In disguise

 I don't like to get too bugman on stuff, but there is a real utility to talking about Christ in terms of super heroes. That is, an awful lot of super heroes operate in normal society as regular people, with what we call 'secret identities.' Some don't but a lot do.

Thor, for example, is just Thor. That's it. He's an Asgardian alien who has the ability to lift 100 tons, can fly, is immune to disease and so on. He had a secret identity back in the day, Dr. Donald Blake, but that was retconned away as an illusion, because it was deemed to be unnecessary. After all, if you can lift 100 tons, can fly, are immune to disease and damage, why would you need a secret identity? Nobody can do anything to you, not much point in ever being in disguise, right?

So why Clark Kent? 

Surely Superman and Thor have very similar powersets, yes? Surely they have similar powers, abilities, invulnerabilities and so on. They can both fly, lift over 100 tons, are immune to disease and damage, that kind of thing. So why does one have a secret identity and one does not? The explanation is to be found not in the power sets, but in their origins. Thor comes to earth as an Asgardian exile, but as a fully grown adult. His secret identity was to blur his recollection of his Asgardian roots. The Clark Kent secret identity, though, was given to Superman by his Ma and Pa Kent parents who raised him from a baby that they found in a rocket. Superman is invulnerable to all damage that mortals could do. You could shoot bullets at him, stab him, run him over, and it wouldn't do too much. But Ma and Pa? Lois Lane? Jimmy Olson? Lana Lang? Those are all flesh and blood humans, who aren't immune to damage. Shoot Superman and the bullets bounce right off. Shoot Lois Lane and the bullets go right through.

A large part of the plots of Superman stories is not about him being in any real peril, after all, outside of kryptonite there's not much you can do to him, but the stories tend to be about the vulnerability of those around him. Can Superman save everyone? He's not at risk, but boy, the people around him sure are. So in that case, Superman has a Clark Kent secret identity not for him, but for them.

And that brings us to Transfiguration. At the mount of Transfiguration, Jesus is preparing to descend into a world of mania that will end with him being killed. And this dangerous world has knives and daggers, nail and whips everywhere. It's a world of death and destruction, and a world into which Jesus must descend, to be killed. But at the mount of transfiguration, the disciples get to see him without disguise. The secret identity is revealed only to a select few, three in fact. This tracks with this information, which has a select few people, 20 in all, knowing the secret identity of Superman. Not everyone knows, as this is a secret identity. If the vast majority of people know Superman as Superman only, then his human family is safe, his colleagues are safe, and so on. But if they know that Superman is also Clark Kent, then everyone is in play, and nobody is safe. And like it or not, Superman can quit being Superman a lot easier than he can quit being Clark Kent.

The secret identity isn't for the super, it's for the normals. Jimmy, Lana, Lois, they're the ones who need that secret identity, if they don't have it then they're shot. And when it comes to Christ, the veiling of his identity isn't for him, it's for the disciples, it's for us, it's for the normals. The people who would want Moses to veil himself so that the reflection of the divine would not trouble or alarm us. The people who need God to show himself in approachable ways. The people who need and crave a closeness with God, but who would find the grandeur and majesty of the ineffable God to be overwhelming, and which would reflect badly on our own sinfulness. 

Which is why there's a secret identity. To know Jesus is to know God, but through a lens that we can wrap our minds around. He speaks with a mouth, washes feet with his hands, breathes on his disciples, eats fish, bread and wine, and weeps at the tomb of his friend. Through that lens, we can start to see the eternal God, and at the Transfiguration, as he heads back to die, we can count on his ability to save the world because it is God, and man, who is mighty to save.