The Christmas Dragon

Dave Witt

We have all heard of Santa and his reindeer and elves; the Grinch; Frosty and other Christmas favourites, but have you ever heard of the Christmas Dragon? Actually this character is not one from any holiday TV special, but is straight from scripture. Unlike the shepherds or the wise men, it does not come from the well worn passages that we read each year in Matthew and Luke. The Christmas Dragon is found in the 12th chapter of the Revelation, where we get a completely different take on the Christmas story.

A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron sceptre. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.

Revelation 12:1-5 (TNIV)

Eugene Peterson provides some insightful reflections on the reality that this passage points to, “This is not the nativity story we grew up with, but it is the nativity story all the same. It is St. John’s Spirit-appointed task to supplement the work of St. Matthew and St. Luke so that the nativity cannot be sentimentalized into coziness, nor domesticated into drabness, nor commercialized into worldliness. He makes explicit what is implicit in the Gospel stories. Jesus’ birth excites more than wonder, it excites evil: Herod, Judas, Pilate. Ferocious wickedness is goaded to violence by this life. Can a swaddled infant survive the machines of terror? Can promise outlast horror? We want him to live, we long for this rule, but is it possible in this kind of world? Are not the means lacking? But we overestimate the politics of Rome (this world) and underestimate the politics of grace. St. John’s imagination is adrenaline to us of little faith, and we are again dauntless, unimpressed by dragon bluster, sure of God’s preservation. The child survives, salvation is assured. God’s rule is intact.” (Reversed Thunder p.121)

Revelation 12 awakens us to the reality that Isaiah understood when he wrote—
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.

Isaiah 9:6-7

A baby who changes everything, who’s coming brings into being a whole new way of life. The child establishes a government. The rule of the Kingdom of God is ushered in by this Prince of Peace—and his rule increases, continually. This in breaking of heaven into our lives, this incarnation changes everything—son of David and Mighty God wrapped up in one child in a manger. And this prepares us to look in fresh ways at the circumstances around Jesus’ birth and go beyond sentimentality—born in the feeding trough of a barn because his parents were internally displaced people who could not find room at the inn; attended to by marginally skilled, rough and tumble workers who existed on the margins of their society, and celebrated by foreign astrologers.

To live out the good news of Revelation 12 here in Hamilton in 2007, we have to begin to see the ways that the dragon continues its work of intimidating and harassing. This dragon continues to steal the life God intends for us, our neighbours and our city in whatever ways it can. It works to isolate seniors; to alienate those suffering mental illness; to confuse and disempower new immigrants; to break relationships between wives and husbands and between parents and youth, and on and on the list goes. As the people of God our calling is to unmask and stand against the dragon’s work.

The reality is that while Christmas can be a wonderful time for those of us with loving family and good friends, it can be the worst time of year for those suffering from the dragon’s work. As we reflect through this advent season on the nativity it is important for us to recognize in that story the cold, hard realities that we would rather ignore—the inns with no room, the injustice of governmental census policies; and the tyrants who will kill to keep their power. In this way we can become more alert to the work of the dragon around us and more prepared to live out the good news of the child born to us whose rule of deep, enduring shalom-peace is ever increasing.