This mysterious event, described – with different emphases – by Matthew, Mark and Luke, was intended to help three of Christ’s closest friends face up to what they would see on the hill outside Jerusalem when the “Lord of glory” would be the “Man of sorrows.” It was a foretaste of the “glory that is his as the only Son of the Father.” That glory, however, was to be hidden for the most part during the earthly life of Jesus; we catch only glimpses of it in the gospels.