རེ། ཡེ་ཤུ་ཟེར་བའི་སྐྱེས་བུ་དེས་འཇིམ་པ་བརྫིས་ཏེ་ངའི་མིག་ཟུང་ལ་བསྐུས༌རྗེས། སི་ལོ་ཨམ་རྫིང་བུའི་ནང་དུ་མིག་ཟུང་བཀྲུ་བར་སོང་ཞིག་ཅེས་སྨྲས་པ༌དང༌། ང་རང་སོང་སྟེ་བཀྲུས་པ་ན་མིག་གིས་མཐོང་བར་གྱུར་ཞེས་སྨྲས་སོ།། 12དེ་ནས་མི་དེ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མི་དེ་གང་དུ་ཡོད་ཅེས་དྲིས་པ༌ལ། ཁོས་མི་ཤེས་ཞེས་སྨྲས༌སོ།།

John 9:8-12

8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” 10 So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” 12 They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

 

The writer of the gospel of John recorded much detail about this man who was born blind and received his sight.

What is interesting about this incident is that, the name of this person born blind and received His sight from Jesus was not mentioned!

The details being covered involve reactions from different groups of people around him! But his name is not mentioned!

 

What was the writer pointing at? What was the purpose of this message?

 

First noted reactions from common folks around him was his neighbors who knew him before and what draws their curiosity was

 

10མི་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་མིག་ཟུང་ཇི་ལྟར་སོས་སམ་ཞེས་དྲིས་པ༌ལ།

10 So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?”

 

We must bear in mind this is not the only incident Jesus healed someone of physical blindness. I believe people around Jerusalem, especially local residents already heard of Jesus miraculous work, how He ministered to the sick, poor, and those in needs.

In all the records of the Four Gospels there were multiple incidents of blind individuals receiving their sights through Jesus but what made this incident in John 9 stands out was –

 

1) The writer in particular noted this man was born blind.

2) The writer made specific detail how Jesus made mud in the process of restoring his sight

 

The above two points have cause much biblical and theological debates that

 

3) The possibility this man was born without eyeballs?

4) What Jesus did was re-enactment of Genesis creation account when Man was created from the dust of the ground

 

བཀོད་པ། 2:7 – དཀོན་མཆོག་ཡ་ཝཱེས་ས་རྡུལ་གྱིས་སྐྱེས་པ་ཞིག་བཟོས་པ༌དང༌། དེའི་སྣ་ཁུང་ལ་ཚེ་སྲོག་གི་ཞལ་ཕུ་བརྒྱབ་ནས་སྲོག་དང་ལྡན་པའི་མི་ཞིག་ཏུ་འགྱུར་བར་མཛད༌དོ།།

Genesis 2:7 – then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

 

This incident in the gospel of John recorded a unique work of Christ only those who knew Genesis creation account can related such act only to the creator God.

I believe this is a powerful hidden message here we must not miss. And it is hidden not in the sense of being mysterious and obscure but not explicitly stated by the writer.

This is where a systematic bible study approach that can help us makes all the connections about God’s relationship with Man all the way from Genesis account till the time of the gospel will bring to light what we need to know about the Messiah chosen of God – Jesus Christ – and His relationship with the Father in heaven.

We have noted how the message of John repeatedly highlighted Jesus relationship with God the Father.

This incident in John 9 is very “thought-provoking“, and it is expected this incident became a big issue among the Jews in Jerusalem!

As we read through the whole chapter 9 we would discover few key notable reactions from people about this miracle Jesus did

 

A) We already noted Jesus disciples’ reactions

B) We read more of common folks and members of public reactions

C) How his parents reacted for fear of persecution

D) How the Pharisees reacted using the incident to persecute Jesus and excommunicated the blind man

 

In all these reactions from different groups of people related to the man born blind, some will begin their soul-searching, some will harden theirs hearts, and some would want to rejoice in the Lord but were suppressed.

 

How do we react to these signs and wonders?

 

Although we are warned not to pursue signs and wonders but these specific signs and wonders recorded in the gospels testify to the unique ministry of Jesus and how His disciples and apostles will continue His ministry after His resurrection.

Important point is – all these miracles were done to glorify God the Father and the Messiah chosen of God – Jesus the Christ.

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 20:30-31

30སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་ཐུགས་སྲས་རྣམས་ཀྱི་མདུན་དུ་གྲུབ་རྟགས་གཞན་མང་པོ་མཛད་ཀྱང་མདོ་འདིའི་ནང་དུ་མ་བཀོད་དོ།། 31འོན་ཀྱང་འདིར་བཀོད་པའི་དོན་རྣམས་ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་ཡེ་ཤུ་ནི་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་སྟེ་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་སྲས་ཡིན་པར་དད་པ་བྱེད་ཅིང་། ཁོང་ལ་དད་པ་བྱས་ཏེ་ཁོང་གི་མཚན་གྱི་སྒོ་ནས་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཚེ་སྲོག་འཐོབ་པའི་ཕྱིར་ཡིན༌ནོ།།

John 20:30-31

30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

 

To be continue …

David Z