In Context: The Disciple and His Rabbi: Discipleship in the Original Jewish Context, Part 2

Read the series.

How the Elijah/Elisha Model Foreshadowed and Possibly Influenced Jesus’ Ministry

(Discipleship in the Original Jewish Context, continued…)

When Protestants have visions, they usually have visions of Jesus. When Roman Catholics have visions, they often have visions of Mary. And when Jews have visions, they typically have visions of Elijah. He is a central figure among devout Jews.

Today we are going to look at Elijah and Elisha and note their potential influence upon the life and ministry of Jesus. Although my focus in these articles is midrash, we will spend some time elaborating upon important allusions and parallelism, the two other types of Old Testament “echoes” I have previously enumerated.

From my previous post, you might recall the idea that Yeshua (like other rabbis) used the relationship between Elijah and Elisha as a model for the relationship of rabbi to disciple. But we can take things a step further and note how Jesus’ ministry resembled the ministry of Elijah and Elisha (on steroids) in some ways. Yeshua may have used their example to set His own direction of ministry, or we may have merely found another example of how God works in patterns (divinely ordained parallelism that foreshadowed Yeshua’s ministry).

Parallels between Jesus’ ministry and that of Elijah/Elisha

(1 Kings 19:1-9, 15-16 compared with Matthew 4:1-11)

Even events within the life of Yeshua appear to follow the Elijah/Elisha pattern. Take Christ’s preparation for ministry. Although Jesus’ preparation for ministry and Elijah’s preparation to anoint Elisha differ greatly, the similarities are worth consideration.

I am assuming the reader is familiar with the Matthew 4:1-11 text (the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness), but let me present the correlated 1 Kings 19:5-9 text:

And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.” And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.
There he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Both Yeshua and Elijah were tempted in the wilderness. Elijah was tempted with despair (and surrendered to the temptation) while Christ was tempted by the devil on three occasions (Matthew 4:1-11) and prevailed. Both fasted for forty days and nights. In I Kings 8:8, God feeds Elijah with bread and water, and then Elijah travels for forty days until he reaches Horeb (Mount Sinai), presumably in Saudi Arabia.¹ There he meets with God and hears his voice. He also receives his directions from God.

Jesus’ sequence was reversed. First, He is baptized by John and then tempted in the wilderness. At His baptism, He “meets” the Father and the Spirit. The Father speaks from heaven, and the Spirit anoints and empowers Yeshua for His ministry. Although not in exact sequence, the similarities in concept seem striking. His forty-day temptation in the wilderness was probably a time of waiting upon the Father and being instructed about and prepared for his ministry via the Spirit.²

How did the Spirit lead Jesus into the wilderness? We know that, at the incarnation, the Son laid aside the use of His divine prerogatives as God (Philippians 2:4-11, the “kenosis” [“emptying”] passage); He probably learned about the will of the Father primarily through the study of Scripture. This is implied in the childhood narrative when Jesus discussed theology with the Rabbis, probably in preparation for His Bar Mitzvah (Luke 2:41-51). The possibility exists, therefore, that the Spirit first led Him through the study of Scripture and then “… drove him out into the wilderness” (Mark 1:12). The word Mark uses is forceful. Even during the kenosis, the relationship between Father, Son, and Spirit was vibrant and unique.

Parallel Miracles

The miracles Elijah and Elisha performed also presage Yeshua’s miracles. Elijah’s miracles recorded in I Kings include control of the weather (17:1) and resurrecting the dead (17:22). Elisha’s miracles recorded in 2 Kings include resurrecting the dead (4:34), multiplying loaves of bread (4:42-44)³, and healing a man plagued with leprosy (5:27).

Jesus’ miracles are best interpreted against the backdrop of the aforementioned miracles. Not only is Yeshua “greater than Solomon” (Matthew 12:42), He is greater than Elijah and Elisha combined. Although we think of Elijah as the Messiah’s forerunner (Malachi 4:5-6), both Elijah and Elisha foreshadowed Jesus.

Parallel Service

The rabbis understood the importance of serving as a primary duty of the disciple, particularly serving his rabbi. Jesus expanded the concept when He spoke about being “servant of all” (Mark 9:35b). He Himself, “came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many,” (Matthew 20:28). Although this was His primary purpose, He gladly received acts of service from His disciples and had no hesitation to request service from them; they made arrangements, procured food supplies, distributed gifts to the poor, even brought Jesus a donkey (Matthew 21:1-3). Yeshua served and His disciples served. Serving was at the heart of discipleship.

Note this portion from the Talmud that also exalts the concept of servant-hood:

…serving a Torah scholar and spending time in his company is greater than learning Torah from him. Torah study is one component of a Torah life, but one who serves a Torah scholar learns about every aspect of life from his actions. This is derived from the verse that speaks in praise of Elisha, as it is stated: “Here is Elisha son of Shaphat, who poured water over Elijah’s hands” (II Kings 3:11). The verse does not say that he learned from Elijah, rather that he poured water, which teaches that the service of Torah represented by Elisha pouring water over Elijah’s hands is greater than its study.⁴

For Torah-obsessed rabbis (and obsession is an accurate description), to prioritize being with and under the influence of a rabbi over studying Torah – that is extreme. As noted above, it is derived from the Elijah/Elisha relationship. This ethic helps explain the disciples compliance toward Jesus early on in their ministry together, while their faith was quite formative.

The priority of being in the presence of and listening to a rabbi (learning about more than only Torah) is fleshed out in the account of Mary and Martha.⁵ Martha was engaged in seemingly necessary kitchen tasks – and thus away from the Master – but Mary was sitting at Yeshua’s feet, listening and learning. After Martha complains, Jesus corrects her in Luke 10:41-42:

But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

The point was further made when Mary anointed Jesus for His burial. She was the only one who had truly listened; she apparently understood Yeshua was soon to die the agonizing death He described (Matthew 26:6-13). Mary – not Martha or even the Apostles – was the best disciple when it came to listening to and comprehending her Rabbi!