Imagine for a moment that the Transfiguration had been filmed. Same mountain. Same dazzling moment. Same three stunned disciples shielding their eyes.
But now imagine that the footage had been handed to three different film editors – each with their own instincts, priorities and sense of what really matters. What we end up with are not three contradictions, but three cuts of the same holy reality.
First editor: Mark
Mark is the indie filmmaker. Fast cuts. No soft lighting. No lingering close-ups. He wants urgency, not polish.
In Mark’s edit, everything happens immediately. Jesus is suddenly radiant. Elijah and Moses appear without explanation. Peter blurts out something foolish. A cloud interrupts. A voice speaks. Cut. Silence. They walk back down the mountain, told to say nothing.
Mark’s version feels raw and disorienting – because glory, for Mark, is never comfortable. He edits the scene so that we don’t linger too long. The moment of radiance is brief because suffering is coming fast. This editor wants us to feel that divine glory doesn’t remove fear – it intensifies it. If you think you understand what you’ve just seen, Mark says, then you probably don’t.
Second editor: Matthew, the one we’ve just heard
Matthew is more classical. He knows his audience. He wants resonance, echoes, meaning is layered into every frame.
In Matthew’s cut, the light around Jesus feels familiar. His face shines like Moses on Sinai. The cloud feels thick with Scripture. The voice from heaven sounds like baptism all over again. This editor wants us to recognise what we’re seeing.
Matthew edits the Transfiguration to say: this is who Jesus truly is. Not a break from Israel’s story, but its fulfilment. Moses and Elijah aren’t random cameos – they are witnesses. Matthew wants us to see continuity, promise, fulfilment. The mountain isn’t an escape from the world; it’s the place where God confirms the path that Jesus must walk.
Third editor: Luke
Luke is the contemplative director. He loves long shots, human emotion, the quiet detail that others miss.
In Luke’s edit, Jesus is praying. The disciples are exhausted. They almost sleep through the miracle. Luke leaves in the awkwardness – the heaviness, the confusion, the timing that never quite works.
For Luke, the Transfiguration happens in prayer, not performance. Glory emerges while Jesus is in communion with the Father. And Luke tells us what Moses and Elijah are talking about: Jesus’ departure – his exodus, his suffering in Jerusalem. This editor refuses to separate glory from the cross. The light is real, but it points forward, not away.
Listen to him
So which editor is right? Well, of course it’s all of them. Because glory is too large for one angle. Revelation needs more than one cut. God does not give us a single perfect shot, but a layered truth. And maybe that’s the point for us tonight.
If we’re honest, we want the mountain without the descent afterwards. We want clarity without confusion. We want the dazzling moment, neatly edited, without the long walk that follows. The walk that ultimately ends with the cross.
But the Transfiguration, however it’s edited, always ends the same way: They do come down the mountain.
And the editors may differ in tone and pace and emphasis and theology – but in each of them the voice from heaven says the same: “Listen to him.”
“This is my beloved Son; listen to him!”; “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him!”; “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!”
Tonight. In this time and in this place, what is he saying to you? As you listen to him, what do you hear? Amen
Three Cuts – One Glory was delivered by Ian Banks at Compline on 19th February 2026. Matthew’s version can be found in Chapter 17:1-9