The greatness of God and the fear of Him
For days we have been celebrating the Feast of the Ascension… How beautiful is the saying of Scripture: “Now when He had spoken this, He was taken up while they watched, and a cloud received Him out of their sight” (Acts 1).
And the disciples kept gazing into heaven. Then two angels appeared to them in white apparel and said to them, “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven” (Acts 1).
Let us contemplate a little this subject of the Ascension and:
The greatness of God and the fear of Him¹
The Lord Jesus Christ—in His incarnation—came into the world without anyone noticing Him, and He descended into a manger.
But after He completed His mission and was crucified and rose… He ascended in glory into heaven, and a cloud took Him, and He was lifted up on high, in great glory…
He ascended with a glorified body, in which there is no heaviness of matter… and He gave us an example of how we shall rise in the likeness of the body of His glory, and ascend with Him on that day to the clouds, and be lifted up on high…
When the Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven and a cloud took Him out of the sight of the disciples, they remained gazing into heaven where He ascended. This scene remained fixed in their memory, and their sight remained attached to heaven where the Lord ascended…
With the Ascension of Christ, His self-emptying came to an end.
The self-emptying that His incarnation required, when He took the form of a servant, came to an end with His ascension to the Father in glory, where He sat at the right hand of the Father… The right hand of the Father symbolizes the power of the Father and His righteousness, as the psalm says: “The right hand of the Lord has done valiantly; the right hand of the Lord has exalted me” (Ps 117). And sitting symbolizes stability.
Thus the phrase “sat at the right hand of the Father” means that He settled in the power and righteousness of the Father. That is, the time passed in which He appeared weak and humiliated by people, and the time passed in which He “was numbered with the transgressors.”
And just as we glorify the humble Lord Jesus Christ in His incarnation, so also we glorify the great Lord Jesus Christ who ascended into heaven in glory… feeling that He is the glorified God, the Creator of nature, the Creator of all, who ascends on high, and the cloud descends to take Him, and He rises upon the clouds…
Very often the cloud symbolized the glory of God and His dwelling.
When the temple was built and the priests brought the Ark of the Covenant into its place, Scripture says: “The cloud filled the house of the Lord. So that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord” (1 Kings 8:10–11).
And it was said that the Lord “dwells in the thick darkness” (1 Kings 8:12).
We often heard of this matter at the coming of the Lord in the Tabernacle of Meeting. What is the secret in this? The cloud and the mist are water that has evaporated and risen and filled the air from below (the mist) or from above (the cloud). And water symbolizes the Holy Spirit, as we have explained many times, and as Scripture mentioned (John 7:39). The Lord used to appear in the cloud (Exod 16:10), and He used to lead the people by day “in a pillar of cloud to lead them” (Exod 13:21), and in His Second Coming He will come on the clouds of heaven (Matt 24:30; Rev 1:7).
The Lord will come “on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” He “will come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him.” “And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds.” “Then He will sit on the throne of His glory, and all the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another” (Matt 24:30–31; Matt 25:31–32)… The Lord will come “with ten thousands of His saints,” and “every eye will see Him.”
Just as He gave us an idea of His humility, He also gives us an idea of His glory.
On the Mount of Transfiguration, He gave us an idea of His glory. And when He appeared to John, He gave us a greater idea: “His face was shining like the sun in its strength, and His eyes like a flame of fire,” to the extent that John could not endure it and “fell at His feet as dead” (Rev 1).
The more we take an idea of the glory of God and His greatness, to that extent we fear Him and respect His commandments, and the fear of God possesses our hearts, and we do not take matters lightly or act carelessly.
When we draw near to the meek, humble, and gentle Lord Jesus Christ, we take an idea of His love and mercy. But we must also not forget that He is the mighty God, the awesome, the One of all greatness, the One of all glory, who sits upon the cherubim, who walks upon the wings of the wind… the God who ascended into heaven, and continued to rise and rise, until even heaven also became under His feet and not the earth only, as He entered into “the heaven of heavens”…
We must contemplate the exalted God, before whom “the heavens are not pure, and to His angels He charges folly”… the incomprehensible, the unlimited God, “who dwells in unapproachable light,” “before whom every knee bows, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,” before whom “the earth trembles and the mountains melt like wax”…
We must contemplate the God before whom the angels bow, with two wings they cover their faces, and with two they cover their feet; the God who is a consuming fire, the great alone, the perfect alone, the eternal everlasting, existing before time and before place…
The God whom our minds cannot comprehend, and in whose boundless greatness they wander and are lost.
The fear of God and its benefits:
When we think of the greatness of God, we draw near to the virtue of contrition…
We humble ourselves before His glory, and we feel that we are dust and ashes and nothing; then the fear of God enters our hearts and reverence takes possession of us. We enter into a life of vigilance, and we are careful in our behavior, and we do not take matters lightly or permit ourselves what is improper…
And when we contemplate the greatness of the exalted God in His heavens, we long for His heaven…
We long for the great glory that He gives to His children, and for those things “that are inexpressible” which the Apostle Paul saw; and we long to know something more about His glory, this glory of whose depths we have not yet perceived anything…
We want to train ourselves in the fear of God, just as we have trained ourselves in His love. And this fear of God the Church teaches us continually…
† In the Prayer of Thanksgiving we say: “Grant us to complete this holy day and all the days of our lives in all peace with Your fear.”
† And when we enter the church we remember the saying of the psalm: “But as for me, in the multitude of Your mercy I will come into Your house; I will worship toward Your holy temple in Your fear.”
† And when the Holy Gospel is read, the deacon cries out: “Stand in the fear of God, and listen to the Holy Gospel.”
† And during the Divine Liturgy it is said: “Worship God in fear and trembling.”
Because of this reverence for God, the Church taught us prostrations, metanoias, works of repentance, and removing our shoes before entering the sanctuary…
And because of this reverence, Jacob the patriarch said about Bethel: “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (Gen 28).
And because of this reverence, the Church also taught us to glorify God…
The first part of every prayer in the Agpeya we conclude with the phrase (Doxapatri), meaning “Glory be to the Father.” And in the Midnight Prayers we say the phrase (Doxa Si…) “Glory be to You, O Lover of mankind.” And we conclude the Lord’s Prayer with the phrase “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” Our glorification of God is one form of fearing Him and reverencing Him.
+ A greatness we attain through humility:
Greatness belongs to God alone. And He bestows of His greatness upon His humble children; but as for the proud, it is said of them: “God resists the proud.”
Greatness belongs to God alone. Therefore the psalm says: “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Your holy name give glory.” Thus the one who exalts himself wants to share with God in His attributes, as the devil said in his fall: “I will be like the Most High” (Isa 14:14)…
How awesome is what revelation mentioned in the book of Isaiah: “For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up, and it shall be brought low; against all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, and against all the oaks of Bashan; against all the high mountains, and against all the hills that are lifted up…”
“The haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the loftiness of men shall be brought low; the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day” (Isa 2:12–17).
Before the greatness of God we must humble ourselves. “And he who humbles himself will be exalted”…
When we look at the Lord Jesus Christ ascending into heaven, we say to Him: Your place is not this earth, O Lord. It is “Your footstool.” Rather, it does not deserve that You tread upon it with Your feet… And we, O Lord, are from the dust of this earth…
Who are we to speak with You?! Who are we to take Your image and likeness?! Who are we to be called Your children?! Who are we to serve Your holy mysteries?! The more we are broken before You, the more we also boast that we have such a great God, who mingles His greatness with His humility…
The more we contemplate the greatness of God, the more we are comforted. We are comforted by His power before which no human power can stand, that power of which it is said: “No weapon formed against it shall prosper.”
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An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – in Al-Keraza Magazine – Sixth Year (Issue Twenty-Six), 27/6/1975.
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