Last week, we looked the event called the Mount of Transfiguration, when Jesus metamorphosized into a revelation of His glory, majesty, and deity. After spending the night up on the mountaintop (Luke 9:37), Jesus, Peter, James, and John are heading back down the mountain.
Jesus warned the three guys that this experience was for their eyes only, at least for the time being. They should not tell of it until after He had risen from the dead.
Mark tells us that after Jesus told them this,
Mark 9:10 They seized upon that statement, discussing with one another what "rising from the dead" meant.
Although they didn’t understand, they did keep Jesus’ command, for Luke tells us that...
Luke 9:36 ...they kept silent, and reported to no one in those days any of the things which they had seen.
They kept quiet to others, but this got the gears in their brains turning. They were trying to piece everything they were being told together with everything they’d been previously taught.
They’re trying to figure this out. They knew Jesus was the Messiah, but this appearance of Elijah was restricted to the mountaintop, and then he’d left. That got them thinking, "If Elijah is supposed to come before the Messiah does, and You are the Messiah, then why didn’t Elijah come earlier, and why isn’t he still here now?"
Notice that they didn’t take their limited understanding and say, "Hey Jesus! You lied to us! You’re not the Messiah, because Elijah didn’t come before You!"
Unfortunately, that is exactly what a lot of people do. As soon as they encounter something they don’t understand, or that contradicts what they think they already know, they throw it away. They get mad at God. They call the teacher a liar.
But what really should be done is to simply ask Jesus. The Lord has told us,
Is. 1:18 "Come now, and let us reason together"...
Matt. 11:29 "...learn from Me..."
Saints, if I’m teaching something that contradicts your previous pastor, don’t blow up and blow out. Do what the disciples are doing here. Ask Jesus.
They said, "The scribes say this," and asked Jesus, "Why do they say this?" And He’s going to clarify the whole thing.
Jesus says, "The scribes are correct, guys. Elijah is coming." And He quotes from the very last promise of the Old Testament, when God said,
Mal. 4:5-6 "Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse."
The last written Word from God was that He was sending Elijah. The scribes taught that the coming of Elijah was a prerequisite to the coming of the Messiah because the Word taught that Elijah was coming before "the great and terribly day of the Lord," when the Messiah would establish the kingdom of God on earth.
"Elijah is going to come."
Because the Jews were eagerly awaiting their Messiah, they were looking for Elijah to show up first. Remember that when John the Baptist was creating such a commotion in Israel by preaching repentance and baptizing, the priests and Levites came to check things out.
They asked him, "Who are you? Are you Elijah? (John 1:21)"
It was an understandable question. They were anticipating the Messiah’s appearance, and everything about John’s ministry seemed to be fulfilling the promise of restoring hearts to God.
And, before the miraculous birth of John, the angel Gabriel told his dad that...
Luke 1:17 "It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, TO TURN THE HEARTS OF THE FATHERS BACK TO THE CHILDREN, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."
Okay, so John was Elijah... sort of. You see, when the priests and Levites asked him directly,
John 1:21 ..."What then? Are you Elijah?" And he said, "I am not."...
Was John Elijah or wasn’t he? The answer is, "He could have been." You see, back in chapter 11, when John the Baptist was still alive, Jesus told the crowds,
Matt. 11:14 "...if you are willing to accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come."
Remember, Elijah was supposed to prepare the way for the Messiah before He ushered in the kingdom of God on earth. And the Jews were given that opportunity when Jesus entered Jerusalem on that Palm Sunday. But they would reject Him. As Jesus wept over the city, He said,
Luke 19:42-44 ..."If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation."
The Jews had the opportunity to recognize and receive their Messiah. If that had happened, John was Elijah, who had come before Messiah brought about "the day of the Lord." But they didn’t receive Jesus. And so, because they were not willing to accept it, John’s appearance would not count as Elijah’s visitation of preparation.
That’s why Jesus was able to say,
Matt. 17:12 ...Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him...
But peoples’ stubbornness doesn’t change the promises of God. He had promised to send Elijah before the day of the Lord, and so He shall. Just as John, in the spirit and power of Elijah, preached repentance before Jesus’ first visit, so too Elijah will preach repentance before Jesus’ second coming (Rev. 11:3-13).
John the Baptist was rejected by the religious leaders and killed by the political leadership. Jesus says that the same thing is going to happen to Him. Mark quotes Jesus at this point saying,
Mark 9:12-13 And He said to them, "Elijah does first come and restore all things. And yet how is it written of the Son of Man that He will suffer many things and be treated with contempt? But I say to you that Elijah has indeed come, and they did to him whatever they wished, just as it is written of him."
Jesus is showing the disciples that they’re understanding the Scriptures regarding the coming of Elijah, but not the suffering of the Messiah. "What do I mean when I say, ‘rising from the dead’? The same thing I mean when I say, ‘John lost his head.’ I too am going to be rejected by the religious leaders and killed by the political leadership."