But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did to him whatever they wanted, just as it is written about him.”
Here the Lord shows that the promised Elijah had already come. From other passages of the Gospel it becomes clear that this refers to John the Baptist (Matthew 17:12-13, Luke 1:17). He was not Elijah’s literal return, but came with the same spirit, the same power, and the same prophetic zeal. Yet the leaders of the people did not recognize him according to his true significance. They did not accept his testimony and allowed him to suffer and be killed. This word also prepares the disciples to understand that if the forerunner’s fate was such, all the more the Messiah’s path must pass through rejection. In the divine plan, the forerunner’s fate and the Lord’s sufferings are connected with one another. What was done to John showed the blindness of the human heart: that people, not accepting the truth, rejected him, and with the same blindness of heart would reject Christ as well.