Our appearance is invested with expectation and is fraught with mistakes and stereotypes. In other words: there is power there.

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In a surprising moment at the mountaintop, Jesus is transfigured. This means that he appears to be different (it doesn’t necessarily mean that he is different). Then two other figures appear.

Our rational minds get obsessed with the question of whether or not these guests really are there. Or what is causing Jesus to look different. We desire explanations which settle, define, or minimize the impact of treating what appears to be significant as anything but a parlor trick.

But what if transfigure is not less than transform? What if appearances do, in a sense, matter?

The gospel treats this much like Moses’s glowing face: as a sign of an encounter with the divine. What if we did the same for one another?