Elisha And Elijah

 

When the LORD was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, he and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. Elijah said to Elisha, “Please stay here; the LORD has sent me on to the Jordan.” “As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you,” Elisha replied. And so the two went on together. Fifty of the guild prophets followed and when the two stopped at the Jordan, they stood facing them at a distance. Elijah took his mantle, rolled it up and struck the water, which divided, and both crossed over on dry ground.

When they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask for whatever I may do for you, before I am taken from you.” Elisha answered, “May I receive a double portion of your spirit.” “You have asked something that is not easy,” Elijah replied. “Still, if you see me taken up from you, your wish will be granted; otherwise not.” As they walked on conversing, a flaming chariot and flaming horses came between them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. When Elisha saw it happen he cried out, “My father! my father! Israel’s chariots and drivers!” But when he could no longer see him, Elisha gripped his own garment and tore it in two.

Then he picked up Elijah’s mantle that had fallen from him and went back and stood at the bank of the Jordan. Wielding the mantle that had fallen from Elijah, Elisha struck the water in his turn and said, “Where is the LORD, the God of Elijah?” When Elisha struck the water, it divided, and he crossed over. (2 Kings 2:1, 6-14)

The story of Elijah and Elisah is not well known to any of us.  We should pay attention to it because it has many similarities to our Gospel stories. 

Elijah taken up to heaven in a whirlwind resembles Jesus’s ascension into heaven.  His followers considered Jesus to be the new Elijah and Moses. Once on the mountain, Matthew 17:2 stated that Jesus "was transfigured before them; his face shining as the sun, and his garments became white as the light." At that point the prophet Elijah representing the prophets and Moses representing the Law appeared and Jesus began to talk to them. Moreover, when God's voice from heaven said about Jesus “Listen to Him!” that indicated that the Law and the Prophets must now give way to Jesus who will replace the old way with the new way.  Wow!  Momentous!

Also wondrous was: “Elijah took his mantle, rolled it up and struck the water, which divided, and both crossed over on dry ground.”  Sounds like Moses and the Red Sea crossing through the parting or dividing of the waters.  Elijah used his mantle; Moses used his staff.  Elisha did the same: “When Elisha struck the water, it divided, and he crossed over.”  The connection between Moses, Eilijah, and Jesus is obvious with Jesus having the one-upmanship.  He didn’t divide waters; he walked on the water.

Additionally, “Elisha answered, ‘May I receive a double portion of your spirit.’  Elijah replied, ‘You have asked something that is not easy.” This sounds like some of the “not-so-easy” challenge Jesus gave his followers.  Consider the “Bread of Life Discourse” (John 6:22-60), especially line 60.

22 The next day, the crowd that remained across the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not gone along with his disciples in the boat, but only his disciples had left.

23 Other boats came from Tiberias near the place where they had eaten the bread when the Lord gave thanks.

24 When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

25 And when they found him across the sea they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

26 Jesus answered them and said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled.

27 Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.” 

28 So they said to him, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?”

29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.”

30 So they said to him, “What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do? 

31 Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

32 So Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 

33 For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

34 So they said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst. 

36 But I told you that although you have seen [me], you do not believe. 

37 Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me,

38 because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. 

39 And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it [on] the last day. 

40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him [on] the last day.” 

41 The Jews murmured about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven,”

42 and they said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 

43 Jesus answered and said to them, “Stop murmuring among yourselves. 

44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day.

45 It is written in the prophets: ‘They shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me. 

46 Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. 

47 Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.

48 I am the bread of life.

49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; 

50 this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die.

51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” 

52 The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us [his] flesh to eat?”

53 Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.

54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.

55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.

56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.

57 Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. 

58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

59 These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

The Words of Eternal Life. 

60 Then many of his disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?”

Elijah said to Elisha, "You have asked something that is not easy.”  We can say the same about Jesus: “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” During this Eucharistic Revival many of us ask this question about living bread and eternal life, and we look for answers.  

Deacon David Pierce