He answered and said to them, “Truly, Elijah comes first and sets everything in order. Then why is it written in the Holy Scriptures about the Son of Man that He will suffer many things and be despised?”
The Lord first confirms that the prophecy about Elijah’s coming has a real basis. Yet He immediately also turns their attention to the truth that it is written just as certainly that the Son of Man must suffer and be despised. In this way He corrects a one-sided expectation, where people liked to see only the glorious side of prophecy while ignoring the way of the cross. Christ’s question is profound: if you accept the words that speak about the forerunner, then in the same way why do you not accept the Scriptures that foretell the Messiah’s suffering? Here the necessity of reading divine revelation as a whole becomes clear. Whoever accepts only the parts of the Scriptures that please his heart understands neither the Law, nor the Prophets, nor the Gospel.