It starts off ordinary enough. Jesus and his three closest friends - Peter, James, and John - go up on a high mountain. Nothing unusual. Jesus often went off from the crowds to pray and rest. All very ordinary.

But from here on, ordinary ends. No sooner do they arrive than Jesus is suddenly "transfigured." He "glowed." As the text has it, "his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them." Not only out of the ordinary, but absolutely out of this world - which, of course, is precisely what the story wants to convey.

And if that is not out-of-the ordinary enough, two of faith's most honored heroes suddenly appear by Jesus' side. Moses, the great law-giver, and Elijah, the prophet par excellence - the Law and the Prophets - paying respect to Jesus, in whom both a…