Quick Summary:

Some experiences are more challenging than others to put into words. This seems especially true when numinous moments break into ordinary time and we find ourselves awestruck, disoriented, or overwhelmed—which is what happened to Peter, Andrew, James and John that day on the mountain with Jesus, Elijah, and Moses. These experiences are often fleeting, and leave us wondering whether what we experienced really happened, or if it wasn’t some sort of illusion.

This experience on the Mount of Transfiguration builds upon an earlier mountain experience in which Jesus tries to help his apprentices see that Messiah and suffering belong together. The William Blake poem, Can I see Another’s Woe?, speaks to what kind of Lord we have:

And can he who smiles on all
hear the wren with sorrows small,
Hear the small bird’s grief and care,
hear the woes that infants bear,

And not sit beside the nest,
pouring pity in their breast;
And not sit the cradle near,
weeping tear on infant’s tear;

And not sit both night and day,
wiping all our tears away?
O, no! never can it Be!
Never, never can it be!

He doth give his joy to all;
he becomes an infant small;
He becomes a man of woe;
he doth feel the sorrow too.

The God whose glory we glimpse shining on that mountain in Jesus’ face rightly evokes our songs of praise. Yet who he truly is cannot be fully known until he becomes a man of woe.