Chariots of Fire
Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
February 26, 2006
2 Kings 2:1-12; 2 Corinthians 4:3-6; Mark 9:2-9
2 Kings 2:1-12 Now when the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. Elijah said to Elisha, ‘Stay here; for the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel.’ But Elisha said, ‘As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.’ So they went down to Bethel. The company of prophets who were in Bethel came out to Elisha, and said to him, ‘Do you know that today the Lord will take your master away from you?’ And he said, ‘Yes, I know; keep silent.’
Elijah said to him, ‘Elisha, stay here; for the Lord has sent me to Jericho.’ But he said, ‘As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.’ So they came to Jericho. The company of prophets who were at Jericho drew near to Elisha, and said to him, ‘Do you know that today the Lord will take your master away from you?’ And he answered, ‘Yes, I know; be silent.’
Then Elijah said to him, ‘Stay here; for the Lord has sent me to the Jordan.’ But he said, ‘As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.’ So the two of them went on. Fifty men of the company of prophets also went, and stood at some distance from them, as they both were standing by the Jordan. Then Elijah took his mantle and rolled it up, and struck the water; the water was parted to the one side and to the other, until the two of them crossed on dry ground.
When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, ‘Tell me what I may do for you, before I am taken from you.’ Elisha said, ‘Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit.’ He responded, ‘You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it will be granted you; if not, it will not.’ As they continued walking and talking, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them, and Elijah ascended in a whirlwind into heaven. Elisha kept watching and crying out, ‘Father, father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!’ But when he could no longer see him, he grasped his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.2 Corinthians 4:3-6 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Mark 9:2-9 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.’ He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!’ Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.
As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
I. BEGINNING
When I was a student in seminary, all first year students had to enroll in a course called “Covenant Discipleship” in which we had to form and conduct Covenant Discipleship groups and meet with them regularly. The group I was in formed along very interesting lines: we were all free on Mondays at noon.
None of us knew anything about CD groups and so we decided that our first couple of sessions would be spent getting to know one another. So, we did as seminarians are trained to do: we shared our call stories, and told everyone else in the group how it was that we had come to be sitting around that table.
I remember sharing my story, that you’ve all probably heard at some point, about how I had gone from a career in the law to beginning a career in the ministry. It is a story that involves a fair amount of consternation and hand wringing, but otherwise, fairly little drama. Perhaps the kind of conversion experience a lawyer would have.
Another member of our group, however, told a very different story. A story of how he was helping out with a youth trip with his church and how at one point he was sitting outside at the camp, looking out across the mountains, when he had a vision of horses of fire running across the sky. And a word became emblazoned into his mind—a word he did not even understand. He later came across the word he didn’t know—and unfortunately which I have long forgotten—but it lead him to a verse in the Bible that all but compelled him to go into the ministry.
Wow, I thought. Am I supposed to have had an experience like that?
I’d never had anything remotely that amazing. Fiery horses! I was in the wrong business.
II. THE TEXT: 2 KINGS & MARK
For I, like many of you, I suppose, had never encountered anything that fantastic. Had ever had that mind-blowing an encounter of God. Nothing remotely like what Elisha encountered with his master Elijah.
In the Hebrew Scriptures lesson we read tonight, we encounter Elijah at the end of his ministry, passing his mantle, literally and figuratively, to his disciple Elisha. We read in the text about Elisha’s profound commitment to Elijah. How three times, Elijah tells Elisha to remain where he is, and how three times Elisha refuses, saying he will come with his master. We read of how Elijah uses his mantle to part the Jordan. We read of how Elisha is given one last request of Elijah, and asks to receive a double portion of the Spirit—indicating that he wishes to be considered an “eldest son”, an heir to Elijah. [1] We read that Elijah says that such a wish is not his to grant and that if Elisha is able to see Elijah as he is taken, the wish will have been granted.
Then we read that chariots of fire and horses of fire come between them and Elijah is swept up in the whirlwind as Elisha cries out “My father! My father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!”
It is not the kind of thing we see every day.
Nor are we likely to experience what Peter, James, and John experienced in the gospel lesson we read tonight. Jesus takes them up on the mountaintop and there is transformed—transfigured, we’d say—his clothes are a dazzling white and he is seen talking with Moses and Elijah. The stunned disciples can think of no other reaction but Peter’s: to offer to build dwellings for Jesus and his guests. Then a cloud overshadows them and a voice from heaven comes: “This is my son, the beloved. Listen to him!” And then at once they look around and everything is as it was before, Jesus is alone with them. Jesus tells them not to tell anyone until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.
Neither is this the kind of thing we experience every day.
III. THE MEANING: ELIJAH AND THE TRANSFIGURATION
Taken at face value, these stories become hard for us to comprehend, because, with the exception of my colleague in seminary, they are so far out of our every day experience. They are the kind of thing that makes those of us who have never had such dramatic experiences wonder whether we’re getting it right.
A. Elijah
Of course, there is a lot of symbolic meaning to these stories and perhaps there is something to make note of there. Commentators point out that the chariots of fire likely symbolize the heavenly host that fights along side Israel in its struggle. The armies of Israel are a macrocosm of the heavenly host and are seen as representing on the earthly scale the heavenly armies of God. The Hebrew phrase Adonai Tseva’ot translated as Lord Sabaoth or Lord of Hosts means “Yahweh of the Armies”—the heavenly armies of God. This is what Elisha is referring to when he says, “The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!”
It is meant to symbolize for us that Elijah was a part of God’s heavenly host. Elijah was divinely sanctioned in the work he was doing and that that mantle now falls upon Elisha. The presence of the chariots in this story helps us to see that Elijah and Elisha are about the work of God and that the fight on the same side as Heaven. [2]
So, at least that becomes a little clearer.
B. Mark and the Transfiguration
And of course, there’s a lot to be gleaned from the story of the Transfiguration, too. Jesus is seen in clothes of dazzling white, which is an old Biblical tradition for identifying a divine messenger. [3] Jesus’ conversation with Moses and Elijah carries a lot of meaning to be unpacked. Moses and Elijah, along with Enoch, were believed in Jewish tradition to be still alive and living with God in Heaven. Elijah, as we read, was taken up into heaven in a whirlwind. Moses was buried in a place that no one can discover, and so, it was believed, he too had been taken alive into heaven. Enoch likewise was believed to have been taken to heaven at the end of his life. In Moses and Elijah, we see symbolized the Torah (Law) and the Prophets, the two divisions of the Old Testament as it existed at that time. And so, we see Jesus in conversation with the salvation history of Israel. Mark is telling us that the entirety of the scriptures, the Torah and the Prophets, point to the work of Jesus.
The voice from heaven continues the theme of epiphany and coronation, and we realize that Jesus is being set above Moses and Elijah. Jesus is being glorified but his glory is different than that of Moses and Elijah. Even though he is being set above them, his glory involves going through suffering and death upon the cross. He will not avoid suffering by being taken alive into the heavens, rather, the glory of the Son of God is to suffer upon the cross. [4]
This scene is full of power and meaning. For in Jesus’ glorification, we see a heightening of the paradox of the cross. We encounter the quintessential Markan message that suffering and glory cannot be separated. And in the behavior of Peter, James, and John—who were the same three who would fall asleep in the garden of Gethsemane—we see the disciples’ inability to comprehend either the glory or the suffering of the Son of God and their relation to one another. [5]
C. Conclusions
So what do we learn from all this fantastic imagery? Well, we learn that Elijah (and Elisha after him) stand in the traditions of Moses, parting the Jordan as he had the Red Sea. That Elijah and Elisha stand on the same side with God. That the prophetic tradition, along with the Law of Moses, points toward the saving work of Christ, a divine messenger, blessed of God, in whose sufferings we see the true glory of God revealed. And thus we come at long last to know that God is not encountered solely in wondrous deeds but in the suffering of the cross. In our human brokenness, God is present and accessible to us. As one commentator notes, “Divine miracles and heavenly visions do not create faith” but the experience of God in suffering does.
And so we have a few things figured out. And we come to understand that even if we do not have fantastic visions of chariots of fire and of Christ in dazzling raiment, we come to understand that where God is encountered is in our daily struggles and sufferings. In the mean places of life, the difficult and hard places.
And so we can be comforted in our mundane faith, because God is in the mundane. The cross proves that. And that is something we know and profess.
IV. GOD IN THE MYSTERY
But there is one piece we are missing. Both Elisha and Jesus do the same thing: tell others to be silent. Elisha instructs the company of prophets to be silent and Jesus tells Peter, James, and John not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Resurrection.
In the Gospel of Mark, scholars call this kind of thing the “Messianic Secret”—the idea that Jesus’ messiahship is a secret, not to be revealed to the world until the proper time. A secret. The Greek word for secret is mysterion: mystery. Another thing about faith that we can learn from these passages is that an essential part of faith is mystery.
Those of us who are rationalists, can be uncomfortable with the miraculous. We want to work everything out. I am like that. I am one of those people who can’t enjoy magicians the way everyone else can because I spend all my time trying to figure it out. I even get sucked into those dumb shows on Fox where they give away magicians’ secrets. Whenever I read a passage of scripture like the ones we read tonight, it is so easy for me to figure out what the scripture means. To glean meaning from it, to interpret it symbolically, to understand the literary and textual significance of the text. I have studied a lot of Biblical Criticism and can figure a lot of this stuff out such that I can make it all make sense with my rationalistic view of the world.
And yet, passages like these give me pause, because they remind me that faith is not all about figuring everything out and making sense of things.
V. END
My friends, we are not meant to be able to figure everything out. That doesn’t mean that we check our brains at the door. It doesn’t mean that we don’t subject our scriptures to the examination and tools of Biblical Criticism and historical inquiry. It doesn’t mean we go back to believing in a flat world covered with a dome like the ancients believed. It doesn’t mean we reject science and all that it has to teach us.
What it means is that we are open to mystery and to the wonder of faith. It means that we remember and celebrate the greatest mystery of all: that the immortal and omnipotent God should care about each and every one of us. That the ineffable author of all creation should care for us silly little hominids on a planet orbiting a second rate star in the corner of an ordinary galaxy among the billions of galaxies—that our lives should matter to God to the extent that God would reach out to us, over and over again, trying to forge relationship with us. That is a mystery.
But it is the mystery we celebrate as we enter into the season of Lent. That the very Word of God should be given flesh and dwell among us, that he should live our life and suffer our death, at our hands, in order that we might be reconciled to God through the power of the resurrection.
Our faith is a mystery. We may not be able to understand everything about it. We may not understand how Jesus’ clothes became radiant white or how it was Elisha saw Elijah taken up to heaven in a whirlwind and accompanied by chariots of fire and horses of fire. And we may never understand how it is that the Lord of Creation should seek us out and call to us in our brokenness to invite us to return to God.
But that is the message that we are called to proclaim to the world, a world broken and hurting, a world in need of redemption, a world in need of mystery.
Notes
[1] NIB, Vol. III, p. 176.
[2] Id. at 177.
[3] NIB, Vol. VIII, p. 630.
[4] Id.
[5] Id. (citing Raymond Brown, The Death of the Messiah, pp. 151-52)
