The Elijah Question

Many of you might not know that Michael and I have been doing a podcast for our church the last two years or so. We have. At least two of you listen to it. Normally, Michael kinda leads the discussion and we chat, but a couple weeks ago I got to interview Michael and Bryan, both currently seminary students, about their time in seminary, what they’re reading, and how we can support them. It was a good chat, and it reminded me of the many books I had to read those days. There were many books I would have never chosen on my own. But because they were assigned to me, I read them, and I ended up being appreciative of the assignments. I wouldn’t have chosen it, but I was happy I ended up doing it.

This morning we encounter a text that is a bit enigmatic and puzzling, one that I bet rarely gets preached on by those who simply choose their favorite topics to preach on. It’s texts like these where we get to experience the blessings of sequential exposition, that is, preaching that moves sequentially, section by section, through the Scriptures. We get the opportunity to learn things we wouldn’t ordinarily learn, study things we wouldn’t ordinarily study.

And my conviction about these things is that while they don’t feel as immediately relevant as, say, a sermon on parenting or marriage or finances. They are important to enhance biblical literacy, increasing our understanding of the Scripture’s storyline. The temptation of every preacher is to be immediately practical, but we also need to think about how we can be eternally helpful, and that means studying even the difficult and confusing parts.

So we dive into the text. We’re in Mark 9, and we need to review a little bit so we have the context. 8:27-30, Peter makes the monumental claim that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. That is, he is God’s predicted servant-king who will establish his everlasting kingdom and rule forever in righteousness. Then in verse 31, he starts teaching the disciples that he needs to suffer. And they simply couldn’t grasp that. It was beyond them. They got the idea of the Messiah, but a Messiah who suffered? A Messiah who gets rejected by his own people? Peter is so shaken by this idea that he actually rebukes Jesus. And then, to make matters worse, in verse 34, he starts telling the disciples that if they want to follow him they must deny themselves, take up their crosses, and follow him. I’m going to suffer, and if you follow me, you will too.

Now this was such a jolting reality, so objectionable, so perplexing, so discouraging, that Jesus wants to give them assurance that his suffering and death doesn’t remove the possibility of glory. And that’s what’s going on with the transfiguration. Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up the Mount, he transfigures before them, Elijah and Moses appear and they’re both there talking about Jesus’ impending death in Jerusalem. Peter offers to set up some tents for them, another indication that maybe the suffering doesn’t need to happen, maybe we can get started establishing the kingdom right now. But then God the Father appears in verse 7 and says, “This is my beloved son; listen to him” - which isn’t an arbitrary command, it’s very specific: Listen to what my son is saying about his coming death and resurrection. Listen to that.

So now we come to the next section. The disciples are really going through it. The high of identifying Jesus as the Christ. The low valley of hearing that he will suffer. The high of being on the mountaintop and seeing Jesus’ glory. And now coming down the mountain, some more low.

Mark 9:9-13. We’re gonna divide this text up into 4 parts. We’re going to see the “Command,” the “Confusion,” the “Question,” the “Clarification,” and we’ll weave in some application.

The Command. “And as they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.” We’ve already mentioned this before. Nearly every time Jesus has demonstrated his miraculous power, he’s told those who’ve witnessed it to be silent about it. He just did this in verse 8:30, and now he tells Peter, James, and John as they hike down the mountain that they must not tell anyone.

He “charged” them. It’s a strong word of command. They must not violate it. I think this passage brings clarity as to why Jesus has been commanding silence. It’s not silence forever, but “tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.” They don’t have to be silent forever, they can tell people after he dies and rises.

Why is that? Well think of it this way: what if they went and started telling everyone about Jesus. They would have a lot to say about Jesus’ incredible teaching, Jesus' power to heal, Jesus’ divine nature - Jesus is the Messiah! And they would say nothing of his death and resurrection.

But here’s the problem: You can’t rightly understand Jesus apart from his death and resurrection. You have a half-Jesus, which isn’t a true Jesus.

Imagine dad’s at work, he’s swamped with extra stuff, and he calls home to say, “I’m going come home, eat dinner with the family, but then I’m going to have to go back into the office and work late.” That’s what he’s intending to say, but a child answers, and you say, “Okay, tell mom I’m going to come home, eat dinner…” And he cuts you off and says, “Okay dad, got it, I’ll tell mom!” Now if he goes and tells that message, he’s missed the whole point of the call.

A presentation of Jesus as a good teacher is an incomplete one. An understanding of Jesus as a healer is an incomplete one. If we even present Jesus as the Messiah, but leave out his cross and resurrection, we’ve got a half-Jesus.

There’s a lot of half-Jesus theology out there. Happy to affirm that Jesus’ teachings are great. Ready to affirm that he’s God’s Messiah. Eager to announce that he can heal the body. Listen to many of the most popular Christian songs these days - there’s a lot of Jesus but hardly any cross, hardly any wrath, hardly any atonement; and sometimes when they are there they’re vague and undefined and easily misunderstood. If the message of Jesus gets out but they aren’t including his death, burial, and resurrection, they will have a half-gospel.

Application: Keep the cross and resurrection central in your devotion to Christ. When you pray, remember the cross, as a place where you sins were paid for and God’s love was displayed. Remember the resurrection, and Christ’s victory over sin and death. If we drift from the cross, we are drifting away from knowing and worshiping God rightly.

The Confusion. “So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead might mean.” So Jesus says that he is the Messiah,that he will die, that he will rise, and then he proves that he is divine by transfiguring before them. He tells them to remain silent. So they keep it to themselves, as they ought, but it says they did question what his rising from the dead might mean. Peter, James, and John were able to discuss together about it, and the central confusion they had was regard this “rising from the dead.”

Now, the Jews of their day understood the reality of the resurrection. That was well-understood. They would have read about it in Job, when he says in chapter 19: “And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.” And, most obviously, was Daniel 12, which explicitly teaches us about an end-time resurrection, some to everlasting life, and some to everlasting torment. They knew about that future resurrection. But they weren’t getting Jesus’ talking about his own “rising from the dead.” If they knew and believed the final resurrection, why did they have such a hard time grasping what Jesus meant? The answer is obvious: they still didn’t think Jesus would actually die. How can you understand the resurrection when you can’t quite understand his death?

The Old Testament - which would have been the Scriptures Jesus and the disciples knew - did predict the suffering and death of the Messiah, but that the less prominent theme. The more prominent theme is coming kingdom and his glorious reign and the global blessings he brings to the earth. Genesis 12 God promised that his offspring would become a great nation, and that nation would bring blessing to the whole world. That’s called the Abrahamic Covenant. That nation becomes Israel, and Israel gets established, and then David becomes King, and God makes a covenant with him that his offspring would sit on his throne and establish and everlasting kingdom. That’s the Davidic Covenant. And the prophets keep mentioning this future “son of David” this “branch from David” this “shoot from David” this “king from David’s line” that will reestablish Israel and in so doing bring blessing to the whole world.

So the Jews knew of the promised restoration of Israel under the son of David, and it was often referred to as the “The Day of the Lord.” There are two aspects of the Day of the Lord: the judgment of the wicked and the salvation of the righteous.

The idea of this future day of the Lord is first found in Isaiah 2:12 “For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up-- and it shall be brought low…” verse 17 “and the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.”

So the Jews anticipated a coming Day of the Lord where all the proud people and wicked systems of the world would be crushed, and the Lord and his people would be exalted. This is what the Old Testament teaches. This is what they knew, this is what they expected, and this is what they longed for, and this is what they thought was happening.

Now, the Old Testament concludes with an amazing cliffhanger. Turn to the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi 4:1-3. Now, there are two final statements. Verses 4-6.

Before the great and awesome Day of the Lord, Elijah must come. What’s fascinating about Elijah (you can read about his life in 1 Kings 17-20, where he does miracles, faces off with Ahab, faces off with the false prophets of Baal, faces off with Jezebel) - what’s fascinating is that he is one of two people in the Bible who does not die. Enoch is mentioned in Genesis 5, and then Elijah, after his ministry is complete, is taken up to heaven in chariots of fire (2 Kngs 2:11).

But the very last paragraph of the Old Testament says he will return, and his return will mark the beginning of the Day of the Lord, the day of judgment and salvation.

The Question: “And they asked him, ‘Why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?”

It’s a good question, isn’t it? If Jesus is Messiah, the one who ushers in the Day of the Lord, then what happened to Elijah? I thought he was supposed to come first? Did we miss him?

And additionally, if Elijah is supposed to restore all things, then how in the world will the Messiah be rejected? How will he be killed? There’s no suffering necessary if Elijah does his job! Isn’t Elijah supposed to come? Isn’t he supposed to bring restoration? Why suffering?

The Clarification: Listen to Jesus' response: “And he said to them, ‘Elijah does come first to restore all things.” Okay, they got that right. Malachi wasn’t lying.

And then: “And how is it written of the Son of Man that he should suffer many things and be treated with contempt?” It’s like he’s saying, “You got it right about Elijah’s coming first. But did you miss the part about the Son of Man suffering? If you think I don’t have to suffer, why is it written that the Son of Man should suffer?

The disciples couldn’t grasp a suffering Messiah. When Paul wrote the Corinthians he said, “we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews.” Even today, orthodox Jews do not accept Jesus as their Messiah - do you why? Because he died. They have no category for a suffering Messiah. But what Jesus is saying here is that, “If you have no room for a suffering Messiah, how is it written that the Messiah suffers?”

Because the sufferings of Christ were, in fact, predicted in the Old Testament. They were not as obvious or emphatic as the predictions of his kingdom and glory. But they are there. The most obvious one is Isaiah 53. Read and explain this real quick.

So his point is: you shouldn’t be so surprised about a suffering Messiah; it was predicted! But then he gets back to the Elijah question and says: But I tell you that Elijah has come, and they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is written of him.”

This is where it gets cryptic and puzzling. But hopefully I can clarify it for you. First, he said “Elijah does come to restore all things.” That’s talking about the future Day of the Lord - this is yet to come. But here he says, “Elijah has come, and they did to him whatever they pleased.”

So there is an Elijah who will come in the future to restore all things, and yet there was an Elijah who has already come and they killed him. What does he mean?

Well Matthew says the disciples understood he was talking about John the Baptist. John the Baptist was so regularly identified as a kind of Elijah the disciples had no problem understanding Jesus was talking about him. The angel announced to Elizabeth that she would have a son and name him John, the angel said, “And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Lk. 1:16-17). And then when you read about John the Baptist, what’s the first thing we always learn about him? That he wore camel’s hair and wore a leather belt. It always seems like some random facts about his odd fashion. But you know who else dressed that way? Elijah, 2 Kings 1:8 says that Elijah was identified by “he wore a garment of hair, with a belt of leather around his waist.”

And then remember when Jesus asks, “Who do people say that I am?” in 8:28, they say John the Baptist or Elijah - those two figures were very close. Now they were not the same, but John’s ministry was very much like a Day of the Lord judgement preacher. He had a very similar role as the coming Elijah will have at the very end.

So John played the Elijah role for the first coming of Christ. That’s why Jesus calls John Elijah, he was an Elijah, he played that role, and they rejected him. They killed him. Remember Mark 6, Herod and Herodias and Herodias’s daughter together killed John the Baptist. What is Jesus doing, highlighting again the reality that the righteous suffer.

Conclusion: Let me pull together some strands here and bring some conclusion for the whole section. These verses are all flowing from 8:29, Peter’s declaration that Jesus is the Christ, and how they handled Jesus teaching them that he must suffer. It’s all about Jesus confirming and emphasizing the necessity of his death. Some application:

The cross is central to our understanding of God, of the gospel, of Jesus himself. Keep the cross and the resurrection central. We do not understand God rightly apart from the cross.

The ways of God are often perplexing. God is not like us, he does not operate like a man. He has infinite wisdom and unlimited perspective. We are like children confused about a puzzle piece, often not seeing how it fits into the whole. God sees it all.

The word of God is always true. Even old, forgotten prophecies, like the future coming of Elijah, like the future day of the Lord - it’s all true, and it will all come true. Resolve again to be a student of God’s Word.

The suffering of God’s people will not thwart his plan to bring about judgment upon the wicked and salvation to the righteous. God is over it all.