The Transfiguration, you see, is a story with all kinds of echoes and allusions, isn’t it. It looks a lot like Jesus’s baptism, with a voice from heaven announcing, “This is my Son, my Chosen. Listen to him!” And it’s got all the trappings of an Old Testament encounter with the divine. It’s not subtle. Moses himself is there, the first person to shine with glory from being in the presence of God on a mountain. And Elijah was too, the prophet who left earth in a flaming chariot, not death, and who was expected to return to make things right.