The sun is blazing hot as you stand in the sand, leaning against a stick and listening intently to the man atop the rock.
He is speaking loudly. Screaming, in fact, so it’s not hard to hear. He is drawing a crowd – a crowd of people like you … searching for answers, searching for salvation.
This man is preaching repentance on this ancient, historic and hot summer day. A constant mantra he has repeated often while dressed in his rough camel hair, his dirty hair long and flowing.
But more than that … he is challenging the authorities. He calls the most highly educated a “brood of vipers” … he confronts the king for marrying his brother’s wife.
We haven’t witnessed this kind of a powerful voice since…
Well, since our forefathers witnessed the great works of the prophet Elijah – a legendary man of God who never actually died, but was taken away by a chariot of fire.
Had he returned? Was this Elijah before us now?
***
Today’s Gospel raises that possibility as Jesus teaches us lessons about heaven. The ambiguity of His words – And if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah, the one who is to come – have led many to ponder if John the Baptist was really Elijah.
Still today, it is something debated in some circles. That is all fine and fun, but I think some who do so are missing the point.
John or Elijah … it did not matter. Neither of them would stack up to the “least in the Kingdom of heaven.”
They were merely men, after all. Men, who certainly did great works and led others to God; but here on earth, they were not even close to what they would become once they entered the gates of heaven.
The same holds true for you and I … as well as the greatest of our preachers and teachers today.
***
Still, as you stood there that day … looking at John as he antagonized the authorities and shouted at the top of his lungs, you can’t help but think back to Elijah and that day in the desert when he did the same … harnessing the power of God to fight back against those who were worshiping the idols, particularly Baal.
It was on that day that Elijah summoned the king and all of his 450 “prophets of Baal” to a test – a battle of the gods, so to speak. A test to see who could call down fire from the sky.
As the First Book of Kings, Chapter 18, tells the story …
A large crowd was gathered as two young bulls were cut up and spread out for a potential sacrifice that needed a little fire. The prophets of Baal went first … their bull lying there, waiting for flames to come out of the sky. They chanted, they danced. Elijah taunted them … they chanted more and begged their god to hear their prayers.
Of course, nothing happened. Baal was a mere idol.
Next it was Elijah’s turn.
Confident in the power of the one true God and the faith that God listened to his prayers, Elijah placed his young bull on a new altar and incredibly ordered it to be drenched with water! So much water that it filled a trench he had dug around the bull. The witnesses that day had to be wondering how big a flame would be needed to light that sacrificial animal, dripping with water.
While everyone looked on, Elijah petitioned God to show His strength so that he could help the people to “come back to their senses.” And so, God did his thing and sent down blazing flames that cooked up pretty much everything in sight.
The crowds were amazed. But that was only the beginning.
Elijah then exacted revenge against the king (and Jezebel) who had executed so many true prophets of God, by rounding up the 450 “prophets of Baal” and slaughtering them on the spot.
He then foretold the end of the long drought that had afflicted the land … water from the sky that would symbolically cleanse the land.
***
Back to our scene in the sands of the Jordan valley.
As we watch John the Baptist challenging authorities and baptizing people in the waters of the Jordan river, we have to wonder what kind of amazing power God would be showing us today.
Would it be another ball of fire that would consume the river and destroy those who were suppressing us and preventing us from properly living out our faith? Was this the return of Elijah? Will John harness the same kind of power that Elijah did? Would we be witness to another slaughter?
Look at those clouds above … they seem to be opening up.
What’s going to happen?
As you stand there looking up, hoping to see the power of God come shooting out of the sky, you fail to notice what is happening below in the water.
This was not the day for another Elijah.
This was a much different day; a much different miracle was about to be revealed – but not to everyone.
There would be no revenge today. No slaughter.
Just a simple man – a Rabbi – kneeling before John the Baptist … accepting the ritualistic cleansing that He really did not need, but accepted in order to institute what would become a great Sacrament of salvation before he ventured off into his own ministry.
A ministry that would eventually change the world.
***
Comparisons between John and Elijah are not that far-fetched.
John was certainly hailed as a great prophet of repentance who worked tirelessly to “make straight the way of the Lord.” Elijah was referred to as the “new Moses” who worked awesome and wondrous deeds … speaking the “divine word of power” for all to see.
Both dwelled in the desert. John ate crickets, Elijah was fed by ravens. Elijah raised the dead; John raised the spiritually dead and prepared them for the salvific works of Christ. Both insisted their followers worship the divinity of Yaweh, not the false idols of society. Both suffered persecution from the kings of the day.
While Elijah was said to have escaped his tormenters, John was not quite as fortunate.
***
But here is the point of our reflection today.
The question we are faced with is not whether or not John the Baptist was the second coming of Elijah.
Instead, we should focus on the hopes and expectations of the people who were looking on while these great men carried out their ministry and allowed God to work through them in different ways.
In the days of Elijah, they were hoping for another Moses who could deliver them from the suffering they had been experiencing at the hands of King Ahab and the evil Jezebel (who loved to carry out her own slaughter of prophets, but then met her demise in a rather gory scene that Elijah had foretold).
In the days of John, they were hoping for another Elijah. They were looking for a savior to lead them out of bondage and back to the promised land they once had. They were drawn to John’s extreme message and his fearless confrontation of the leaders of that day.
Today, many of us are looking for the same thing.
Trapped in a culture that seems to have lost its way … disgusted at the sinful behavior both within and outside the Church … we are all looking for someone who can harness the power of God and help us get back on track.
Someone who can help us overcome our sinful ways … to avoid temptation … to learn to forgive … to love one another … to lay down our lives for others.
Someone who can thrill us with their words and inspire us by their actions … the way Elijah and John once did.
But then … today, Jesus speaks.
“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.”
Greater than John the Baptist? Greater than Elijah?
Who is the “least in the Kingdom” of heaven?
I would say there is a good chance that it’s not the bombastic preachers who try to light a fire under our pews … or the theological masterminds who enlighten our minds.
They will be there in heaven, we pray, but they are hardly the “least.”
No … I believe Jesus was referring to the most humble among us all … the quiet, unassuming, prayerful and loving men and women who go about their daily lives in such a way that few notice.
They quietly say their prayers in the morning. They attend Mass. They visit loved ones and every now and then pop into the hospital or a nursing home to spread some cheer and comfort to those who suffer.
Their little works embody the teachings that our Lord not only espoused, but also performed while he walked this land.
They don’t have a large bank account, so their weekly envelopes are a little light. But their actions and their tiny little ways and words are greater than the magnificent works of … well, even John the Baptist himself.
Why stand around looking for another John or another Elijah. Why pine for the likes of another Pope John Paul the Great or Billy Graham or Martin Luther King Jr.
All the inspiration we really need is right in front of our eyes.
During this Advent season of preparations, we are challenged to open our ears and our eyes and look for the “little ways” we can work out our salvation.
Little ways that we can become the “least” in the Kingdom of heaven.
