Saturday in the Second Week of Advent, December 16, 2023

Matthew 17, 9; 10-13

As they were coming down from the mountain, the disciples asked Jesus, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” He said in reply, “Elijah will indeed come and restore all things; but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him but did to him whatever they pleased. So also will the Son of Man suffer at their hands.” Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.

The Lord Jesus has just been transfigured before Peter, James, and John and now they are descending the mountain to join the other Apostles who remained behind.  They heard the Father speak announce during the Transfiguration: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: listen to him” (Matthew 17, 5).  Peter had already confessed his faith in Jesus as the Son of God.  These three Apostles are convinced that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah promised by the Prophets.  But the Pharisees had taught that Elijah would precede the Messiah to prepare the way for him.  But Elijah, according to the Pharisees, would come with great glory since he was coming down from heaven, and they had not seen anything like this.  They then ask the Lord: We believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, but was not Elijah supposed to come first?  We must keep in mind that they were still thinking of Elijah and the Messiah in terms of the restorers of David’s kingdom.  And so they ask: “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”  Here the Lord Jesus begins to correct the teaching about Elijah’s mission and his own, as the Messiah.  “Elijah will indeed come and restore all things.”  The Lord speaks of the fulfillment of the words of Malachi 4, 5-6: “Behold, I will send you Elias the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.  And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers.”  But Elijah would not do this in the way the Pharisees were teaching.  The Pharisees in fact had prepared the people for their fantasy of what Elijah would say and do and not for the mystery of what God would actually do in sending him: “But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him but did to him whatever they pleased.”  That is, they did not treat him with the respect due to him or listen to his words.

“So also will the Son of Man suffer at their hands.”  Now the Lord teaches that he, the Son of Man who came into the world, whom the Apostles believe in as the Messiah, would suffer and die in the same way, unrecognized and despised.  He would not, then, restore Israel.  This came as a great shock, as an incomprehensible teaching: How could this be since the very purpose of the coming of the Son of Man was to reestablish the Kingdom of Israel?  

“Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.”  While the Lord spoke of “Elijah” the Apostles took for granted that the Lord meant the Old Testament Prophet who had been carried up to heaven in a fiery chariot.  When the Lord spoke of his suffering, however, they knew that he meant John the Baptist.  The Pharisees had taught that Elijah himself would come down from heaven but the Prophet Malachi had meant that God would raise up a man from amongst the Jews who would live the austere life of Elijah and complete his work in calling Israel to repent of its sins.  The Pharisees had hoped for too little: national liberation simply pales before the prospect of the forgiveness of one’s sins.

The Lord Jesus teaches us to hope beyond hope when it comes to what he will do for us.  Let us not expect too little, but to remember that he has promised “a good measure and pressed down and shaken together and running over shall they give into your bosom” (Luke 6, 38).