In this week's gospel text, we read about one of the most remarkable and least remarked upon events in Jesus' life _ the Transfiguration. It is an experience that all three of the synoptics record with a great deal of consistency. Each of these gospel writers places the Transfiguration directly after Jesus makes his first passion prediction _ before he and the disciples begin winding their way to Jerusalem and the events that await them there.

Yet for all its drama and power, this transfiguring event appears to play a very limited role in the rest of Jesus' ministry or in the disciples' immediate perceptions of Jesus. Even today, the church seems less comfortable claiming the miracle of the Transfiguration than it does other events in Jesus' life.

In Luke's gospel, the literary connections…