The Prophet Elijah
By Metropolitan Jeremiah of Gortynos and Megalopolis
(Homily Delivered on Sunday 20 July 2014)
By Metropolitan Jeremiah of Gortynos and Megalopolis
(Homily Delivered on Sunday 20 July 2014)
1. Today, my Christian brethren, our holy Church celebrates the memory of a great prophet, the Prophet Elijah the Tishbite. He is called so because he came from Tishbe in Gilead, the country beyond the Jordan. This prophet remained vividly engraved in the hearts of the people, that is why in the Old Testament we have five narratives about the prophet Elijah, which come from the mouths of the people. These five narratives do not contain theoretical teaching, but incidents and miracles related to the prophet. But the greatest praise to the Prophet Elijah the Tishbite was given by the people again after many years. When, my beloved, the people of Palestine heard our Lord Jesus Christ preach and perform miracles, they were amazed at what they heard and saw, so they said: "Who is this? Is it Elijah?" (Luke 9:19).
2. I am sorry, my Christian brethren, because I do not have the time in a short liturgical sermon to talk about these five narratives of the Old Testament, the ones referring to the Prophet Elijah. I will only say a little about them and I will soon finish speaking. The message of the prophet that we are celebrating today, my Christian brethren, is against Ecumenism. From long ago, this demon was entangled at the feet of the faithful children of God, in order to falsify their proper faith and worship of Him. In the years of the prophet we are talking about, my beloved, with the policy of the king of the Israelite state Ahab, but also of his predecessors, we had a strong movement of syncretism in the land of God. And by this stream of ungodly kings, the people, carried away, mixed the worship of Yahweh with the worship of foreign gods and indeed with the worship of Baal. All the struggles, all the teaching of the Prophet Elijah, was exactly on the issue: Yahweh or Baal. Both don't fit! It is "as if you limp with both feet" (3 Kings 18:21), the prophet told the Israelites. And because the evil came from the ruler, the fearless prophet did not hesitate to appear before him and call him "the corrupter of Israel" (3 Kings 18:17-18). In order to prove the truth of the true God, Yahweh, the prophet Elijah, my beloveds, suggested that everyone, he and the prophets of Baal and the people, go up to Mount Carmel. There the prophet performed a great miracle: He set the water on fire! Listen: Two altars were erected, one to Yahweh and one to Baal. The agreement was: On which altar fire falls from heaven, that God is true. The priests and prophets of Baal cried out to their god for many hours to send them fire, but nothing. The time then came for Elijah to pray. O the prayer of the saints! It works wonders. So that the people didn't think that the prophet Elijah had kindlings hidden in his altar and from them the fire would light, he asked for buckets of water and threw them at its base. It became a river of water. Then he knelt down and prayed to Yahweh to bring fire to his own altar. And indeed the sky sent fire and consumed the stones, the wood and this water, the river water, which was at the base of the altar (3 Kings 18:33-38). Yes! The Prophet Elijah set fire to the water! And this miracle of the prophet, my Christian brethren, is repeated by the priest at the end of a baptism. In the font there is water from the tap and the priest asks God to send His Holy Spirit into the water of the font. The Holy Spirit, however, is represented by fire and like tongues of fire he came to the disciples on Pentecost. So here we see that the events of the Old Testament model and foreshadow the New Testament.
3. There are many things that I could tell you, my Christian brethren, about the Prophet Elijah whom we are celebrating today. I can tell you how he became anchorite and pilgrim as far as Mount Horeb (3 Kings 19:8) and as far as Sidon (3 Kings 17:9) and that God nourished him with a raven that brought him a piece of meat to eat (3 Kings 17:4-6). But we know that the raven grabs and does not give. However, when God says so, the raven gives and does not take away! Likewise, in our society, some people are ravens who grab and devour everything. But if God enlightens them, if divine Grace comes to them, they will change their predatory rage and become merciful and feed the poor and the prophets of God, just like Elijah. I would also tell you about his vision in Horeb, where he was taught that God is in the fine breeze and not in the earthquake (3 Kings 19:11-13). As if He wanted this vision to tell him that he must be philanthropic in his struggle and along with bitterness he must also have love. But in closing I want to tell you about his "death". Elijah did not die, my Christian brethren. A chariot of fire seized him, before the eyes of his disciple Elisha, and he ascended to heaven (4 Kings 2:10-12). Two people of the Old Testament did not die, but were transferred: Enoch and Elijah. Why didn't Elijah die? I like the interpretation of Saint John Chrysostom, in that God admired Elijah for his struggles. As if He said to him: "Wow! What are you! I need you. I need you for the years of the Antichrist!" And, my Christians, God took this sharp prophetic arrow and hid it in His quiver! And in the years of the Antichrist, when his activity will be terrible, because he will have previously misled humanity with Ecumenism and other heresies, then God will take out from his quiver (!) the Prophet Elijah, to fight the Antichrist and to preach repentance to the people, so that they may be saved. Thus we have the prophecy found in the chronologically last prophet, the Prophet Malachi. God says: "Behold, I am sending you Elijah the Tishbite before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord, who will restore the heart of a father to his son and the heart of a man to his neighbor, lest I come and raze the earth to the ground" (Mal. 4:4-5).
May God give us His Grace, my Christian brethren, so that we may be incompatible with sin and the instruments of evil and have the fighting attitude of the Prophet Elijah, but mixed with love and humility, so that we can fight, each one in his way, the Baals of our contemporary era, and to preach Jesus Christ as the only true God and that salvation exists only in His holy Orthodox Church. AMEN.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
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