When Your Psychedelic Trip Sitter is Jesus
What They Didn’t Tell You Last Sunday about the Transfiguration of Jesus
When you have a spiritual experience it’s rare that you see something new. Rather, you see something anew. You see what was there all along. You just never noticed. It’s an extraordinary event that reveals the extraordinary in everything. Today we’re going to read a Bible story through this lens so we can understand our own spiritual experiences in a new light.
Last Sunday on the church calendar was the feast day of the Transfiguration of Jesus. I’m a week late, but time’s fake anyway—we’ll get to that in a bit! This story’s a weird one. And I want to keep it weird as we take a closer look, and sit with the tension it raises. This edition of the newsletter gets so weird that it’s for paid subscribers only.
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What’s Transfiguration?
A couple months before his crucifixion Jesus led his closest disciples and friends, Peter, James, and John up a “high mountain”. These three are also the guys Jesus brings to keep watch while he prays in the garden of Gethsemane before he’s arrested. This is an event that secured their bond.
When they arrived Jesus was “transfigured” before them—meaning his appearance changed. The Greek word here is metamorphoo (where we get the word metamorphosis). We’ve all experienced transfiguration. You think you’re looking at one thing and then you realize you’re looking at something else.
Transfiguration can happen with an eye trick or a puzzle, but it could also happen on a deeper, more subtle level. You’ll be talking to someone and then they do or say something so charming that they suddenly become way more attractive than you first realized. Or they do or say something so annoying that they suddenly become unattractive.
Transfiguration also happens during cycles of depression. Things that used to light you up suddenly appear dull, almost like everything changed colors. Then the color returns when your depression subsides.
If you’ve ever done psychedelics then you definitely know what transfiguration is. You sit there and then suddenly everything looks so different. And it feels like you’re seeing things as they always were. You just weren’t looking close enough before. And that stays with you.
But Were They Tripping?
So what did they see when Jesus was transfigured?
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