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Hello, my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Have you ever had someone tell you that you remind them so much of someone they know who perhaps lives far away or maybe is even deceased?
Join me again on a hillside in Israel, about 2000 years ago as disciples Peter, James and John are trying to comprehend what they’ve just experienced with Jesus in His “transfiguration”?! While Matthew was not part of that miracle, he’s the one who gives us the details, as he was led by the Holy Spirit and undoubtedly was given the story by his three disciple friends who had experienced it.
On the way down that mountain the three disciples asked Jesus a question: “Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?” (Matt. 17:10) Now that may seem like a ‘random’ question, except that only moments before these three disciples had SEEN the old prophet Elijah standing before them talking with Jesus and Moses on that hillside! Yesterday we discussed how that was possible since Moses had been dead almost 1500 years and Elijah had been dead almost 900 years!! Jesus’ response to their question did not deal with the miracle of the appearance of dead Moses and Elijah, but rather the significance of the question asked.
Jesus said: “To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way, the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” (Matt. 17:11,12) Are you scratching your head right now, just as Peter, James and John might have been as they heard those words from Jesus? Who is ‘THEY’ Jesus was referring to?
The disciples would easily have understood ‘they’ were those who refused to believe Jesus was who God claimed Jesus was… God incarnate, the Son of God who had been sent by God the Father from heaven to earth on a very specific mission. “They” were most of the Jewish religious leaders whom the people trusted to help them identify ‘the Messiah’ when He came and help them deal appropriately with any Messiah imposters!
“They” were lots of normal people, both Jews and Gentiles, who couldn’t figure out who Jesus was and what His miracles and messages meant, so they simply ignored Him or mocked Him as some lunatic, radical mystic.
“They” were those who had rejected John the Baptist and even killed him!
The “Elijah” the disciples asked about and Jesus referred to was NOT the Elijah who has mysteriously appeared on the hillside that day. Rather, as Matthew added in vs. 13: “Then the disciples understood that Jesus was talking to them about John the Baptist.“ You see, my friends, for most Jews, especially in the first century with all that was happening politically and militarily across the Roman empire, there was a growing desperate desire for God to send His promised Messiah, and for that Messiah to do what the people had come to understand would be his primary function.
What was that? To lead the resurgence of the nation of Israel to freedom and even prominence in the middle east region, as Israel had enjoyed in the days of King Solomon!
John the Baptist, of course, was no politician, nor was he a military leader nor a rebellious activist. ‘John the baptizer’ was most famous for having been a radical spiritual revivalist, calling the Jewish people to repentance and preparation for the arrival of a Spiritual Messiah, not a political Messiah.
Many people were convinced by John’s fiery rhetoric and came to the Jordan river to publicly renounce their sins and be baptized by John as an indication they wanted to live ready for the arrival of this Messiah John was proclaiming.
John was the person who publicly identified Jesus as the Messiah he was preparing the people to meet. (John 1:29-34. John quoted Isaiah the prophet in explaining that he, John was not the Messiah but was the God appointed announcer of the Messiah. (John 1:19-27)
Peter, James and John, the disciples, had all experienced their very first encounter with Jesus as a direct result of John the Baptist’s preaching and identification of Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. (John 1:35-42) Sadly, all three disciples knew that John the Baptist had been brutally beheaded by King Herod several months past and they understood Jesus was referring to that execution when once again Jesus had just predicted that He too would be persecuted, brutalized and killed.
But the piece that was missing was this reference to Elijah and the miracle they’d just experienced on the hillside with Jesus’ transfiguration, and the shocking appearance of Elijah and Moses, both of whom had died centuries ago!? Have you ever heard the phrase “the light just went on” when someone suddenly realizes something, and they understand? That is what happened here with these three disciples and Jesus in this conversation.
These good Jewish men knew that the very last prophecy of the Old Testament was this: “See I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.” (Malachi 4:5,6)
Because the angel Gabriel had used some of these very same words in his announcement and explanation to Zechariah the prophet about the miraculous baby boy Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth would have, (Luke 1:8-17) Jesus made it clear, to these three disciples and to us, that Malachi’s closing prophecy of the Old Testament about Elijah was, in part at least, fulfilled in Gabriel’s words about John the Baptist which opened the New Testament!
Why did I say, ‘in part at least’? Because I believe the very last words of Malachi’s prophecy “…or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction” (Malachi 4:6) apply even more specifically to a future time when God will send ‘two witnesses’ who are miraculously resurrected prophets of God, proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ during the future Great Tribulation time as described in Revelation 11:1-14. Specifically in this Revelation vision, (Rev. 11:6) clearly indicates these two miraculous witnesses are none other than Elijah and Moses, sent by God as one last opportunity for the world to hear the Gospel before God’s final judgments!!
“They have the power to shut up the heavens so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying; and they have the power to turn the waters into blood and strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want.” (Rev. 11:6)
Both we today, and those alive at the time this prophecy takes place, recognize this power to pause the rain is reminiscent of the three years when it did not rain while Elijah confronted wicked King Ahab and Jezebel for leading Israel into idolatry. (1 Kings 17:1-18:46) Also we recognize God’s reference to the plagues, including water turned to blood, is reminiscent of Moses confronting the Pharaoh with the plagues in Egypt. (Exodus 7-12)
So, let’s pause right here my friends as we join Peter, James and John in recognizing God’s sovereignty over all time and the miraculous experience and implications of the transfiguration of Jesus that day. Jesus was preparing them for the world changing Passover/Easter weekend only a few weeks ahead of them.
Here’s another great worship song by Paul Wilbur filmed in Israel, to help us celebrate the Almighty Jesus as evidenced that day to Peter, James and John.
Today’s Scripture: Matt. 17:10-13.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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