On the mountain that day Peter, James, and John, perhaps for the first time noticed what it was about Jesus that made Him so different. His face shone like the sun and His eyes blazed with love. Was it that Jesus had changed? Or was it that they now saw for the first time what was always there?  

There’s a crowd gathered around the front desk of a shelter for recovering addicts and former gang members. A man who is high on drugs wanders in. He starts yelling. The guy is clearly agitated. It looks like there’s going to be trouble.  

One of the staff who’s the size of an NFL linebacker calmly goes over to the man. With an arm on his shoulder he walks him outside. “How about you and I go out for some tacos.” The man whirls around brandishing a handgun. “How about if I blow your head off?” The staffer is unfazed. “Do you want two tacos or three?” 

The two continue their walk. They arrive at the taco shop down the street. “Three tacos for my friend and the same for me.” Their order comes. The guy takes a bite out of the taco and then throws it on the floor in disgust. “What’s a matter? Not enough hot sauce?” The man says nothing and then ravenously devours the remaining two tacos. 

It would seem there are some people out there who are just evil. Or is it that there are wounded people out there who do evil things? What if instead of labeling and reacting in fear to people who do evil things, what if, like the staffer at the shelter, we were to first do what we can to deescalate the behavior of the person who is about to do the harmful thing?  

It’s takes courage and compassion to respond this way. And with our reactive tendencies we’ve got to work at it to get there. But the good news? As we do this, we get better at calling forth the Christ within which lies buried under the layers of hurt that the wounded person carries. And for the record, like the man who wandered in off the street, we’re all wounded. It’s just a matter of degrees. 

The disciples saw the transfigured Christ on the mountain. In the world today, it’s not where do we look for Him, but how do we look for the transfigured Christ? The presence of the divine is incarnate in all of us. In some, we can’t miss it; for them, it shines through effortlessly. In others, it’s buried under layers of hurt and may not be seen at all. But it’s there.  

And as we learn to look for it, something happens. We will be changed, not from the outside but from within. And that’s when we start seeing what we hadn’t noticed before but was there all along. So, that’s your homework for this week. Go out and look for what you hadn’t seen before but was there all along and you just might see it.