‘And he said to them, ‘Elijah it is true comes first, and restores all things, and how is it written of the Son of Man that he should suffer many things and be set at nought (‘treated with contempt')? But I say to you that Elijah is come, and they have also done to him whatever they willed, even as it is written of him.” '
Jesus confirmed that Elijah was in fact to come first ‘to restore all things' (Malachi 3:5-6). In that the scribes were right. But then He explains what ‘restore all things', which was probably a stereotyped saying about the coming of Elijah, meant. If, He asked, ‘restore all things' meant all being put right, how could it be written of the Son of Man who was to follow Elijah that He should suffer and be treated with contempt, and be set at naught? A suffering Messiah must surely be introduced by a suffering Elijah. Thus ‘restore all things' could not mean total restoration. It had to mean that Elijah's work was the beginning of the restoration.
This reference to suffering has in mind Isaiah 50:6-7 and Isaiah 53 (where Isaiah 53:3 contains the same verb for ‘treated with contempt' in some Greek versions). That was where God's suffering Servant is described. And also possibly in mind was Psalms 22 which spoke of the sufferings of the Davidic king prior to the manifestation to the poor of God's Kingly Rule (Psalms 22:26-28). Added to that it was necessary to take into account ‘the anointed one' (Messiah) who was to be cut off and would have nothing, as prophesied by Daniel 9:26.
So what did ‘restore all things' promise? The answer is clearly that he was to lay a firm and solid foundation for the establishing of the Kingly Rule of God. He was to bring Israel to a point where the King could come, turning the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, turning the disobedient to walk in the wisdom of the righteous and to make ready for the Lord a prepared people (Malachi 4:6; Luke 1:17). And that John had accomplished.
‘But I say to you that Elijah is come, and they have also done to him whatever they willed, even as it is written of him.' Jesus then confirmed that Elijah had in fact come, in the person of John the Baptiser. And they had done to him what they wanted, just as it is written that the Elijah of old was treated (1 Kings 19:2; 1 Kings 19:10). Scripture was being repeated. It had already revealed how an Elijah who came was treated. And here it was again.
There was, of course, a restoring under John the Baptiser, but it was the restoring of those in Israel who were open to faith, as with the seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal (1 Kings 19:18) and not of the whole of Israel (see Romans 11). It was the restoring of those reserved within the purposes of God
The reference to fulfilled Scripture is interesting. It sees the lives of Elijah and John the Baptiser as combined in one. The Scripture referring to one is here seen as also fulfilled in the other, for John is the Elijah who was to come. That is he was engaging in Elijah's continuing ministry and fulfilling his function. Elijah had stood up against a king and his notoriously sinful wife in spite of the danger to his life, and so now had John. Both had been persecuted by kings. Both had been concerned for righteousness. Both had been in danger of their lives. And it is saying that Elijah continued to be treated in the same way now that he had ‘come again' in John the Baptiser. And in John's case they had not only sought his life, they had taken it.
Note. Jesus was quite clear that John the Baptiser was the fulfilment of the prophecies about Elijah. He had already said this to the crowds at the time that John the Baptiser had sent messages to Him seeking confirmation of Who He really was (Matthew 11:2-15). John had originally had no doubts of Who Jesus was, but he was clearly perplexed that he should be in prison in such dreadful conditions if the Messiah had come. He still received news, and heard about His powerful ministry. But where was the promised deliverance? It reminds us that John himself did not fully understand what God's future purposes were, and that he, like his ‘namesake' Elijah, could temporarily lose faith and begin to doubt (1 Kings 19:4). In both cases a word from God was all that was needed to put them right.
Jesus had told the crowds who John the Baptiser really was. He was equal to the greatest of all prophets, including Elijah, prior to the coming of the Kingly Rule of God (Matthew 11:11). He was the final great pre-Kingly Rule prophet (Mark 11:13). Indeed ‘if you are willing to receive it this is Elijah who is to come', and then He declared that those with truly spiritual ears would recognise that this was so (Mark 11:14-15). In all ages there are those who are unwilling to receive it, but Jesus' statements were unequivocal. Elijah had again essentially come. No further fulfilment was required. His preparatory work had been accomplished in fulfilment of Scripture. While the ‘two witnesses' at the end of time will be similar in power to Elijah neither is called Elijah for they were under the Kingly Rule of God, and Elijah's purpose had been completed when that Kingly Rule first became established in the ministry of Jesus.
(End of note).