To Believe in Jesus – Part 43

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 5:17-18

17སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། བདག་གི་ཡབ་ཀྱིས་ད་ལྟའི་བར་དུ་འཕྲིན་ལས་སྣ་ཚོགས་མཛད༌ཅིང༌། བདག་གིས་ཀྱང་འཕྲིན་ལས་མཛད་པ་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས་པ༌ན། 18ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སྔར་ལས་ལྷག་པར་ཁོང་ཉིད་དགྲོང་འདོད༌པ་རེད། རྒྱུ་མཚན་ནི་ཁོང་ཉིད་ངལ་གསོ་བའི་ཉིན་མོའི་ཆོས་ཁྲིམས་དང་འགལ་བར་མ༌ཟད། དཀོན་མཆོག་ནི་རང་གི་ཡབ་ཡིན་ཞེས་ཀྱང་གསུངས༌ཏེ། ཁོང་དང་དཀོན་མཆོག་གཉིས་འདྲ་མཉམ་ཡིན་པར་བྱས་པའི་ཕྱིར༌རོ།།

 

John 5:17-18

17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

 

In previous post I discussed a key problem why this same group of people identified as Jews who refused to believe Jesus is the Messiah chosen of God. And what is important to note is that they do not represent every Jewish person but those who were under control and authority of the Sanhedrin and the synagogue system operated by the Pharisees.

The Pharisees who oversee the vast network of synagogue and having direct authority and control over the social-economic lives of the majority of Jews, they had their own interpretation of God’s law and how to practice. Those who disagree risk being excommunicated and condemned as outlaws.

The synagogue system continues till today with a different leadership structure but this vast network of systematic organized gatherings had facilitated the survival of Jewish culture and traditions known as Judaism after the destruction of the Temple in AD 70.

Back to the situation in John 5, on the background of the various arguments these Jews had with Jesus very often it happened on the Sabbath because it was the designated day of gathering at the local synagogues and where many civil and social issues were discussed.

In this context John highlighted that apart from their teachings and rule about Sabbath they had problem with Jesus addressing God as His Father!

God being addressed as Father is not entirely taboo or banned among the Jewish people but such addressing is to be done with utmost respect and depending on the purpose and who is claiming and proclaiming God as Father.

The identity of Jesus had become a divisive issue among the Jews especially those who live in Jerusalem and were directly involved with the Temple service. They were expecting the Messiah but not this Jesus who keep preaching against their sins!

John noted on what basis these Jews were angry to the points of intending to kill Jesus

 

18ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སྔར་ལས་ལྷག་པར་ཁོང་ཉིད་དགྲོང་འདོད༌པ་རེད། རྒྱུ་མཚན་ནི་ཁོང་ཉིད་ངལ་གསོ་བའི་ཉིན་མོའི་ཆོས་ཁྲིམས་དང་འགལ་བར་མ༌ཟད། དཀོན་མཆོག་ནི་རང་གི་ཡབ་ཡིན་ཞེས་ཀྱང་གསུངས༌ཏེ། ཁོང་དང་དཀོན་མཆོག་གཉིས་འདྲ་མཉམ་ཡིན་པར་བྱས་པའི་ཕྱིར༌རོ།།

18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

 

The issue of Jesus being equal with God was offensive to them. Basically they don’t believe and do not receive Jesus as having that position to claim that kind of relationship with God.

The root causes of being offended seem to be in how they interpreted scripture and what had they been taught about the coming Messiah. In this context the Gospel of Matthew recorded an incident worth taking note

 

མད་ཐཱ། 22:41-46

41ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་རྣམས་གནས་དེར་འཛོམས༌དུས། སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། 42མཱ་ཤི་ཀའི་སྐོར་ནས་ཁྱོད་ཅག་གི་བསམ་ཚུལ་ཅི་ཡིན༌ནམ། ཁོང་ནི་སུ་ཞིག་གི་སྲས་ཡིན་ནམ་ཞེས་བཀའ་འདྲི་གནང་བ༌ལ། དེ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དཱ་བིད་ཀྱི་རིགས་སྲས་ཡིན་ཞེས་ཞུས༌སོ།། 43ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། དེས་ན་དཱ་བིད་ཀྱིས་དམ་པའི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་ཀྱི་ངང་ནས་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་ལ་གཙོ་བོ་ལགས་ཞེས་འབོད་པ་ཅི་ཡིན༌ནམ། དེ་ལ་ཇི་སྐད༌དུ།

44དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་ནི་ང་ཡི་གཙོ་བོ༌ལ།།

བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་བསྟན་དགྲ་ཐམས་ཅད༌ཀུན།།

ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་ཞབས་ཀྱི་འོག་ཏུ་འཇུག་པའི༌བར།།

བདག་གི་གཡས་སུ་བཞུགས་ཤིང་སྒུག་པར༌བྱའོ།།

ཞེས་གསུངས༌ཤིང༌། 45དཱ་བིད་ཀྱིས་ཁོང་ལ་གཙོ་བོ་ཞེས་ཞུས༌ན། ཁོང་ནི་དཱ་བིད་ཀྱི་རིགས་སྲས་སུ་ཇི་ལྟར་གྱུར་པ་ཡིན་ནམ་ཞེས་གསུངས་པ༌ན། 46མི་སུས་ཀྱང་ཁོང་ལ་ལན་འདེབས་མ་ནུས༌ལ། ཉིན་དེ་ནས་བཟུང་སུས་ཀྱང་ཁོང་ལ་དྲི་བ་ཅི་ཡང་ཞུ་མ་ཕོད༌དོ།།

Matthew 22:41-46

41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, 42 saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” 43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,

44 “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet”’?

45 If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” 46 And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

 

This conversation in Mathew was directed at the Pharisees, namely the synagogue leadership. And there were many others gathered there at the meeting.

Those present at that gathering who heard Jesus knew He quoted from Psalm 110, and they already knew that message from Psalm 110 was speaking of the coming Messiah!

Jesus was very well aware what these community leaders, namely the Pharisees, had been teaching and how they interpreted scripture and how eventually they have been hindering the people from believing in Jesus being the Messiah chosen of God.

The first chapter of the Gospel of John, the author already addressed the issue of having the rights to be sons of God and even pointed out on what basis people will receive or reject the invitation to address God as Father

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 1:9-13

9གཟི་འོད་དེ་ཉིད་འོད་ཟེར་དངོས་མ༌སྟེ།།

འཇིག་རྟེན་ཡོངས་སུ་འཕྲོས་ནས་མི་ཀུན༌གསལ།།

10དེ་ཡང་ཁོང་ཉིད་འཇིག་རྟེན་འདིར་བཞུགས༌ཤིང༌།།

ཁོང་ཉིད་བརྒྱུད་ནས་འཇིག་རྟེན་བསྐྲུན་ན༌ཡང༌།།

འཇིག་རྟེན་མི་ཡིས་ཁོང་ཉིད་ཤེས་མ༌གྱུར།།

11ཁོང་ནི་རང་ཡུལ་ཕྱོགས་སུ་ཕེབས་ན༌ཡང༌།།

རང་ཡུལ་མི་ཡིས་ཁོང་ལ་བསུ་བ༌མེད།།

12ཁོང་ཉིད་བསུ་ཞིང་ཁོང་གི་མཚན་ལ་ནི།།

དད་པའི་མི་རྣམས་དཀོན་མཆོག་བུ་ཕྲུག་ལ༎

འགྱུར་བར་མཛད་པའི་དབང་ཡང་ཁོང་གིས༌གནང༌།།

13དད་ལྡན་སྐྱེ་བོ་སོ་སོ་དེ་རྣམས༌ནི།།

མི་ཡི་ཁྲག་ལས་སྐྱེས་པ་མ་ཡིན༌ལ།།

མི་ཡི་འདོད་ཆགས་དབང་གིས་མ་སྐྱེས༌ཤིང༌།།

མི་ཡི་འདོད་མོས་བཞིན་དུ་སྐྱེས་པའང༌མིན།།

དེ་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཉིད་ལས་སྐྱེས་པ་ལགས།།

John 1:9-13

9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

 

The key is to believe in Jesus, to receive Jesus as the Messiah chosen of God to redeem and restore us back to relationship with God.

Who do we recognize and receive as the Messiah chosen of God to redeem us from sin and death is crucial to our future hope of eternal life.

 

To be continue …

 

David Z

To Believe in Jesus – Part 42

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 5:15-16

15དེ་ནས་མི་དེ་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་གམ་དུ་སོང༌སྟེ། རང་གི་ནད་འཇོམས་པར་མཛད་མཁན་དེ་ནི་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་ཡིན་པར་སྨྲས༌སོ།།

16སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་ངལ་གསོ་བའི་ཉིན་ལ་དེ་ལྟར་མཛད་པས་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཁོང་ལ་གནོད་འཚེ་བྱས།

 

John 5:15:16

15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. 16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.

 

Why was this incident recorded by John?

The plan reading of the text highlighted a key reason why Jesus was persecuted and by whom and for what reason. It also addressed a key problem why this same group of people refused to believe Jesus is the Messiah chosen of God.

 

To believe in Jesus we need to be prepared for persecution!

 

Persecutions can arise from various reasons and we need to carefully observe exactly where is it coming from and for what purpose, and when necessary we need to stand firm in our faith in Christ.

John identified this group of people who were persecuting Jesus as “Jews” but that was not referring to every Jewish person! In the context of John’s message, these Jews most likely refer to those strict religious minded Jews who had settled within Jerusalem.

Locations and contexts are the initial clues we need to watch out for with regards to Christian persecutions.

Today we have the benefit of hindsight; we can look back in history and differentiate the different groups of Jewish people during the time of the Four Gospel and Acts.

In Acts 2 when we read of what happened during Pentecost and there were Jewish Diaspora gathered in Jerusalem because they came from outside Jerusalem to do obligation for the feast.

Why did they come to Jerusalem? Because the Temple was there! And there was only one designated Temple for doing their obligations to God with regards to the yearly feast and sacrifices.

There is growing consensus among bible historian that after the Babylon Exile, majority of Jewish Diaspora did not return to Jerusalem but prefer to continue living in the various places and nations where they were exiled to. However many did make the regular pilgrimages to Jerusalem to observe the feast of the Lord but did not live permanently in Jerusalem.

By the time of Jesus, majority of the total Jewish population worldwide were living outside Jerusalem, and away from the Promised Land. That situation continues till today whereby majority of Jewish Diaspora can be found in North America. The minority ultra-orthodox Jews today do settle in modern day Jerusalem and Israel.

In the days of Jesus and the apostle Paul, there was a minority group of Jews who did permanently resettled back to Jerusalem after the Babylon Exile and these were most likely the religious minded and followed a more strict code-of-conduct enforced by the authority of the Sanhedrin and the synagogue system operated by the Pharisees.

In those days there were already various disagreements and divisions among the Jews themselves especially between those who permanently settled in Jerusalem being identified as Judeans and those who live outside Jerusalem and far away.

Do not be surprised that even Jews from Jerusalem and Jews from Galilee could not agree with each other about what was written in the Law of Moses and the writings of the Prophets, especially about the coming Messiah. That was perhaps just one of the many reasons why we often read of the Pharisees continuously bombarding Jesus with absurd questionings and arguments.

In the days of Jesus the land of Israel was governed by Rome and most of these Jews who were living within the old city depended on either the Sanhedrin or the synagogue system for verification of their identity as Jews and Judeans, and certain civil rights protection against Roman laws which may expose them to pagan worship. And why would they want to switch camp to follow Jesus? Jesus did not promise them membership privileges but continue preaching against their sins and calling for repentance.

The problem with the Sanhedrin and the Pharisees was that they had their own sets of interpretation about the Law of Moses and how to keep God’s commandments and we do have record of Jesus’ confrontation with them. For example

 

མཱཪ་ཀུ 7:5-8

5དེ་ནས་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་དང་མཁན་པོ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ༌ལ། ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་ཐུགས་སྲས་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་གནའ་མིའི་ལུགས་སྲོལ་བཞིན་མི་བྱེད༌པར། ལག་པ་མི་གཙང་ནའང་བག་ལེབ་ཟའམ་ཞེས་དྲིས་པ༌དང༌། 6སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ཚུལ་འཆོས་པ་ཁྱོད་ཅག་གི་སྐོར་ལ་ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱ་ཡིས་ལེགས་པར་གསུངས་པ་འདི་ལྟ༌སྟེ།

མི་སྡེ་འདི་ཡིས་ངག་ནས་ང་རང་བཀུར་ན༌ཡང༌།།

ཁོ་ཚོའི་སེམས་ནི་ང་དང་ཡོངས་སུ་བྲལ་བ༌ཡིན།།

7འཇིག་རྟེན་མི་ཡིས་བརྩམས་པའི་བསླབ་བྱ་སྣ་ཚོགས༌པ།།

བདེན་པའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་གཞུང་ལུགས་ཡིན་ཁུལ་སྟོན་བྱེད༌པས།།

བསྙེན་བཀུར་དེ་འདྲ་བདག་ལ་བྱས་ཀྱང་སྙིང་པོ༌མེད།།

ཅེས་བཀོད་པ༌ལྟར། 8ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་སྤངས་ནས་མིའི་ལུགས་སྲོལ་སྲུང་བཞིན་འདུག་ཅེས་གསུངས་པ༌དང༌།

 

Mark 7:5-8

5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” 6 And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

“‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

 

In the context of Mark 7, the Pharisee were complaining about certain issues with hand washing rituals before eating but did God ever issued such laws?

Back to the situation in John 5, it was beyond common sense that Jesus did His miracle to heal a man who had been sick for 38 years and these Jews went head on to persecute Jesus because this happen on the Sabbath! But God had never issued any commandment against healing on the Sabbath!

Furthermore the issue these Jews had with the man and Jesus was that he picks up his bed and walk on the Sabbath. What’s wrong with that?

 

To believe in Jesus as against man’s traditions

 

The “tradition of the elders” and “commandments of men” the Pharisees and Sanhedrin had indoctrinated that generation of Jews living in Jerusalem were adulterated and corrupted interpretation of God’s commandment.

On the background of the various arguments these Jews had with Jesus very often it happened on the Sabbath because it was the designated day of gathering at the local synagogues and where many civic and social issues were discussed. And the Pharisees were teaching the Jews how to behave based on how they interpreted God’s instructions to Moses.

How these synagogue leaders – namely the Pharisees – interpreted God law and how to practice became a hindrance to believing and accepting Jesus as the Messiah chosen of God.

However, among the Jews there were those who believed.

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 8:31-32

31དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་རང་ཉིད་ལ་དད་པ་ཡོད་པའི་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ལ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། གལ་ཏེ་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་བདག་གི་བཀའ་ཡི་ནང་དུ་གནས་ན། ཁྱོད་ཅག་ནི་དངོས་གནས་བདག་གི་རྗེས་འབྲང་པ་ཡིན༌ལ། 32ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་བདེན་པ་ཉིད་དེ་ཤེས་པར་འགྱུར་ཞིང་བདེན་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་རང་དབང་ལྡན་པར་མཛད་ངེས་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།།

John 8:31-32

31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

 

What Jesus said to these Jews who believed in Him was encouraging but they need to stand firm in their faith and continue to believe and not fall back to old ways of following man-made doctrines.

 

To believe in Jesus is to walk in freedom to receive the salvation of God.

To believe in Jesus is to freely receive the grace and forgiveness of Christ.

To believe in Jesus we must be prepared for persecutions due to man-made doctrines and traditions which contradict the will of God to redeem us from the system of this world.

 

As Jesus continues to preach and teach, divisions and disagreements continue among the Jews.

Regardless of Jews or Gentiles, as we believe in Jesus and continue to believe we are on the path to eternal life because this is the promise Jesus as Messiah gave to those who trust in Him!

There will be those who do not agree but we must continue to stand firm on the promises of Jesus the Christ, our hope of eternal life.

To be continue …

 

David Z

To Believe in Jesus – Part 41

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 5:13-15

13འོན༌ཀྱང༌། ནད་ལས་ཐར་བའི་མི་དེས་ནད་འཇོམས་མཁན་དེ་སུ་ཡིན་པ་མི་ཤེས༌ཏེ། གནས་དེར་མི་ཚོགས་མང་ཞིང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུའང་ཁོ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་གྲས་སུ་ཕེབས་པས༌སོ།། 14དེའི་རྗེས༌སུ། སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་མཆོད་ཁང་དུ་ནད་ལས་ཐར་བའི་མི་དེ་རྙེད་ནས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ལྟོས་དང་། ཁྱོད་རང་ད་ལྟ་ནད་ལས་ཐར་ཏེ་ལུས་ཁམས་བདེ༌བས། ཕྱིས་སུ་དེ་ལས་ལྷག་པའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ཆེན་པོ་མི་མྱང་བའི་ཕྱིར་སྡིག་པ་མ་བྱེད་ཅེས་གསུངས་སོ།། 15དེ་ནས་མི་དེ་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་གམ་དུ་སོང༌སྟེ། རང་གི་ནད་འཇོམས་པར་མཛད་མཁན་དེ་ནི་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་ཡིན་པར་སྨྲས༌སོ།།

 

John 5:13-15

13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. 14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.

 

The man who was healed initially did not know it was Jesus who healed him.

Later he knows because Jesus met with him and spoke with him.

Throughout the records of the Four Gospel we read many incidents of miraculous healing but on rare occasion the person who received healing was told directly about the connection between his sin and sickness. This incident in John 5 is one.

There was another incident of miraculous healing that involve a man born blind, recorded in John 9, and that incident Jesus specifically said not related to sin as His disciples were discussing and questioning whose’ sin was it that caused the man to be born blind.

Apparently not every sickness or disease suffered by any individuals is related to sin. But when Jesus does address it then we need to accept what Jesus said.

So how does sin apply to this case of miraculous healing in John 5?

 

14དེའི་རྗེས༌སུ། སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་མཆོད་ཁང་དུ་ནད་ལས་ཐར་བའི་མི་དེ་རྙེད་ནས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ལྟོས་དང་། ཁྱོད་རང་ད་ལྟ་ནད་ལས་ཐར་ཏེ་ལུས་ཁམས་བདེ༌བས། ཕྱིས་སུ་དེ་ལས་ལྷག་པའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ཆེན་པོ་མི་མྱང་བའི་ཕྱིར་སྡིག་པ་མ་བྱེད་ཅེས་གསུངས་སོ།།

14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”

 

Jesus would have known what he did but we do not know and there is no need for us to inquire further because Jesus did not disclose any more details.

Whatever he did, Jesus pointed out as “sin” and after he had received his healing there is the expectation he should keep his blessing of being healed. What Jesus warned him about did clarify the connection between his acts of sin and his sickness and that if he goes back to his old way of sinning he would suffer worst.

Why was this incident highlighted in John 5?

On the broader perspective this incident do point to a bigger problem that involves Israel’s relationship with God as a nation. In previous post I mentioned that if this healing incident did actually happen during Passover, and there was a crowd visiting the Temple to do obligation for the feast, the connection with water and the pool of healing would had reminded them of what happened back in Exodus when they left Egypt.

The observation of Passover has that clear direct connection to the children of Israel leaving Egypt and there was an incident they stop by a pool of water and it was a bitter sweet encounter – Exodus 15:22-27.

That incident recorded in Exodus, God intentionally made mention of sickness, diseases, and healing at that moment when the children of Israel wanted a drink of water. It was highly possible they needed something more than just a drink to quench their thirst. Therefore it was there the Lord God declared to them

 

“I am the Lord, your healer”

 

We know from history Israel’s relationship with God went back and forth. So they got their healing and restoration, and went back to their old ways and got into troubles, cried out to God for help but were told to deal with their sins.

The prophet Isaiah had a similar message of warning against sin

 

ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱ། 59:1-2

1ལྟོས་ཤིག དཀོན་མཆོག་ཡ་ཝཱེའི་ཕྱག་ཐུང་དྲགས་ནས་སྐྱོབ་མི་ནུས་པ་མ་ཡིན་ལ། ཁོང་གི་སྙན་རྟུལ་ནས་གསན་མི་ནུས་པའང་མ་ཡིན་པར། 2ཁྱོད་ཅག་གི་ཉེས་པས་ཁྱོད་ཅག་རང་གི་དཀོན་མཆོག་དང་ཕྲལ་ཞིང་། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སྡིག་པས་ཁོང་གི་ཞལ་རས་ཁྱོད་ཅག་གི་ཕྱོགས་སུ་སྦས་པ་དང་། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱི་གསོལ་འདེབས་ལ་ཁོང་གིས་གསན་མ་གྱུར།

Isaiah 59:1-2

Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.

 

Israel was called of God to be a holy nation and they have the laws and commandments and were instructed to be careful how they conduct their life.

The message of Isaiah seems to suggest that it was addressed to people who were seeking salvation from God and seems beyond reach. And they had to be told what was it hindering them receiving the salvation of God. Apparently they were holding on to their iniquities and sins.

Let’s try to connect what happen in John 5 and the message of Isaiah 59.

For the situation in John 5, what Jesus said to the man could raise two important matters for us to consider

1. Negligence – we are not to neglect our relationship with God. Apparently that man neglected his relationship with God.
2. Being properly instructed to walk with God – the man who was sick for a long time and left alone, most likely he was not properly taught how to walk with God and to keep good relationship with God. It could be he was taught but neglected to practice good relationship with God.

So Jesus came in kindness and compassion, to heal, to restore, and to provide proper instruction how to walk with God, again.

This incident in John 5 although highlighted the pain and sufferings the man had to go through for many years, yet eventually the demonstration of God compassion was fulfilled through Jesus.

 

To believe in Jesus is to receive the compassion and forgiveness of God

 

To be continue …

 

David Z