The Transfiguration
Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”
We don’t do well with the unexplainable.
We’d rather be able to cram everything into boxes,
labelled and categorised, neatly packaged.
We’re discombobulated by events that refuse to fit
into our systems and theories.
It’s been like that since the beginning,
since Adam and Eve
tried to cover their nakedness
or Noah asked for a drawing
or Sarah laughed out loud
or Lot’s wife wanted one last look
or Isaac wanted a ram
or Moses wanted a speech
or Gideon wanted a sign
or David wanted a harem
or Ruth wanted a husband
or Job wanted a break
or Jeremiah wanted a pair of clean shorts
or Amos wanted a simple basket of fruit
But all of these simple requests and actions
turned into multi-faceted messages about the reign of God.
And so the disciples
on the mountain top with Jesus
want everything pegged down:
tents for the prophets,
something to do,
anything,
to keep them from feeling
so out of their depth
at Jesus throwing them
yet another curve ball,
catching them off balance
with dazzling appearances
and voices from heaven,
too preoccupied with the desire
to “normalise” this event
that they tuned out the echoes of baptism
and didn’t catch the subtlety
of the beginning mirrored
in the beginning of the end.
A mountain top experience
that didn’t quite compute
when they were back on lower ground.
(Liz Crumlish 2014)
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