Commentary on the Gospel of
Rushing in Where Angels Fear to Tread
The descriptions of God given by Isaiah and by Jesus cannot be any more different from each other: they look poles apart. For Isaiah, the majesty and holiness of Yahweh are so powerful and intimidating that he can only fall on his feet utterly conscious of his sinfulness. But Jesus presents a “Father” who is so maternal that even he has counted the hair on our head! How do we reconcile these two images? Of course, they are not contradictory, but two aspects of the same God. He is so holy that no creature on earth can stand its ground before him; yet God is so full of love that we can climb on his lap and pull his beard. Didn’t Alexander Pope sing that “fools rush in where angels fear to tread”? Pope could easily have been talking of God’s bosom, where angels fear to tread, but we, his foolish children, can barge in.
