Happily Ever After... (A sermon based on Revelation 12:1-6)

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Happily Ever After...

A sermon based on Revelation 12:1-6
Sunday, December 20, 2009 - Advent 4C

        Do you like stories about dragons? You know the kind, the dragon, for some reason known only to dragons, snatches the princess away from the castle to keep in his lair high in the mountains or surrounded by a lake of lava. Many a brave knight tries to rescue the fair maiden, and many a brave knight fall engulfed in flames. But one charming knight, a prince from another kingdom, rides forth in his polished armor to slay the dragon and rescue the princess and take her hand in marriage and whisk her away to his kingdom that they might live there happily ever after.
        Well, whether you like dragon stories or not, you get one this morning. The apostle John tells us a dragon tale based on a vision sent from God that he saw while he was in exile. But what does a dragon story have to do with Christmas? Isn't Christmas a peaceful time?! Don't we sing and proclaim "Peace on earth" and "Goodwill to men"? Don't dragons better belong with Halloween? Aren't we celebrating the birth of a cute and cuddly baby Jesus? Why have any talk of war at this time of peace?
        Well, Christmas has everything to do with war. It has everything to do with a dragon. You see, satan has long held mankind captive in his lair eager to throw them into a lake of fire at the last day. But God sent his son, the Prince of Peace, to wage war against that dragon, to throw him down, to rescue his people, and to take us to his kingdom in heaven to live happily ever after. That's what Christmas is all about. That's how we have Peace with God. That's he can have goodwill to men. Listen now to John's dragon story, recorded in Revelation 12:1-6, and be encouraged by it to live happily ever after... 

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. ² She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. ³ Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. ⁴ 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. ⁵ 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. ⁶ The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.

        On the day of Pentecost the apostle Peter, inspired by God, said that what the prophet Joel had written hundreds of years earlier had now come true. He quoted Joel 2(:28-32) in Acts 2(:14-21): "Peter stood up... raised his voice and addressed the crowd... "This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: " 'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people." In other words, "the last days" began at Pentecost. We're living in the last days right now. So, whatever the apostle John saw in his seven visions, each describing the the last days from a different angle, well, it all applies directly to us. So let's talk about the vision, what it means, and what it means for us...

        First John saw a woman. "A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head." Any guesses who this woman is? Many think it's the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. But if we keep reading and let the context interpret for us, the identity of the woman becomes clear. Only a few verses later, in Revelation 12:17, John says that, "the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring—those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus."
See who the woman is now? It's a picture of the Church -- the Church of all time, both Old and New, the Church for whom Jesus was born, and the Churth through whom Jesus was born. That's why she's represented as being pregnant. 
        But things don't look good for the woman or her offspring. John sees another sign: "an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. ⁴ 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." 

        I'll give you one guess who the dragon is. In case you weren't sure, verse 9 of chapter 12 spells it out: "The great dragon [is]... that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray." He's red -- the color of blood and fire and the death he brings as he wages war against Christ and his Church. He has seven crowns. Seven is the number of God working in his grace as satan masquerades as an angel of light. (cf. 2 Corinthians 11:14). And he has ten horns. Ten is the number of earthly and political rule as he influences a portion of the world's rulers and pretends to be in charge of it all. And how he longed to destroy the Savior and devour him the moment he was born! We can't help but think of satan working through King Herod in what has been called "The Slaughter of the Innocent," sending his soldiers to kill countless toddlers and infants in Bethlehem in an attempt to destroy Jesus, the King of the Jews.
        And by now, you need no guesses as to the identity of the child born to the woman. Of course it's Jesus. Born to the church, ruling all nations with an iron scepter (a reference to Psalm 2 that said the Messiah, the Son of God, would rule with an iron scepter), hunted by satan, but snatched up to God (a clear reference to his ascension into heaven where Jesus rules all things at the right hand of God).

        Okay, so we know who's who. But what does the vision mean?
        Well, if the woman is the Church, that's us. And verse 6 describes the New Testament times -- that is the time from Pentecost to Judgment Day. The time in which we live right now. That's the symbolism of John's "time, times, and half a time" that he uses in various ways throughout the book of Revelation. One time is one year, two times is two years, a half a year for a grand total of three and a half years, or roughly 1,260 days. Remember what the number seven stands for? The number of God (think 3 for the Triune God) dealing with his people (think 4 for the four points of the compass, the four winds, the four corners of the earth) in grace (4 plus 3 is 7). Three and a half years of Old Testament grace and three and half years of New Testament grace makes the complete time of God's grace on this earth.
        So, what's going to happen to God's church in the New Testament era? Well, John says in verse 6, "The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days." And here's the meaning of God's dragon story through John: Life from now until the end of the world won't always be a sweet and pleasant oasis. It will often be more like a desert -- dry and brown and broken down. It's an allusion to the suffering of God's people. When you picture a spear going through a toddler at Herod's command, it sort of makes the "ho, ho, ho, merry Christmas" catch in the back of your throat, doesn't it? When a loved one struggles with sickness and nears the end of their life, Christmas peace may seem absent. When the Christmas bills are many and the call backs for a job interview are few, it may be tough to be full of joy.
        And often the way we react when life feels like a desert is to complain against God for allowing it. "Why do you let this happen to me? Why don't you stop it?" And satan loves to hear those complaints! He crouches low, ready to pounce and devour you the second you abandon your trust in God and in your Savior. And truly, that's what we deserve. For our complaints against God for not dealing with us fairly, we should have deal with us fairly -- as our sins deserve! -- and abandon us to the dragon who seeks to kill our souls.
        But that's not what happens. Instead John sought to comfort us with the assurance that the dragon -- satan -- will lose. There is no doubt about it. Notice that for as much damage as he's caused and continues to cause, he's been unsuccessful. That little child -- the baby born to the woman -- defeated the dragon soundly. satan failed to kill the infant Jesus at the hand of King Herod. And so the child didn't remain a child. He grew up. And satan failed again when failed to lead Jesus to commit a single sin through his not-so-terrible two's, through the toddler and elementary years, through his adolesence! (Can you imagine a sinless teenager?!) Through his temptations in the wilderness and throughout his entire life, satan couldn't get Jesus to commit a single sin! What a failure! And even as it seemed like the dragon was winning as the child, the son, the Son of God, was being abandoned to hell on a cross... Well, in that moment, satan was utterly defeated. Our Savior took our sins -- our complaints, our whining, our selfish attitudes, our apathy toward the battle he came to fight -- he took all our sins on himself. And by his death, our knight in shining armor rescued us from the dragon! 
        Now, in spite of the desert in which we live, we are dressed in Jesus' righteousness so that in God's sight we are perfect and holy, "clothed with the sun, with the moon under [our] feet and a crown of twelve stars on [our] head." We've been rescued! Jesus had made us his very own and placed the victor's crown upon our head -- a crown of stars! And one day soon he will whisk us away to his kingdom that we might live there in heaven happily ever after!
        And in the meantime, the dragon still can't hurt us. Though we live in the desert where he prowls around looking for someone to devour, we live in "a place prepared for [us] by God, where [we] might be taken care of for 1,260 days," that is, until he comes again. Jesus spoke the truth when he said (in Matthew 16:18) that the gates of hell would never overcome his Church. And so, as we stay inside his Church and in his kingdom by staying close to him in his Word and in the Sacrament we're about to eat and drink, we will be safe from the dragon. God will be with us to the very end of the age (cf. Matthew 28:20) and he will keep us safe, just as he promised, to the very end. 

        And so the dragon, is nothing but a toothless old lizard. He can harm us none. He's judged the deed is done. One commentator notes, "No other dragon was made to look so ridiculous. There he stands, great and  ferocious with his seven heads and ten horns, before a woman who is helpless in the pains of childbirth. One would expect that he would lose no time in killing the mother..." But he can't. He's helpless. 
        The victory is ours through Christ, our knight in shining armor who rescued us from the dragon. This is why we can rejoice at Christmas and sing. There is peace on earth between us and God. He does have goodwill toward men on whom his favor rests through Jesus, his Son. And you can rejoice even if you can't be home for the holidays, even if you don't get the gift you've been hoping for, even if a loved one's sick or the bills and the debt try to rob you of that joy. For our Savior has defeated the dragon and he's coming again very soon to take us to live with him in heaven happily ever after. Amen.