I decided to start today with “The Top Ten Reasons We Should Keep Christmas.” With all the hustle and bustle, I thought we needed to be reminded why Christmas is a good idea. Without Christmas…
• The candied fruit market would completely collapse!
• Our boring, uneventful lives would have no stress at all!
• Eggnog would just be a slimy, high cholesterol beverage.
• Santa would be a strange fat man with poor fashion sense!
• Three words— “No Christmas bonus!”
• We wouldn’t mindlessly sing “Hope Is Just Around the Corner” (Our Christmas play)
• You’d have to spend your own money buying stuff that doesn’t fit.
• We would never wonder if reindeer really know how to fly.
• Your cat would never know the joy of coughing up tinsel!
• Number one reason—without Christmas, there could be no Easter!
That one wasn’t meant to be funny… unlike the rest that just weren’t funny on their own! Without the birth of Jesus, there could be no cross and no resurrection. Without the Christmas story, then Christianity has no message of eternal life. Unless Jesus really was born and resurrected, then hope is not around the corner!
This time of year, we are used to hearing the story of the birth of Jesus. Sometimes, the presentation of that story is more fiction than fact. Like the nativity scenes that have the wise men there at the manger (Jesus and his family were already in a house by the time they arrived). But that is better than the nativity scenes that depict the wise men around the manger dressed as fireman (The Bible says they came from a fire [afar]). Here’s a quiz to see how much you know about the real Christmas story.
• Which writer tells of Magi or wise men coming from the east? Matthew
• Which writer tells of the announcement of angels to shepherds? Luke
• Which writer has a dragon at the center of his birth narrative? John
Like Mark, John in his gospel omits the birth narrative and basically begins the story of Jesus with John the Baptist. He rather chooses to save the birth story for the book of Revelation (12:1-17). His story has no shepherds, wise men or drummer boys— it has a dragon! So John’s version of the Christmas story has something of an edge to it!
Another True Meaning of Christmas
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(Revelation 12:1-17)
There are two main characters in John’s version of the Christmas story. First, there is a woman clothed with the sun and has the moon at her feet. She is very pregnant; in fact, she cries out in pain as she is about to give birth. This isn’t Mary but rather represents the nation of Israel who gives birth to the Messiah. Later she will morph into a representation of the church. But we immediately recognize her child; this is about the birth of Christ. “She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne” (Rev 12:5).
Second, there is an enormous red dragon (Satan) who pursues the woman. He has 7 heads (which represent his power), 7 crowns (his authority) and 10 horns (even more power). The dragon pursues the woman, waiting to devour the child she will bear. But as soon as he is born, the child is taken to heaven to God’s throne. The woman is also taken to a safe place in the desert prepared by God. The child is born; there are no carols but cosmic conflict. Eugene Peterson writes—
This is not the nativity story we grew up with, but it is the nativity story all the same. Jesus’ birth excites more than wonder, it excites evil: Herod, Judas. Pilate. Ferocious wickedness is goaded to violence by this life. (Eugene Peterson, A Distant Thunder, p. 121)
So the angels don’t sing in this version of the story. They are rather locked in spiritual warfare with this dragon. But the dragon is defeated by the angelic hosts and is thrown out of heaven. Unlike much of the book, this is a flashback, not a flash forward, “The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him” (Rev 12:9). This sounds a lot like Jesus’ statement, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Lk 10:18). At any rate, the good news is that Satan’s attack on God’s throne is thwarted.
The bad news is that he is thrown down on earth among us, “But it will be terrible for the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you! He is filled with anger, because he knows he does not have much time” (Rev 12:12, NLT). Again, all of this spiritual warfare language is used within the context of the birth of the Christ child.
The hard thing about nativity plays is there just aren’t a lot of roles to go around. After Mary and Jpseph and the shepherds and wise men, there just aren’t a lot of parts. That’s why half the cast ends up playing sheep and cows! Not so with John’s version of the story. There is a cast of millions. In fact, you and I have a part in his nativity play! The dragon can’t get the child, and God protects the mother (now a symbol of church). So now the hungry dragon comes looking for us, “Then the dragon was very angry at the woman, and he went off to make war against all her other children—those who obey God’s commands and who have the message Jesus taught” (Rev 12:17, NCV). So at the heart of this telling of the birth of Christ is a hungry dragon seeking to take a bite out of you and me!
The Christmas season is important to many. In fact, some of you started getting ready in June. But the very things that we value about it become dangers lurking to harm us. Yes, Christmas is time for family; it is also a time of loneliness for those without family or who suffer the loss of family. Yes, Christmas is a time for time honored tradition; it is also a time when our expectations often exceed reality. And thus it is a time of disappointment and depression when the season isn’t as fulfilling as we had expected. It is a time for giving and receiving gifts… and also the time we allow materialism to run amok!
Above all, Christmas is a time to remember the birth of a baby that would change history. We can close our eyes and imagine the Hallmark Christmas card image of Mary and the child, the shepherds and animals and Joseph somewhere in the back gathered around the manger. We focus on this pastoral scene, and we remember the heart of the angelic message in Luke 2:14 (KJV), “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” Well, that’s not what they said, and that is precisely the danger we face in this season of the year. We view Christmas in terms of peace and good cheer. It is precisely this peace and good cheer images that we sing about in our Christmas carols.
O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
the silent stars go by.
Silent night, holy night;
All is calm, all is bright...
Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!"
There is nothing wrong with those songs; we will sing them all next week. But those songs can present a one-sided view of the story. Literally, they have a one-sided view— that of Mary, the shepherds, the magi, the earth! This story is not just about the birth of a child but what that birth meant!
So John shifts the point of view; he tells the story from a spiritual perspective. He tells it from the viewpoint of heaven. And thus the pastoral serenity of Silent Night dissipates into sound of battle. There is no Christmas armistice; Christmas is the reason for the war! God came into Satan’s domain to face down the dragon on his own turf! And the old dragon was not about to let that happen without a fight! He used Herod in an attempt to kill the baby Jesus and would later raise up Pilate to condemn him. All the fury of hell would be released against the child born on that silent night. As Jesus lay in the manger, somewhere in Palestine there grew a tree, straight and strong. One day that tree would be cut down and fashioned into a cross. And thus it would become the ultimate Christmas tree upon which was hung the ultimate gift! John wants us to see the manger through the lens of the cross!
Conclusion
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Sometimes we talk about people getting into the “spirit of Christmas.” That may mean they are into shopping, decorating or digging out the old Bing Crosby Christmas albums. At its best, Christmas spirit is generosity, courtesy and being nice to others. My grandmother had a poem she would recite when we’d visit for holiday—“It’s Christmas time you know, I don’t think folks out to mind it so.”
John reminds us that however we view Bethlehem, niceness is not the point! The birth of Jesus means that God came face to face with the evil one. Maybe that’s a message we need to contemplate with our next cup of eggnog! Petersen sums up this section in his book on Revelation like this—
Our response to the Nativity cannot be reduced to shutting the door against a wintry world, drinking hot chocolate, and singing carols. Rather, we are ready to walk out the door with, as one psalmist put it, high praises of God in our throats and two-edged swords in our hands. (A Distant Thunder, p. 122).
John’s version of the Christmas story reminds us we’re in a struggle with a dragon. It’s a struggle we can’t win; it is a struggle Jesus already won, “But they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” (Rev 12:11, NRS). Those who put their faith in the testimony of Jesus overcome the dragon. The irony is that for many of the first readers of Revelation, it looked like the dragon was winning… big time. Many of those first readers of Revelation died in this battle with the dragon!
Perpetua was a young wife imprisoned during the persecution of Severus in 354 AD. While in prison, she dreamed of seeing her husband who was martyred before her climbing stairs to heaven. To get there, he had to climb over a huge red dragon that blocked the way. He shouted to her from heaven to have courage as she faced the dragon. The next day, she faced her death with such courage it silenced the crowd. Christians today continue to die in places like Sudan, Somalia and China. The dragon still comes after children of the church, and sometimes he gets them. You and I might face the dragon in different ways, but we still face him daily. For John, that is part of the true meaning of the story of Christ’s birth.
The message of the coming of Christ into the world is not peace and joy for all. The world has churned on for 2000 years since the pronouncement of the angles, and there has never been peace on earth or good will toward men. But then, that was never the promise, was it. Notice what it was the angels really promised to the shepherds, “Give glory to God in heaven, and on earth let there be peace among the people who please God” (Luke 2:14, NCV). The promise of peace is for those who please God, those who follow the Lamb. The dragon will continue to attack, but the battle belongs to the Lord. Do you belong to him?
