Jesus' best friends

Who you gonna call on, Jesus?

I know some of you may be exhausted about discussing the end-times, so I’m going to settle upon just one day of it instead — the mysterious “day of the Lord.” Plus, my focus centers on one fellow — Elijah. And the subject will be witnessing.

So, that’s not so bad, eh? 

The witnessing stuff may be apparent as you go, but just in case it’s not clear, here’s a heads up. Witness what God wants you to do because he keeps his friends busy. 

Today’s first reading quotes Sirach, introducing us to Elijah. He’s a guy maybe to emulate, but I have my doubts about our ability to replicate his life. He’s off-the-charts charismatic — 900 years before Christ. He then shows up at the Transfiguration of Jesus with Moses. Moses holds the record for years between witness events at 1,700 (Moses also was at the Transfiguration.) 

Many theologians hint that the two witnesses in the Book of Revelation, some days or eons into the future (only guessing allowed), might well be Moses and Elijah again. At 2,000 years and counting — if Elijah and Moses do get that assignment — they’ll both own the record.

You were destined, it is written, in time to come to put an end to wrath before the day of the LORD ...
(Sirach 48:10)

Image by CSalem

Elijah is a pretty fantastic guy, performing miracles from changing the weather to raising the dead. He breathed rarified air. If you’ve met anybody like that, you should be making a documentary and not keeping it to yourself. 

Another clue to Elijah’s rarity is that prophets are compared to him, not the other way around. He fulfills a unique quality, similar to Moses and Melchizedek — those to follow him are filled with the spirit of Elijah. Elisha and John the Baptist are the two most clearly identified Elijah-like prophets in scripture.

However, there is something futuristic about Elijah, which brings us to the “end times” and “day of the Lord” predictions. The “wrath” that Elijah will reportedly end isn’t something that’s already happened. Why? The “Day of the Lord” is associated with Jesus’ second coming.

I could be all wet here, but I don’t think so. A good study notes that Elijah and the Day of the Lord refer only to Jesus’ incarnation. But, there’s this whole “wrath” business. The wrath didn’t come during Jesus’ birth, death, resurrection, and ascension. The permanent crushing of evil is reserved for the last days.

The Transfiguration event answered the question of who would Jesus pick as his holy witnesses from heaven. I think it’s the same question in Revelation. “Who are two of the Son of God’s oldest and closest friends who will witness to his return?” 

The Book of Revelation writes about two “witnesses” amid God’s wrath in Chapter 11. Their descriptions are very interesting.

“I will commission my two witnesses to prophesy for those twelve hundred and sixty days, wearing sackcloth. . . . They have the power to close up the sky so that no rain can fall during the time of their prophesying. They also have power to turn water into blood and to afflict the earth with any plague as often as they wish.”
(Revelation 11:3 and 6)

If my leaning toward God’s use of his closest friends for epochal moments in the history of the universe, then Elijah and Moses are his guys. At the Transfiguration, the two confirmed Jesus’ holy and divine presence for all time, revealed in blazing light to Peter, James, and John. In the last days of the final age before Jesus returns, Elijah and Moses could be the two witnesses who confirm to the whole world that Jesus is coming back with the saints and the angels. 

You can read the entire scene of Jesus with Moses and Elijah at the transformation here - https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/9. And, you can read the whole story of the two witnesses at the announcement of the second coming here - https://bible.usccb.org/bible/revelation/11. The Revelation story, where I’m inserting Elijah and Moses, is a horror show that ends in their resurrection for all to see.

The two witnesses described in Revelation match the prophetic exploits of Moses and Elijah’s lives on earth. Elijah closed up the sky, holding back the rain. He did that three times. Moses had the power to afflict the earth with plagues ten times, including turning water into blood. Coincidence? It can’t be.

Further, Elijah was likened to Moses throughout scripture as a significant force among the world’s authorities. Elijah lived in the 9th Century BC and Moses in the 17th Century BC. They’re not close in history but similarly significant. Jesus made friends with these two before his incarnation. I don’t think that’s a stretch since he makes friends with all of us.

Moses and Elijah didn’t work alone. They had spokespersons in Aaron and Obadiah. Their wives were introduced during a request for water — one at a well, the other at a river. They both suffered plagues upon their adversaries and dealt with God upon a mount — Elijah on Carmel and Moses on Sinai. Lastly, they encountered the passing glory of the Lord in the same dagnabbed cave in Horeb! 

Lots of syncopated events. Moses might deserve such attention, but we don’t place Elijah so quickly into that heavenly pay grade. Scripture, however, mentions him fourteen times as a big deal in God’s eyes. Malachi also says God will send Elijah on the Day of the Lord, the coming of God’s wrath:

Behold I will send you the prophet Elijah before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
(Malachi 4:5)

I’m not suggesting Peter’s idea at the Transfiguration to build monuments to Elijah. I am hinting, though, that the way to become one of Jesus’ close friends is to let his Holy Spirit lead us to witness. Elijah allowed that to happen. Moses did too. No one in heaven was surprised or jealous that Jesus picked those two for the Transfiguration. 

I genuinely believe we’re no different from Jesus. I’m spotty in my witnessing. I’d really like to stretch those times into a flowing river. This is the same message of Mary, Joseph, Jonah, Moses, and that holy person you know personally. They waited to be asked. Most argued for a bit, but then they all eventually said, “Yes.”

Isn’t that just like us? “Yeah, but …” you might wonder. “Things were different back then.”

It’s not a matter of the big stuff passing us by. God has plenty to do. I’m a danged fool, maybe, for believing he’s including all of us in it. That’s the thing about friendship, though, among us only-humans. We love each other and die on the beach without compromising our faithfulness. We know that’s the right thing to do because we are remorseful, repentant, and beg forgiveness when we fail at witnessing.

More extraordinary than problematic is that all we need do is wait for God’s prompting, even through our unfortunate testing of him. Not only can we do a little witness to a few folks God asks of us now, but we just might be asked to witness later to the world.