Mt 17:9a, 10-13
9As they were coming down from the mountain, 10the disciples asked [Jesus], “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” 11He said in reply, “Elijah will indeed come and restore all things; 12but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him but did to him whatever they pleased. So also will the Son of Man suffer at their hands.” 13Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.
Reflecion
Elijah: The prophet Elijah the Tishbite who prophesied during the reigns of Ahab and Ahaziah of Israel appears as a prophet who insisted on the unique divinity of Yahweh and the repudiation of the cult of any other god. He challenged the prophets of Baal patronized by Queen Jezebel to a showdown at Mount Carmel and had them all killed (1 Kgs 18). He is presumed not to have died because he was taken into heaven by a chariot of fire (2 Kgs 2:11). This belief was the basis of the later belief that Elijah would return. A well-known prophecy of Malachi runs: “Lo, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the day of the Lord comes… to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children!” (3:23-24).
Since the Jews believe that the coming of God’s kingdom will be preceded by the return of Elijah, the scribes can therefore argue that Jesus cannot be the Messiah because Elijah has not yet appeared. When John the Baptist appears in the desert baptizing, wearing clothing made of camel’s hair and having a leather belt around his waist which recall the austere dress of the prophet (2 Kgs 1:8), people ask whether he might indeed be Elijah. Out of humility, John does not claim to be Elijah (Jn 1:21), but the evangelists and Jesus himself see him as coming in the spirit of Elijah. In today’s Gospel, Jesus alludes to John’s martyrdom maneuvered by Herodias. Like Elijah, John preaches a message of reform and change of life—in the process persecuted by hostile rulers. Jesus sees in John’s fate a prefiguring of his own death. He is aware of his destiny, but he is determined to face it.