The Sunday Next Before Lent Year B

The Sunday Next Before Lent

2 Kings 2.1–12
2 Corinthians 4.3–6
Mark 9.2–9

Elijah is taking part in his own funeral procession. Everywhere he goes, people come out to watch him, the coffin, go past. The people do not speak to him. It’s almost as though they think that he has already lost the power of speech and hearing. They talk instead to Elisha, the next of kin, checking how he is feeling about his impending bereavement, but also, of course, pointing out their credentials as prophets. Prophets are supposed to know this kind of thing, and could certainly never hold their heads up again if they could not predict the death of Elijah, the Father of all the prophets. They slightly hope that they are telling that upstart, Elisha, something he didn’t know. But no such luck. And he’s quite rude to them, basically telling them to shut up when they try to talk to him.

What is Elisha feeling? The prophets are treating him like Elijah’s servant. That’s certainly what they call him, and they seem determined to demonstrate their own prophetic powers, as though to point out the fact that Elisha was just a ploughman before Elijah inexplicably called him into service (see 1 Kings 19.19f. for the story)... 


Taken from Lectionary Reflections – Year B by Jane Williams