And they asked him, "Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?" – Mark 9:11

Today's Scripture Reading (November 25, 2020): Mark 9

Order is essential in life. A lot of the events in life are based on a specified order. Sometimes we wish we could step over the more challenging parts or the more tedious aspects of the process, but the reality is that what comes before often sets up what comes later. Grade one gives us the building blocks needed to get to grade two. There is a process to starting a new job in which we learn what we are going to need to know. When someone gives you directions to a specific place, they begin with a known before moving on to the unknown. The order is essential.

My first day in a new high school highlighted the importance of order. I was in Grade eleven, and my classmates had already spent a year in this particular school. (Actually, it was a rural K-12 school, so they had spent a lot longer in the school, but it was their second year on this floor of the school.) I was new. And on the first day of school, my Chemistry teacher climbed up on a lab table, making a mess. He wanted someone to grab a rag and clean up the mess. No one moved. But the solution to the problem was not obvious, at least not to me. To grab a rag and clean up the mess required that you know where to find a rag. At the time, it was something that my classmates knew that I didn't know, so I couldn't respond. The order was essential. Sometimes, we can't respond because the task has been presented to us out of order.  

According to the prophets, the apostles understood that Elijah, who didn't die but instead was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:11), would make an appearance prior to the coming of the Messiah. The clearest example of this teaching is found in the prophecy of Malachi.

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).

The apostles' question reveals the emerging trust that they had placed in Jesus. They were becoming certain that Jesus was the Messiah, the Promised One for whom all of Israel has been waiting. But if Jesus was the Messiah, then what happened to Elijah. Is it possible that Malachi was wrong?

And in response, Jesus points to John the Baptist. Elijah had already come. The prophesied order had been preserved, and now was the time for the Day of the Lord, the Day of the dawning of the Messiah.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Matthew 18