In order for these verses to make sense to
us, we need to understand some backdrop. In Malachi 4:5-6 we read of God
sending Elijah the prophet before the coming of the Messiah. It was also taught
in those days that in God’s timetable, Elijah must come when things had gotten
really bad to prepare the way for Messiah. If Jesus is really the Messiah, then
why didn’t Elijah come first as purported by the prophets and taught by the scribes?
The disciples had acknowledged Christ as the Messiah and now on the mount of
Transfiguration, they had seen Moses and Elijah coming to speak to Him. They were
puzzled because Elijah should have come first, and not in the midway of Messiah’s
work? So here they were seeking clarification from the Lord.
Jesus then affirmed that Elijah indeed must
come. God’s timetable was on schedule. Elijah had already come. And the person
of John the Baptist was that Elijah, but they had missed it altogether. Clearly
in Matthew 11:14 Jesus had already said so. The reason the disciples failed to
see that John was Elijah, was because they were looking for the wrong sort of
person. It was precisely how they had also failed to fully understand Jesus and
His work and role. They failed to understand that at the crux of Christ’s mission
would be His suffering and death.
Both John and Jesus did not fit into their
mindset of what Elijah and the Messiah should be. John came to prepare the way, he did come with
the fury of heaven to wrack the people with his heavenly whip. He came to pave
the way for the Messiah by renouncing evil and finally died under the cruel
hand of the evil he came to renounce. In
much the same way, Jesus came to initiate the Kingdom of heaven, not with fire
and brimstones. He came to usher it in by love and the power to restore life.
We need to know that He also came to show that the pathway to ultimate victory
must be preceded by the path of suffering. So in verse 12, Jesus clearly enforced
the message that suffering must precede victory. Jesus’ explanation now made
sense to them, and it dawned on them that John was the Elijah that came to pave
the way of Jesus, the Messiah.
Where are we in God’s timetable? John the
Baptist and Christ Jesus were both on schedule. What part are we to play in the
light of all that Christ had done? We need to hear the Lord’s exhortation to
take the path of self-renunciation and sacrifice even more seriously. Let’s
remember Matthew 16:24-25. Jesus said, “If
anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and
follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it;
but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”
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