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While Luke's rendering of the Mount of Transfiguration is not the only telling of this event, it has always been my favorite.  I like the way Luke tells us the story, but I also like the context he creates around it.  For Luke it is that moment in the story of Jesus when everything starts moving toward the cross.  When Jesus comes down from the mountain, He once again speaks of His upcoming death, but Luke also writes a commentary about those days as he wrote, "When the days drew near for Him to be taken up, He set His face to go to Jerusalem."  (Luke 9:51)   They were not days of casually encountering whatever might be experienced on the road, but days of intentional and steady movement toward the waiting cross.   

In some ways the Mount of Transfiguration has the feel of a moment of affirmation for Jesus as He is visited by Elijah and Moses and the voice coming from the clouds saying, "This is my Son, my Chosen..."  (Luke 9:35).  It also has the feel of a moment of preparation for Peter, James, and John as they find themselves overwhelmed by the holiness of God breaking in upon that hill so covered with glory. Surely, both Jesus and those three disciples would remember this extraordinary moment of revelation in the horrible days which were beginning to unfold before them.  

Over the centuries of preaching, preachers have turned this moment into the epitome of what is meant by a mountain top experience in our spiritual lives.  It may indeed help us define such a moment, but even more it teaches us to live with the expectation that the holy is only a breath away.  We can never be sure when it is that God is going to reveal Himself to us.  The disciples went with Jesus that day expecting it to be a day for praying, but it soon turned into something far beyond their expectations.  Such can be said of every day.  Every day can turn into a moment when God makes Himself known and in doing so, He outraces our feeble expectations.