Elijah's Fire and Elisha's Flame
A Homily for the Third Sunday After Pentecost
Luke records three distinct times in which Jesus sends out his followers to do the work of the ministry. The first time is directly following last weeks reading, when Jesus healed the demoniac. We are told He calls the twelve together, gives them power for miracles, and then sends them out to preach. The final one, which we will come to in a moment directly follows our reading for today. These two scenes act as brackets within which the middle “sending” happens (today’s reading). A careful reading shows a common thread that holds this section together: namely, Elijah.
So let’s run through the story briefly as it sets up the stage for our reading today directs us to something important for us to consider.
After Jesus sends out the 72 (Luke 9:1-6) news of their exploits finds its way into the ear of Herod. He was “perplexed” because no one knew exactly who this Jesus was. Some said he was John raised again (himself a picture of Elijah), some said Elijah had appeared, and others said one of the other prophets from Israel’s history. Herod “wanted to learn about Jesus”. Herod, as wicked of a man as he was, shows a posture of heart and mind we should all take. He was curious, intrigued, and willing to investigate the uniqueness of this man. These are all things we should strive for as well.
A short time later Jesus is alone with His disciples and He inquires of them about what people are saying. They give the same answer as Herod, some say John, others Elijah, and still others another prophet. As readers this repetition should alert us. Luke is trying to highlight something to us, trying to hint at a key point he is trying to make: the identity of Jesus. Who is this One we are beholding? He confounds the powerful, confuses the crowds, and even has His own disciples guessing.
Peter answers the question, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”. In Matthew’s telling Peter is commended for receiving such a revelation but here in Luke the narrative moves straight into Jesus predicting His own suffering, death, and resurrection. Jesus then invites His disciples to follow Him. We read this now as a metaphoric call to self-denial but His disciples surely did not. He just told them He was going to die and then told them to come and do the same.
After encounter with Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration we come to today’s reading and the next reference to Elijah. You’ll remember Elijah is the one who called down fire from heaven on the altar and then killed the prophets of Baal. James and John, who had just been arguing about greatness, recall that story and ask Jesus if they should also call down fire from heaven on the Samaritan villagers who have refused to make room for Jesus to stay there on His journey to Jerusalem.
On the surface that seems like a fair reading of the text. When you read 1 Kings 18 it sounds like a resounding victory. Fire comes from heaven, the false prophets are killed, and the people commit themselves to God. Why shouldn’t James and John want to emulate that? I can imagine them thinking, “Let’s put on a show of power and announce to the nation who you are.” They could with one swift act answer Herod and the nation, this is the One greater than Elijah, greater than the prophets, greater than Moses even.
But all we must do is keep reading the story in 1 Kings and we find out all does not go well. The wicked Ahab and Jezebel stay in power, idolatry remains, the people continue in their ways, and Elijah is forced into exile and hiding. All of a sudden the story of victory, of God’s display of power, isn’t so clear. He travels all the way to Horeb (Sinai) where he encounters God just like Moses. Unlike Moses however, Elijah covers his face before God and is ultimately sent away to anoint his replacement, Elisha, which brings us to our Old Testament reading.
Now our stories crash into one another in the most unmistakable way. Both our Gospel text and our Old Testament text are stories about disciples being invited to follow. Elijah comes back from Horeb, finds Elisha, throws his cloak over him as he is farming, and Elisha chases the prophet down in order to follow him. He just has one request, “let me go and say goodbye to my family first”.
Jesus likewise invites numerous people to follow Him (to Jerusalem and the cross as He told His disciples) and each of them also makes a request. The final request made is the exact one Elisha made and yet Jesus, unlike Elijah, denies the request. Why? What has Elisha discovered that the disciples of Jesus have not yet so that they are being kept from following? None of the people invited in the final verses of Luke 9 are recored as having come to follow Christ.
And so what does Jesus do? He starts the cycle back over again by sending them out again for the third and final time. Again the disciples return and Jesus rejoices with them. Luke transitions the story immediately into a story of Jesus telling a parable. You’ll remember that someone comes to Jesus and asks how he can have God’s life? “Love God and your neighbor just as the Torah teaches”, the man is told. The man responds, “Who is my neighbor?”
To answer this question Jesus tells a parable. Which parable? The parable of the Good Samaritan. Who is our neighbor? Wrong question. Jesus’ story doesn’t reveal who our neighbor is but how we become a neighbor to our enemies and to the world. The Samaritan here isn’t just a stand in for a generic enemy, these are the people James and John wanted to kill like Elijah just a few verses ago. Why did Jesus rebuke them? What is the lesson He has been getting at this entire time by reliving the story of Elijah? Who is this One?
This is the God who treats his enemies like friends, who becomes our neighbor to serve us and save us. He is the God who would rather die for His enemies than kill them (sorry Elijah). And this is what none of the disciples understood yet Elisha got right away and why he was allowed to follow. Elisha went back home and kindled a fire to throw a party for his friends and family. Elisha made a table for them, because the fire of God is not about burning up our enemies, winning in life, forcing our way to achieve a desired end, or getting what you want, even if it’s in the name of God. God sends fire on the earth to throw a party for his enemies who He treats like neighbors, like family, like friends.
Elijah’s fire serves his own self-interests but are dressed up in the name of God. But God isn’t in that fire. It may look victorious at times, even like the power of God come from heaven, but ultimately God’s fire never consumes others as if they are disposable. It never degrades, uses, or demeans. God's fire is like the burning bush, all-consuming yet we are not consumed.
Elisha’s fire on the hand looks small and ordinary, it doesn’t come from the sky but from the graced labor of his own hand. And although that fire is smaller and less spectacular to the eye it is deeper in the heart because Elisha’s fire sets the table and brings people together. It fills up others with the joy of God. Elisha’s fire isn’t about himself but about the joy of those God has placed in his life. Elisha’s flame burns as self-sacrificial love, giving of itself for the joy of others.
The disciples do eventually learn this lesson, that the way of Jesus is not the fire of Elijah but the flame of Elisha. Luke tells that story in Acts. Acts opens with those same followers of Jesus in a high place, like Elijah was on the mountain, and wind, a shaking, and fire come upon them just like it did Elijah. They have now become the altar consumed with fire, the holy burning mountain of God, and Elisha’s burning yoke and oxen. And where does this burning fire send them? Back to Samaria, to those same villages, to those same families. This time when they call down fire it isn’t to kill them but for them to receive the fire of the Spirit. God had been a neighbor to them now they were free to be a neighbor the Samaritans.
Who is this One? He is our neighbor. He is the One who comes to us when we least expect. He is the one who heals us even though we don’t deserve it. He is the one who pays the price for our rest and recovery, going the distance with us, even though we could never pay Him back. That is the fire of God. That is the work of Spirit in us. It is only the neighbor God who can open our eyes to see the world around us as friends and not enemies, as guests at His table and not outsiders who need to be kept away, and as brothers we take responsibility for rather than strangers we simply pass by.
Elisha’s flame is a shadow of the Spirit’s fire alive in us.
May we follow Him in this way by becoming neighbors for sake of the world, burning with the fire of God, so that all can come to His table and eat.