GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 9-
Exceedingly Shining White
I pulled up to a gas pump to fuel up Alice’s little red car. I was not able to read the screen on the pump; the figures were so dim that I had to put my nose up to it to read them. I thought about moving to a different pump because there might be something wrong with this particular pump. But I was able to read enough of the screen to see the directions—insert card, make the selection, remove the hose, begin fueling, etc. With the hose in the filler tube and the pump doing its thing, I looked at the scenery. Everything was dark—I had on sunglasses!
I was reminded of the gas pump incident as I worked on a translation of St. Mark’s account of Jesus and three disciples ascending a mountain to pray: “And his garments became shining, exceedingly white, as such that a launderer upon the earth is not able to whiten.” (9:3) The three disciples were not wearing sunglasses, but I wondered how many people read this account with glasses that prevent them from seeing its significance—glasses of indifference, doubt, atheism, agnosticism, etc.
I took my sunglasses off and was able to see the gas pump screen clearly to finish fueling the car. I wonder, though, what other intellectual sunglasses I might be wearing.
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