That outstanding teacher of preachers, Dr. Fred Craddock, suggests that it is better to "hold this text before the listeners in (its) full extraordinariness rather than reduce (it) to fit the contour of our experiences. It is better to be led to the foot of the Mount of Transfiguration, to be helped to sense its significance on Jesus and three apostles, and to be left there for a while in awe of its mystery and power.

Such an experience might finally influence life in more ways and in more depth than interpretations that reduce the text to lessons that assume `this is the way life is for us today.'" Dr. Craddock's caution makes this an almost impossible sermon. He seems to be saying, "Tell the story, but don't worry about illustrations; Jesus is Jesus, and we are, after all, just us."