Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear . . .
The prophet Elijah was the Lone Ranger of ancient Israel. The Bible contains many a story about his activities and personality. He lived in the 800’s BC – long before what we call the “writing prophets” like Amos and Isaiah and Jeremiah came along.
I describe him as the Lone Ranger because he would come out of nowhere to save situations. And there were plenty of situations that needed saving, for the God of Israel was under attack by the alien wife of King Ahab — whose name was Jezebel, best described by Frankie Laine in his hit song of the 1950’s: If ever the Devil was born without a pair of horns / It was you, Jezebel, it was you. // . . . If ever a pair of eyes promised paradise / Deceiving me, grieving me, leavin’ me blue / Jezebel, it was you!
In other words, Elijah (whose name means “My God is Jahweh”) lived at a time when Israel was compromising its faith in the God of Moses by cultivating the gods of fertility (in risqué ways) to insure that their harvests and the birthing of their livestock (the stock market of those days?) would flourish. Their faith in the God of Moses and Elijah was becoming half-baked; they could find excuses for placing their chips on several numbers of fate’s roulette wheel, as do many people even today.
Elijah was not a writer. He was a doer – and as such in one episode after another he contested the “power” of graven images (today: the almighty dollar?) to bring true happiness to the human race. For instance there was a period of severe drought in Israel and Elijah convened a large audience to test whether the God of Israel or the fertility gods and goddesses of Jezebel could bring an end to it – by prayers and rituals (much like the NBA finals at which many a prayer was uttered). To make a long story short, Elijah’s team won – down came the rain in buckets.
Of course Elijah was a man of his times; he had blood on his hands; he could call down fire from heaven upon the enemies of Israel – and even on Israelite soldiers sent to arrest him. He was a mixed bag – for he did cure a Syrian general as well.
But having disappeared from history (flown off in fiery chariot as they say) subsequent Jewish generations expected him to return and finish his work of perfecting God’s people and God’s world. Which is why many people looked to Jesus as this very Elijah come back. Like in today’s Gospel, Jesus’ disciples encourage him to bring down fire from heaven upon the inhospitable Samaritans – as in the good old days. Even John the Baptist, confused by the merciful manner of Jesus, wondered if he could possibly be Elijah come back.
To which Jesus gave that famous response: Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. And blessed is the one who is not shocked by such gracious behavior! In other words, don’t dress me in the costumes of your Old Testament wardrobe. I’m indeed something foretold but ultimately something radically new. And the same transformation can happen to you!