This Sunday marks the close of the Epiphany season. Our Epiphany texts have focused on the manifestations of God in the life of Christ. Between Jesus' birth and crucifixion, there is arguably no more astonishing epiphany than the mountaintop Transfiguration of Jesus an event that graphically reveals who Jesus is and gives us a glorious glimpse of who he will be.

Over the course of the three-year lectionary cycle, we get to read each of the three gospels' accounts of the Transfiguration event. Although Mark's is clearly the primary version, this year's text from Luke adds several invaluable features to the record. Some of Luke's account suggests he had his own oral or written source, while other insertions seem singularly Lucan in emphasis and ethos.

The first difference is in the number of…