Reflection
Elijah, If You are Willing
“And if you are willing to accept it, he (John the Baptist) is Elijah, the one who is to come.”
Could Jesus give any higher honor than he bestowed on John?
Matthew’s Jewish-Christian community would have understood that Elijah’s return, as prophesied in Malachi 4, would mean the coming of the Messiah was imminent.
Jesus declared that John is the figure of Elijah. Just as Elijah’s return would usher in the Messiah, accompanied by a great movement of repentance and holiness, so too would John the Baptist call us to repentance and to prepare the way of the Lord.
Yet despite Jesus’ high praise of John, he seemingly yanked back that accolade with these words:
“Amen, I say to you, among those born of women, there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”
What does Jesus mean by that whip-lash sentiment?
One way to understand Jesus is by comparing the telescopes of those gifted astronomers of centuries ago with my telescope.
Mine is not a very powerful telescope, but I can see the moon’s starkly beautiful craters, the rings of Saturn, Orion’s belt and sword, and other heavenly marvels.
Yet, as brilliant as astronomers of long ago were with their primitive telescopes, they do not match the more powerful lens on my amateur, hobbyist telescope.
John stands as a transitional figure between the old covenant and Jesus of the new. In that sense, no one is greater than John, the new Elijah. Nevertheless, even John is less than the humblest representative of the new covenant. We are the beneficiaries of Jesus, the Messiah, the fulfillment of prophecy.
In the gospels for the second and third Sundays of Advent, John the Baptist always takes center stage as the herald of the Messiah.
During this Advent season, with quiet anticipation and lively hope, we look to John, “Elijah, if we are willing to accept it.” We await the coming of the Messiah as we pray, “Maranatha! Come, O Lord.”
