Tag: To Believe in Jesus

To Believe in Jesus – Part 46

David Z

To Believe in Jesus – Part 46

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 5:25-29

25ཡང་བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་ཡང་དག་པར་བདེན་པར་སྨྲ༌སྟེ། གཤིན་པོ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་སྲས་ཀྱི་གསུང་སྐད་ཐོས་པའི་དུས་ཤིག་སླེབ་པར་འགྱུར་ཞིང་དུས་དེ་ནི་ད་ལྟ་ཡིན། གསུང་དེར་མཉན་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱང་གསོན་པར་འགྱུར་རོ།། 26རྒྱུ་མཚན་ནི་ཡབ་ཀྱི་ནང་དུ་ཚེ་སྲོག་བཞུགས་པ་བཞིན་ཁོང་གིས་སྲས་ལའང་དེ་ལྟར་ཚེ་སྲོག་ཡོད་པར་མཛད་པ་ལགས་སོ།། 27སྲས་དེ་ནི་མིའི་བུ་ཡིན་པས་ལེགས་ཉེས་ཀྱི་ཁྲིམས་ཐག་གཅོད་པའི་དབང་ཡང་སྲས་ལ་གནང༌བ་ཡིན། 28ཁྱོད་རྣམས་དོན་འདིར་ངོ་མཚར་བར་མི༌བྱའོ།། དེ་ཡང་དུར་ཁུང་དུ་སྡོད་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱིས་སྲས་ཀྱི་གསུང་སྐད་ཐོས་ནས། དེ་རྣམས་སླར་གསོན་པར་འགྱུར་བའི་དུས་ཤིག་སླེབ་ངེས༌ཤིང༌། 29ལས་བཟང་པོ་བྱས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཚེ་སྲོག་འཐོབ་པའི་ཕྱིར་སླར་གསོན་པ༌དང༌། ལས་ངན་པ་བྱས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་ཉེས་ཆད་གཅོད་པའི༌ཕྱིར་སླར་གསོན་པར་འགྱུར་རོ།།

John 5:25-29

25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

 

What Jesus said was shocking and mind-blowing for the Jews who heard Him but those Pharisees who study the writings of the prophets will know exactly what Jesus was pointing to.

Those Pharisees who heard Jesus knew that He was making very clear reference to the prophesy and vision of Daniel –

 

དཱ་ནེ་ཨེལ། 12:2

ཡང་ཐལ་རྡུལ་ནང་དུ་གཉིད་འདུག་པ་མང་པོ་སད་པར་འགྱུར་ཞིང་། འགའ་ཞིག་ལ་ཚེ་མཐའ་མེད་པ་འཐོབ་པར་འགྱུར་ལ། འགའ་ཞིག་ངོ་ཚས་གདུང་ཞིང་དུས་གཏན་དུ་གཞན་གྱིས་མཐོང་ཆུང་བྱེད་པར་འགྱུར་རོ།

Daniel 12:2

And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

 

There were sharp divisions between the Pharisees and Sadducees and within the Sanhedrin about resurrection of the dead and their disagreement were clearly played out in the days of Jesus and Paul. These groups of people were in consistent and persistent confrontation with Jesus.

Interestingly the Pharisees were firm believer of the resurrection! And I think this is where we often read more about debate between Jesus and the Pharisees on the subject of the kingdom of God and the state of future blessing of eternal life which points to resurrection. Since this resurrection issue is something which the Pharisees can agree with Jesus about except on the details of it, then both had a lot to talk and debate about.

I think those Pharisees and Jews who believe in the resurrection of the dead did understood what Jesus said but what would had been stunning or even shocking for them was the timing emphasized by Jesus

 

25ཡང་བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་ཡང་དག་པར་བདེན་པར་སྨྲ༌སྟེ། གཤིན་པོ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་སྲས་ཀྱི་གསུང་སྐད་ཐོས་པའི་དུས་ཤིག་སླེབ་པར་འགྱུར་ཞིང་དུས་དེ་ནི་ད་ལྟ་ཡིན། གསུང་དེར་མཉན་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱང་གསོན་པར་འགྱུར་རོ།།

 25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

 

If they heard Jesus correctly it literally meant the resurrection they knew about from the writings of the prophets was going to happen in their days! And it did.

Few scripture text in the Old Testament suggested the possibility of resurrection and even lesser rare messages directly speak of resurrection of the dead.

Daniel 12:2 is one of those few and rare text and perhaps due to the rarity of this kind of message that speaks of resurrection and it was written by Daniel in exile and the original text probably written in Aramaic, those who do not recognized the writings of Daniel would not think much of the resurrection.

The other text that speaks directly of resurrection is in Isaiah

ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱ། 26:19

ཁྱེད་ལ་དབང་བའི་འདས་པོ་རྣམས་གསོན་པར་འགྱུར་ཞིང་། དེ་དག་གི་བེམ་པོ་རྣམས་ཡར་ལངས་ངེས། ས་རྡུལ་ཁྲོད་དུ་སྡོད་མཁན་དག་སད་ནས་དགའ་འབོད་བྱེད་དེ། ཅི་ལ་ཞེ་ན། ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་ཟིལ་ཆར་ནི་ཞོགས་པའི་ཟིལ་པ་ཇི་བཞིན་ས་གཞིའི་འདས་པོ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སྟེང་ལ་འབབ་ཅིང་། ས་གཞིར་ཚེ་ལས་འདས་པ་རྣམས་ཕྱིར་སྤྲོད་དུ་འཇུག་གོ །

Isaiah 26:19

Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead.

 

There is the debate about how to define “Your dead”? Does that means only a selected few will be resurrected? How does that compare to the resurrection of Daniel’s vision?

Another scripture which is hotly debate about resurrection is Ezekiel 37 prophesy of the valley of dry bones. Since this Ezekiel message was written before the time of Daniel the old school interpretation had been about the restoration of the nation of Israel, the exiles brought back to the land, and not about individual resurrection. However from the second temple period and from the time of Malachi looking forward to the coming Messiah there were changes of opinions.

 

Back to John 5, Jesus was preaching and teaching in a time when the Jews had high expectation about when the Messiah will appear and the time for restoration of the nation of Israel. So what Jesus said about resurrection was stunning and even shocking with regards to the timing. And all those arguments the Jews had with Jesus deals with the bigger picture of the identity of the Messiah.

In the days of Jesus there was a lot of arguments, debates, discussions, if this Jesus is the Messiah chosen of God. All these were happening mainly because Jesus did not openly and directly introduce Himself as the Messiah! It was after the death and resurrection of Jesus and He went to meet with the disciples in His resurrected body then His disciples and followers became fully convinced this Jesus is the Messiah they were waiting for!

With regards to what Jesus said at that time of John 5, today we have the benefit of hindsight and we know from scripture record few notable incidents Jesus brought back to life those who were dead –

 

1) Luke 7:12-14 – Jesus raises a widow’s son from dead in a town called Nain.

2) Luke 8:49-56 – Jairus’s daughter brought back to life by Jesus.

3) John 11:38-46 – Lazarus brought back to life by Jesus.

4) Matthew 27:51-54 – Jesus’ death on the cross, the earthquake, and tombs cracked open, and those dead buried in tombs came back to life.

 

And then there was the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

What Jesus said, preached, and proclaimed, were fulfilled

 

25ཡང་བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་ཡང་དག་པར་བདེན་པར་སྨྲ༌སྟེ། གཤིན་པོ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་སྲས་ཀྱི་གསུང་སྐད་ཐོས་པའི་དུས་ཤིག་སླེབ་པར་འགྱུར་ཞིང་དུས་དེ་ནི་ད་ལྟ་ཡིན། གསུང་དེར་མཉན་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱང་གསོན་པར་འགྱུར་རོ།།

 25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

 

This resurrection of the dead is foundational to our faith in Christ and yet still faces lots of debate, discussions, and arguments. But the death and resurrection of Jesus is factual and indisputable.

 

To be continue …

 

David Z

To Believe in Jesus – Part 45

David Z

To Believe in Jesus – Part 45

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 5:24

24ཡང་བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་ཡང་དག་པར་བདེན་པར་སྨྲ༌སྟེ། སུ་ཞིག་གིས་བདག་གི་བཀའ་ལ་ཉན་ཞིང་ང་རང་མངགས་མཁན་ལ་དད་པ་བྱས་ཡོད་པ་ཡིན༌ན། མི་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཚེ་སྲོག་ཐོབ་ཡོད་པ༌དང༌། ཉེས་ཆད་གཅོད་པར་མི་འགྱུར་ཞིང་། མི་དེ་རྣམས་འཆི་བ་ལས་གྲོལ་ནས་ཚེ་སྲོག་གི་ནང་དུ་ཞུགས་པ་ཡིན་ནོ།།

John 5:24

24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

 

In previous post I discussed the connection between what Jesus said and Malachi’s message. The main point about being a Son of God and addressing God as Father is about obedience that pleases God the Father.

With regards to the covenant relationship between God and the nation of Israel the condition of obedience have long been a well-established factor if Israel will continue to be blessed by God and if they as a nation will be allowed to stay in the Promised Land.

The dispersion of the northern kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians and the eventual deportation of the kingdom of Judah to Babylon was clearly noted in history due to the persistent disobedience of the nation of Israel. But not every single Jews rebelled against God, there were few who remain faithful and they did suffered to a certain extend the disaster that befall the nation and for these few who persevere in faith God promise to restore.

The prophet Jeremiah was among those few who remained faithful. And his writing in Lamentations reflected the darkest moment of Israel’s history whereby Israel national leadership’s persistent disobedience to God’s words sealed their judgement. Nevertheless within the writings of this very sad message the hope that a remnant who persevere in faithfulness and obedience will receive the grace and forgiveness of God for future restoration but the same condition for obedience remains.

Now in John 5 with the appearance of Jesus whom God had chosen to be the Messiah to redeem Man from sin and death, there is included in the salvation plan of God for all Man to restore the children of Israel together with Gentiles to fellowship with God but with the same condition of obedience.

It is a well-established fact that the salvation plan of God for Man is open to all people regardless of race and nationalities but the same condition of obedience applies. Therefore when Jesus started His public ministry He proclaimed “The kingdom of God is at hand, repent”.

In Acts 10 the incident when Jesus sent Peter to preach to the non-Jews community, Peter fulfilled his duty with the same message and call for repentance and obedience to God’s words and teachings.

The ultimate blessing and restoration for all mankind by Jesus the Messiah involve the gift of eternal life and therefore Jesus said here in John 5

 

ཡང་བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་ཡང་དག་པར་བདེན་པར་སྨྲ༌སྟེ། སུ་ཞིག་གིས་བདག་གི་བཀའ་ལ་ཉན་ཞིང་ང་རང་མངགས་མཁན་ལ་དད་པ་བྱས་ཡོད་པ་ཡིན༌ན། མི་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཚེ་སྲོག་ཐོབ་ཡོད་པ༌དང༌། ཉེས་ཆད་གཅོད་པར་མི་འགྱུར་ཞིང་། མི་དེ་རྣམས་འཆི་བ་ལས་གྲོལ་ནས་ཚེ་སྲོག་གི་ནང་དུ་ཞུགས་པ་ཡིན་ནོ།།

whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

 

Jesus emphasized “hears my word and believes him who sent“

Apparently those Jews who were hearing Jesus and got angry knew what He said exposed their disobedience against God’s teachings. They knew Jesus was referring to God the Father who sent Him to preach repentance. They knew they own history and they were well aware God will send them prophets and teachers to expose their sins.

For these groups of Jews who rejected Jesus, what they learn about God had been corrupted, twisted, misinterpreted by their synagogue leaders and teachers whom Jesus confronted on many occasions. Therefore the constant struggle in their mind to believe Jesus or not, and this issue about believing in Jesus is being highlighted throughout the gospel of John.

 

To believe in Jesus and to act in obedience to His teachings bears witness to our living faith in Christ the hope of our salvation and the future expectations of eternal life.

 

What we believe in Jesus we do.

We practice our faith in obeying what Jesus teaches in hope and expectations of our future eternal life in the kingdom of God, amen.

So here in John 5 Jesus highlighted the importance of believe, trust and obedience.

What Jesus had spoken in John 5 was before His resurrection. Even His disciples were struggling and questions if this Jesus they had been following was really the Messiah chosen of God. They had the testimony of John the Baptist, they saw those works and miracles of Jesus, and they had the writings of the prophets, but they were still struggling with their faith.

 

The death, burial, and eventual resurrection of Jesus from the dead became the infallible evident of God having chosen Jesus to be the Messiah.

 

Today we have the benefit of hindsight, we know it was after Jesus’ resurrection that He appears to His disciples who had been faithful and persevere, and spoke to them about 40 days in His resurrected body about the kingdom of God, and His disciples’ faith were strengthened.

Likewise we need to find strength and confidence in the resurrection of Christ!

In John 5 when Jesus confronted those Jews who oppose Him, he did so with the intention to turn them to the truth and that they may find true salvation in God.

What Jesus said in John 5 reflected very well what John had previously written in John 3:16

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 3:16-21

16དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་འཇིག་རྟེན་ལ་གཅེས་ཤིང་བྱམས༌ཏེ། ཁོང་གི་སྲས་ལ་དད་པ་བྱེད་མཁན་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་ནམ་ཡང་འཇིག་པ་མེད་ཅིང་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཚེ་སྲོག་འཐོབ་པའི་ཕྱིར། ཁོང་གིས་རང་ཉིད་ཀྱི་སྲས་གཅིག་པོའང་མི་ཀུན་ལ་གནང༌བའོ།། 17དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་རང་གི་སྲས་འཇིག་རྟེན་དུ་མངགས་པ་ནི་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་མི་ཐམས་ཅད་སྐྱོབ་པར་མཛད་པ་ལས་ཉེས་ཆད་གཅོད་པར་མངགས་པ་མ་ཡིན་ནོ།། 18དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་སྲས་ལ་དད་པ་བྱེད་མཁན་རྣམས་ལ་ཉེས་ཆད་གཅོད་པར་མི་འགྱུར༌ཡང༌། དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་སྲས་གཅིག་པོའི་མིང་ལ་དད་པ་མི་བྱེད་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དད་པ་མ་བྱས་པས་ཉེས་ཆད་བཅད་ཟིན༌པ་ཡིན། 19ཉེས་ཆད་གཅོད་པ་ནི་འདི་ལྟ༌སྟེ། གཟི་འོད་དེ་ཉིད་འཇིག་རྟེན་དུ་ཕེབས་ནའང་མི་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སྤྱོད་པ་ངན༌པས། དེ་རྣམས་གཟི་འོད་ལ་མི་དགའ་བར་མུན་ནག་ལ་ཞེན་ཅིང་ཆགས་པའི་ཕྱིར༌ཡིན། 20ངན་པ་སྤྱོད་མཁན་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱིས་རང་གི་སྤྱོད་པ་ངན་པ་དེ་ཕྱིར་མངོན་པར་དོགས༌ནས། གཟི་འོད་ལ་སྡང་ཞིང་གཟི་འོད་ཀྱི་དྲུང་དུའང་མི་ཡོང༌། 21འོན༌ཀྱང༌། བདེན་དོན་ཉམས་ལེན་བྱེད་མཁན་རྣམས་རང་གིས་བྱེད་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་ཕྱིར་མངོན་པའི་ཆེད༌དུ། གཟི་འོད་ཀྱི་དྲུང་དུ་ཡོང་བ་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།

John 3:16-21

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

 

We believe in Jesus and we practice our faith in Christ to be living witness for the hope of our salvation in Christ and our future blessing of eternal life in the kingdom of God.

 

To be continue …

 

David Z

To Believe in Jesus – Part 44

David Z

To Believe in Jesus – Part 44

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 5:19-24

19དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་མི་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་ཡང་དག་པར་བདེན་པར༌སྨྲ་སྟེ། ཡབ་ཀྱིས་དོན་གང་ཞིག་མཛད་པ་བཞིན་སྲས་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་དེ་ལྟར་མཛད༌པས། སྲས་རང་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་ཡབ་ལ་མ་བརྟེན་པར་ལས་ཅི་ཡང་བྱ་མི་ནུས༌ཤིང༌། ཡབ་ཀྱིས་དོན་གང་ཞིག་མཛད་པ་སྲས་ཀྱིས་མཐོང་གྱུར་ན་སྲས་རང་གིས་ཀྱང་དེ་ལྟར་བྱ་ནུས༌སོ།། 20རྒྱུ་མཚན་ནི་ཡབ་ཀྱིས་སྲས་གཅེས་སུ་འཛིན༌ཞིང་། ཁོང་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་མཛད་བཞིན་པའི་དོན་ཐམས་ཅད་སྲས་ལ་སྟོན་པར་མ༌ཟད། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ངོ་མཚར་བའི་ཆེད་དུ་འདི་རྣམས་ལས་ཆེ་བའི་འཕྲིན་ལས་ཀྱང་སྟོན་པར་མཛད་ངེས་སོ།། 21ཡང་ཡབ་ཀྱིས་གཤིན་པོ་རྣམས་ཇི་ལྟར་སླར་གསོན་པར་མཛད་དེ་ཚེ་སྲོག་གནང་བ༌བཞིན། སྲས་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་རང་གི་འདུན་པ་བཞིན་མི་རྣམས་ལ་ཚེ་སྲོག་གནང་བ་ཡིན། 22ཡང་ཡབ་ཀྱིས་མི་སུ་ལའང་ལེགས་ཉེས་ཀྱི་ཁྲིམས་ཐག་མི་གཅོད་པར་དབང་དེ་ཐམས་ཅད་སྲས་ལ་སྤྲད་པ་ཡིན་ནོ།། 23དེ་ནི་མི་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱིས་ཡབ་ལ་མོས་གུས་བྱེད་པ་ལྟར་སྲས་ལའང་མོས་གུས་བྱེད་པའི་ཕྱིར༌ཡིན། འོན་ཀྱང་སུ་ཞིག་གིས་སྲས་ལ་མོས་གུས་མི་བྱེད་ན། སྲས་མངགས་མཁན་ཏེ་ཡབ་ལའང་མོས་གུས་མི་བྱེད། 24ཡང་བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་ཡང་དག་པར་བདེན་པར་སྨྲ༌སྟེ། སུ་ཞིག་གིས་བདག་གི་བཀའ་ལ་ཉན་ཞིང་ང་རང་མངགས་མཁན་ལ་དད་པ་བྱས་ཡོད་པ་ཡིན༌ན། མི་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཚེ་སྲོག་ཐོབ་ཡོད་པ༌དང༌། ཉེས་ཆད་གཅོད་པར་མི་འགྱུར་ཞིང་། མི་དེ་རྣམས་འཆི་བ་ལས་གྲོལ་ནས་ཚེ་སྲོག་གི་ནང་དུ་ཞུགས་པ་ཡིན་ནོ།།

John 5:19-24

19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. 22 For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

 

What Jesus said here may appear very deep and difficult to understand.

However by comparing what Jesus said to what these local Jewish folks had learned from their synagogue teachers, the Law of Moses, and the writings of the prophet, it was a very clear message.

Jesus specifically speaks of father and son relationship, and in this context pointing to His relationship with the Father in heaven.

In previous post I mentioned addressing God as Father is not entirely taboo or forbidden among the Jewish people but depends who is saying it and for what purpose.

In the wordings of the prophet Malachi who was placed at the last book of the old testament, this particular subject of father and son relationship was highlighted but in a negative way.

Let’s look at it

 

མཱལ་ཨ་ཀེ 1:6-7

6དཔུང་ཚོགས་ཀུན་གྱི་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཡ་ཝཱེས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་འདི་སྐད་དུ། ཀྱེ་བདག་གི་མིང་ལ་མཐོང་ཆུང་བྱེད་པའི་མཆོད་དཔོན་རྣམས། བུ་ཡིས་ཕ་ལ་བཀུར་ཞིང་གཡོག་པོས་བདག་པོར་གུས་ཤིང་འཇིགས་པ་ཡིན། གལ་ཏེ་ང་རང་ཕ་ཡིན་ན་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་གུས་བཀུར་གང་དུ་ཡོད་དམ། གལ་ཏེ་ང་རང་བདག་པོ་ཡིན་ན་འཐོབ་འོས་པའི་གུས་ཞུམ་གང་དུ་ཡོད་དམ། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ན་རེ། ངེད་ཅག་གིས་ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་མཚན་ལ་ཅི་ལྟར་མཐོང་ཆུང་བྱས་སམ་ཞེས་འདྲིའོ། ། 7ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཁ་ཟས་མི་གཙང་བ་བདག་གི་མཆོད་ཁྲིའི་སྟེང་དུ་ཕུལ་ནས་ད་དུང་ན་རེ། ངེད་ཅག་གིས་ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་མཆོད་ཁྲི་ཅི་ལྟར་མི་གཙང་བར་བཟོས་སམ་ཟེར་ཏེ། ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་ཞེ་ན། ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཡ་ཝཱེའི་གསོལ་ལྕོག་ལ་མཐོང་ཆུང་བྱས་ཆོག་པར་འདོད་པས་སོ་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།

Malachi 1:6-7

6 “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’ 7 By offering polluted food upon my altar. But you say, ‘How have we polluted you?’ By saying that the Lord’s table may be despised

 

This message from Malachi was to the returning Jews from Babylonian Exile who made the willing and intentional effort to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple that was burnt down during the time of Jeremiah.

It is a known fact among historian that majority of Jewish exile chooses to remain in those foreign lands they were exiled to. That because most of them were born and raised in foreign lands by the end of the 70 years exile proclaimed by the prophet Jeremiah. And by the time Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem to help rebuild the Temple it was way beyond 70 years after the siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonian army.

That generation, who witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem and were exiled to Babylon, the majority of them would not live through that 70 years of exile except for people like Daniel and he did not return to Jerusalem due to his very old age and duty to the Persian court. So the majority of the Jews who were born and raised in foreign land may not feel the connection with Jerusalem anymore and did not return.

So a minority group of Jews returned to Jerusalem with the pledge and commitment to rebuild the Temple but they were not doing it as according to what God specifically instructed. Those 70 years of exile how did they keep faith? How did they read and interpret scripture?  How did they put into practice what God instructed?  How and what did they do during the Lord’s feast without the Temple? It was during this 70 years exile we could trace the beginning of the synagogue system where teachers and scribe had their way of interpreting scriptures and how to practice faith in God.

There are actually a few clear connections between Malachi’s message and Jesus’ message.

  1. 1. The time of Malachi was known as the Second Temple Period, the same with Jesus.
  2. 2. Both message had that specific reference to father and son relationship in the context of relating to God as Father.
  3. 3. Both Malachi’s message and what Jesus said exposed the deep seeded problem of how these people who were called of God to worship and honor God interpreted or misinterpreted scripture and therefore engaging in practices not pleasing to God.
  4. 4. I mentioned earlier it was during the 70 years exile we could trace the beginning of the synagogue system and it was highly possible those returning Jews in the time of Malachi had been influenced by what they had been taught in the synagogue. And Jesus very often was confronting those Pharisees and Scribes running the synagogue system.
  5. 5. Malachi’s prophetic message in chapter 3 points to the coming Messiah. Today we have the benefits of hindsight knowing that this message was indeed pointing to John the Baptist and Jesus.

 

མཱལ་ཨ་ཀེ 3:1

དཔུང་ཚོགས་ཀུན་གྱི་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཡ་ཝཱེས་འདི་སྐད་དུ། ལྟོས་དང་། ངས་རང་གི་ཕོ་ཉ་མངགས་ཏེ་ངའི་མདུན་དུ་ལམ་གྲ་སྒྲིག་བྱེད་པ་དང་། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་འཚོལ་བའི་གཙོ་བོ་ནི་གློ་བུར་ཉིད་ལ་ཁོང་གི་མཆོད་ཁང་ནང་དུ་ཕེབས་ངེས་ཤིང་། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཡིད་སྨོན་བྱེད་པའི་ཞལ་ཆད་ཀྱི་ཕོ་ཉ་དེ་འོང་བར་འགྱུར་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།

Malachi 3:1

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.

 

There were very clear connections between what Jesus said in John 5 and Malachi’s message those people hearing Him would not missed it especially those Pharisees and Scribes .

The message of Malachi exposed the unfaithfulness and corruptions of the priests who were appointed by God to serve the community. And the focal point of this argument was about how they should honor their relationship with God as their Father.

A very important question needs to be answered here.

What kind of standard God use to judge if a person honor Him as Father or not?

 

Obedience

 

And since this argument was directed at the priests then it had to do with Temple service and there were clear directives recorded in Leviticus how things ought to be done. And the accusation highlighted in Malachi deals with a complicated situation. The priests did continue doing the Temple service but they did it in a corrupted manner and God was not pleased. And the kind of corruptions and malpractice lead to despising the Holy Name of God.

This is a very serious accusation in the message of Malachi against the priests of God. It was a bad example of how they were relating to God as Father.

Back to Jesus message in John 5, what Jesus did was an example of proper relationship with the Father in heaven.

Very often Jesus confronted the synagogue leaders, namely the Pharisees, of misleading the people through their corrupted interpretation of scriptures and thus teaching a different kind of practice which eventually do not encourage real obedience to God the Father.

Remember the many arguments Jesus had with the Pharisees was about true obedience to God the Father.

Here in the context of John 5, Jesus directly address the issue of believe and obedience. Was it because they do not believe and thus they do not obey?

So we believe Jesus is the Messiah chosen of God and therefore we pay attention and obey what Jesus teach and instructed.

 

To be continue …

 

David Z