Mt 11:11-15
[Jesus said to the crowds,] 11“Amen, I say to you, among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 12From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent are taking it by force. 13All the prophets and the law prophesied up to the time of John. 14And if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah, the one who is to come. 15Whoever has ears ought to hear.”
HE IS ELIJAH, THE ONE WHO IS TO COME: 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 divinity. 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 presumption 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 clearly points to John as Elijah who is to come. The people, therefore, are to listen to his message of repentance and change of life.