Kill the Dragon, Get the Girl
“Kill the Dragon! Get the Girl!”
This is the central story of Scripture. A dragon, a bride to be won, and a king who comes to accomplish this great end. It is the story of Christmas told by John in Revelation 12 with all the glorious imagery of the Apocalypse. We’ve sentimentalized the other gospel tellings with Christmas pageants and Peanuts Christmas specials, but John’s telling is strange and wonderful and terrible.
John gives us a dragon, a woman, and a child whose birth will mean the end of the dragon. There is a flood of rage, an open earth, and angelic warfare. The whole thing is pretty marvelous. At the center is the conquering of a dragon, and this is the meaning of Christmas.
The terror of dragons is no small thing, and the need for someone to come to rescue us from this particular dragon is great. Of all the troubles we might find in humanity, this is the root of them all. Here is our primal enemy, the serpent-dragon of the garden, the cursed one who seeks to devour and destroy. John tells us that this dragon has been doing two things from the very beginning: Accusing God’s people day and night and deceiving all humanity.
The dragon does not come like a bogeyman at night. He does not burn cities with fire or horde gold in mountains. No, his devouring work is done through accusations and lies. The Bible’s assessment of our troubles is far simpler and far more incisive than our current social, psychological and political assessments and solutions. Our trouble is that we have been and are still deceived, and that we stand accused.
From the beginning the great serpent has been twisting God’s words, undermining their authority, questioning their meaning, turning men and women to distrust what God says.. To twist God’s words is to twist our very understanding of God himself. In the garden the question stood - “is that what God really said?” Did he really mean that? And so, for centuries now, humanity has disregarded God’s words, mocked God’s words, dismissed God’s words, softened God’s words and otherwise failed to simply come and receive his words - all of his words.
This terrible deception has always had one great end, one great effect: to displace God from his place at the center of all reality, and particularly from his throne, from his authority. Man becomes the measure of all things. Men become the standard of righteousness, of justice, and of morality and love. In the past, paganism has masked this displacement with idols and Superman gods, but in our day secular humanism has made the displacement fixed and explicit. God and his religion, if he exists at all, exists to serve humanity and our ends.
Everyday this lie is told and embraced. Our great project of a humanistic utopia feels possible. With God’s standards out of the way, we might find ourselves to be righteous and moral and just. We might express love far better than some ancient religion with frightening moral judgments. So we sit in judgment on our ancestors for the deceptions they accepted, while embracing our own lies with even greater vigor.
In addition to this great deception, the dragon has stood before the Judge of all the Earth accusing us day and night. Humanity is deceived and so humanity seeks to cast off the words of God and so the Dragon points day and night in the presence of God at our rebellion. The trouble is that we really have sinned. We really do seek to be our own gods. His accusations are accurate. We have been deceived and we have warmly embraced these deceptions which are destroying us, our world and one another.
The story of Christmas told in Revelation 12 is that the coming of Jesus means the dragon is cast down and overcome. We feast for 12 days because the birth of this king marks the end of his deceptions and his accusations for all those who “dwell in heaven” - a code in Revelation for those who worship the Lamb. How is this dragon overcome? Two things are described as defeating the dragon’s work: The blood of this Child-King and the Testimony of God’s people.
First, the accusations of the dragon, before the throne are silenced. His accusations are no longer heard in God’s throne room. You see, they have all been paid for, they have all been atoned for with the death of this king on the cross. The dragon is cast out of the throne room because his accusations will no longer be heard by our God.
Secondly, the lies of the dragon are overcome by the truth-telling testimony of God’s people. When the church gathers to sing songs that are true, to confess things that are true, to hear the Word that is true, the dragon’s lies are overcome, his deceptions undone. When God’s people love God’s words and testify to God’s words and trust God’s words and obey God’s words in the midst of the nations, lies are shown to be lies.
This is, at least one reason why the gathered worship of the church is so vital to us and to our world: Here are a people who gather to give testimony to what is true. In a world overrun with humanistic lies, here is the truth declared and loved with joy and gladness. And in this repeated testimony of the Lamb’s people, the dragon is overcome.
So continue your feasting and celebrating on this 5th day of Christmastide. It is one more testimony in the midst of a world that only seems dark, of what is actually true: the light has dawned. The Dragon’s accusations have been silenced. His lies are, well, lies, for look! We have eggnog, and presents and Christmas lights. A Child-King has been born, whose blood has dealt utterly with our sin and who is the True Word, spoken by the Father and sung by his people.