A confident faith will recognize Him

Have you ever been told, “You wouldn’t know a good deal if it came up and bit you in the butt!”?  I know I have.  It was usually because I was being hesitant in making the deal out of fear that it was a scam or because the deal was simply too unbelievably good to be true.  Then, if I rejected the deal and later found out it was on the up and up, I was devastated!  The readings for today reminded me of this adage.

(Sirach 48:1-4, 9-11)

What an amazing and vibrant image we have of Elijah!   His words are on fire!  He actually brought down fire from the heavens by the power of God.  His zeal was inspiring.  He was destined to put an end to wrath and enmity so people could accept Jesus when He came.  He was a harbinger of the Lord and a necessary step in the coming.  Elijah was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire.  How could anyone fail to recognize his importance, especially with all that fire surrounding him?



(Matthew 17:9a, 10-13)

But later, in the gospel, we find out that people did not recognize him.  Despite all the fire, the people did not recognize him or his importance.   When the disciples say it is written that Elijah must come first, Jesus says Elijah has already come, but was not recognized.  Elijah was destined to restore all things in preparation for Jesus, and came in all his fire and glory, but was not recognized as the harbinger he was.  John the Baptist came to prepare the way, but the people didn’t recognize his importance or heed his words.   And when Jesus did come, both Elijah and John were not recognized and not heeded, and Jesus Himself was not recognized, despite His glory.   And He suffered at the hands of men who did not recognize the signs, did not heed the harbingers, and did not recognize the Lord in their midst.



Psalm 80

The Psalm begs, “Lord, let us see your face and we shall be saved”.   But when we saw Elijah, we didn’t recognize him.  When we saw John the Baptist, we didn’t recognize him.  When we saw Jesus, we didn’t recognize Him.  Jesus says that Elijah has come in John the Baptist, and was not recognized, and the importance of his words was not heeded, so the men will not recognize Jesus or realize His importance.



We’re in Advent now, preparing for the arrival of the Lord.  And what will happen when He comes again? Is Elijah already here, speaking fire, preparing the way, but unheeded and unrecognized? Will we recognize the signs?

Not if our relativistic, ‘feel good’ society has a say in it!  I saw a commercial last night (it was more of a ‘message’ for kids) telling us by way of a ‘jingle’ that Christmas isn’t about “things”, and I thought, “OK, that’s good, that’s right.” But the next lines are “Christmas is about ‘feelings’, and that “it doesn’t matter what your beliefs are, as long as you share good feelings during the holiday season.”  Excuse me???  To my mind, this ‘harmless’ ad diverts our attention from recognizing that Jesus has come and will come again.   Christmas is about God humbling Himself and becoming one like us in all things except sin.  So it’s not about feelings, but rather an awareness that God is with us. 

Will we recognize Jesus when He comes?  Not if we’re deceived by these seemingly harmless children’s ads that deliberately fail to mention Christ, but if we’re looking with the eyes of our confident faith, the answer is YES.