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Matthew 17: 10-13 | King James Audio Bible KJV | Daily Bible Verses Advent, Saturday Week 2
10 And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come?
11 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.
12 But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them.
13 Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.
The disciples Peter, James and John have just witnessed the Transfiguration on the mountain. They have seen the glorified Christ, and now they are puzzled, because they have been taught that Elijah would come before the Messiah. These are the verses from the prophet Malachi, which are the last words of the Old Testament:
5 ¶ Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:
6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
The scribes have taught, and the disciples have understood, that the text has referred only to the coming of the Messiah. Now they understand that Elijah has come again as John the Baptist, who has himself prepared the way for Jesus.
John the Baptist, like Jesus, came to reconstruct society, to bring people back to a true relationship with each other and with God. This was a reflection on the Roman occupation, whereby the occupying power corrupted natural community and family relations. John has been punished, and put to death, for his teachings. Jesus will suffer the same fate.
For many, the Christian mission remains to fulfil Christ’s purpose in reconstructing society. In doing so, they may find themselves ranged against the ‘occupying power’ of modern social and economic ideologies. We may think of contemporary beliefs and practices which fracture families and so which lead to neglect, poverty, violence, addiction, loneliness, despair, loss of faith… As Christians, we are called to try to do what we can, while to overhaul the system entirely might seem near-impossible. Still with faith we stand witness to Christ’s core teachings. We pray that the world may follow.
14 Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine;
15 And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself.
16 It is burned with fire, it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.
17 Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself.
18 So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.
19 Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved. (Psalm 80/79)
Then at ten-past-ten we go upstairs. Visiting teachers often prefer this space. There is natural light and fresh air. Today, we sit on chairs only, gathered around close, with no desks in the way of us. His Grace works from a flip-book. A set-piece. He sits always gently bobbing – the quiet thrill of it. The flip-book has clearly seen previous use. And big Clarks shoes and fade-to-black socks… There is a quiet examination of consciousness. I confess… Then we say a Hail Mary. Some part of what the Archbishop says to us is this: ‘What I should like to do today is to pose to you possibly the most important question, which is this: How can we ready ourselves for the experience of Easter? [ … ]
Just a few days earlier, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders have looked for a way to destroy Jesus, but they have not been able to do so because of the many people who have heard Jesus’ teaching and marvelled at it. Now they come to Jesus to try to trap him again [ … ]
Our prayer must be true to God. It is natural to petition God for what we need. It would indeed be arrogant to ‘go it alone’ and not humbly to share with God our needs and to ask Him for help, as if He were not our Father and we His children and creation. We are called by Jesus to acknowledge that all we have, we have through God. And we are called to develop our conversation with God through a life of prayer [ … ]
