12 And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. 2 She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. 3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. 4 His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. 5 She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, 6 and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days… Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” 13 And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14 But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time.15 The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. 16 But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. 17 Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.
The Dragon is furious with those who belong to the victorious Child. (17) There is conflict and there are consequences of this warfare. Here are a few.
First, if you are obedient to Jesus then you have an enemy who is enraged with you and whose power has no equal save One and his plan has many approaches. Some of you might remember the beheading of 21 Coptic Christians by Isis a while back…the video was everywhere. Twenty- one of your brothers and as they were being killed in unison cried out, “Ya Rabbi Yasou”, O My Lord Jesus.”
But the warfare is not also so dramatic and overt but it is always as sinister and you and I must see that the Dragon is enraged. He pours out his river of lies to engulf us, to drown us in this world…and it seems so many Christians are swimming in his lies as if it is their playground pool and they allow God’s little children to swim in it as if it isn’t really that bad!
You have all heard of the so-called Children’s Crusade of the early 13th century where supposedly thousands and thousands, some say upwards of 30,000 children, marched to Jerusalem to save the city from the Muslims who had taken control of the Holy Land. The thought was that children, pure in heart, innocent and in humility trusting the Lord would supernaturally bring about a great victory. As the story goes many died of starvation on the way, many others were taken prisoner and sold into slavery. It was an unmitigated disaster. We scorn and mock such foolishness as playing right into the hands of the Evil One. But then we turn our children over to the godless every day. Many Christian young people spend the majority of the day with godless friends, godless influences sitting in front of godless entertainment choices hour after hour. How can we as Christian parents allow this…when we are called to take every THOUGHT captive to the obedience of Christ? Oh, I have heard all the rhetoric and for all our justifications we only look more foolish.
The Dragon will also offer to you religious substitutes, some of which will smack of the truth leading you, even if at first it be ever so slightly, away from the truth of God that you might fix your eyes upon anything but the Lamb of God as the pattern of your life. We must see the warfare that the incarnation has brought. Oh, how great are the casualties! The church, filled with cultural ambitions instead of covenantal ambitions. A church where ‘fitting in’ is coveted instead of the pattern of Christ dying that we might live and in giving our life away that we might find it.
And yet, we would also admit that this battle, some of it, perhaps most of it, rages within each of us too. The temptations we have given into, the thoughts that we entertain, these are just as shameful.
Dante’s “The Divine Comedy”, beginning, as it does, with Virgil leading Dante through the regions of hell, it is quite unnerving. At the very beginning of hell Dante has a place of torment for the Opportunists, those who in life were neither for good nor evil, they were simply for themselves. And remember, in Dante’s poem as one sinned in this life so they are punished in the next. In this life all these Opportunists did was pursue their own advantage, whatever they wanted, or thought they wanted, what made them look good, gave them prominence in the eyes of men, including the religious! Always conniving, always manipulating, always stirring up others for their own advantage, what benefits them, what makes them look good.
They are in hell chasing an elusive ever shifting banner, promising something it never delivers and as their sin was a darkness so they move, now in hell, in darkness and are pursued by swarms of wasps and hornets where the puss and sores are fed upon by worms and maggots of that God-forsaken place.
And I think of all the Christians who have believed the lies…who, with Jesus on their lips are living, manipulating and pursuing not the honor of Christ, but whose lives are simply for themselves. You realize I trust that a Christian narcissist is an oxymoron…A Christian who is only about self is a contradiction…in the Christian life, as the incarnation teaches us, we have died to self, Christianity is death to self, and life to Jesus! Fascinating to me, that Dante has a place in hell for the narcissist, even dare I say, the so-called Christian narcissist!
We see at Christmas not just the conflict, but the victory. Heaven declares that we are the victors…but listen carefully. The victory is ours but only as we engage the battle. We are victorious only through the blood of the Lamb and that they loved not their lives even unto death.
If we understand this warfare that climaxes at Christmas we will see two things:
First, there is no room for me, for selfishness, for me to sit upon the throne not for a single second. In this conflict if we see it correctly, if you see what is arrayed against you, the Dragon, the world and your own sin…if you really know and feel well your brokenness, the sins of which you are ashamed, sins that do damage to yourself and to others…and then realize that there is so much evil arrayed against us, this will form in us a humility, a conscious awareness of our need of Jesus and we will embrace every day what Paul said, “For me to live is Christ…”
Any thoughtful Christian can see the danger that is lurking, and if so, then we should be more watchful, more careful, holding ourselves to short accounts. We will say with the Psalmist, “Because your love is better than life my lips will praise you…” Therefore, we conquer only as Jesus conquered. If you do not seek the life that He has patterned for you, then you will not see, experience and enjoy the victory.
You might be asking yourself: where is THAT in this text? Let me show you: Verse five has Christ as a child and throughout the text he remains a child but we know He was not resurrected or ascended as a child but verse 5 seems to indicate that he was. Why, why does the text leave him as a child? You will notice the quote in verse 5 of Psalm two where the Messiah is said to rule the nations with a rod of iron. When we think of Jesus we think of him powerful and mighty crushing his foes and he is those things and will do those things, but here He is a child.
This is God’s exegesis of Psalm 2. The child reigns, his weapons, his rod of iron is his own identity…his weakness, his humility, his love for sinners. He conquers by dying! A child, in humility, in weakness, gaining victory for us by giving up Himself for us. Jesus said we had to become like little children to enter the kingdom of heaven. And like everything else, he not only tells us he goes before us.
On the day Jesus told his disciples that they had to be as little children, the disciples were busy talking about, arguing about, which one of them was greater! What a contrast, Jesus is talking about humility and the disciples are vying for prominence! There will be a day for vengeance, but that is not Bethlehem’s plan…it wasn’t for Jesus and it isn’t for you either.
Christmas is calling to you…there is conflict, ready yourself…put on your weapons: forgiveness, humility, kindness, love and servanthood…make much of things the world says are useless: preaching, bread and wine, the waters of baptism, prayer and worship…live as Jesus lived and continue His work…destroying the works of the Devil.
Prayer: Father, forgive me for thinking that I know. Forgive me that I do not take up the weapons of my warfare and fight for the Kingdom of my God! Give me courage, strength and perseverance that I might not flinch at the point where the battle rages. Help me to see through the rhetoric and pursuits that are covered with fine sounding words to the truth that lies behind and may I walk faithfully in the victory of the Savior, in Jesus name, Amen.
Hymn: For Unto Us a Child is Born
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