The Feast of Transfiguration Year b - Mark 9:2-10

Mark 9:2-10

How did Peter, James and John know it was Elijah and Moses speaking with Jesus without the benefit of Facebook profile pictures? And what were Moses, Elijah and Jesus talking about? Of course when you ask those kinds of question you miss the point of the story. This is a theophany (Greek for God appearing) which is something beyond knowing because the holy and the profane have nothing in common. That is why Isaiah cries out “Woe is me” when he sees the Lord high and lifted up. And that is why Peter blurts out the offer of three dwellings, as if Jesus the Beloved, shining like the Sun, and the ancient law giver and the end time prophet needed to be housed in habitations made by human hands. When the light show was over and the familiar Jesus returned a question remained. “What could this rising from the dead mean?” We have the benefit of the post resurrection perspective that the three disciples coming down the mountain did not, but maybe the question remains for us as well for even in the light of the resurrection we see through a mirror dimly. But by the grace of God we who know in part know enough to still terror and return us to the familiar for in Jesus the Holy and the profane meet. The One who knew no sin was made to be sin (2 Cor. 5:21) so those in bondage to sin might be set free. Thanks be to God.