By: Pastor Lars
I enjoy a good dragon story. I remember reading excitedly about the mythological many-headed Hydra, Beowulf’s fight with the dragon, Tolkien’s Smaug in The Hobbit, and Lewis’ Eustace-turned-dragon in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
I used to have a large poster in my workshop of a sky-scraper-sized dragon blowing fire at a single shield-bearing knight. They stood on a battlefield filled with the smouldering rubble of the dragon’s conquest. The tenacity of the knight and the apparent hopeless-ness of the scenario made me wonder how the artist imagined the scene would end. Would the knight be overwhelmed or somehow win?
Here, in brief, is the best dragon story. I read it this week in Revelation 12:
There was a great seven-headed red dragon who gathered an evil army from the stars. He stood ready to devour the newborn child of a magnificent pregnant woman who was crowned with stars and clothed with the sun. But when this special child—one who would “rule all the nations” (Rev. 12:5)—was born, God snatched him away from the dragon’s jaws and brought him safely to his throne in heaven.
Isn’t this a unique way of telling the Christmas story? The dragon story continues:
The magnificent woman, seeing her danger, fled into the wilderness while the dragon incited a doomed war on heaven itself. The dragon with its army was thrown down to earth, its defeat was broadcast, and salvation was announced through the arrival of the child’s kingdom. Those who love the child more than their own lives are declared to be conquerors of the dragon. Heaven celebrates victory while the world braces for trouble since the dragon has come down “in great wrath because he knows that his time is short!” (Rev. 12:12)
What an unexpected way to tell the Easter story! The child is called the “Lamb” (Rev. 12:11) and the text clarifies that the dragon is indeed “the devil and Satan” (Rev. 12:9). And still the dragon story continues:
The great red dragon, unable to devour the child or conquer heaven, hunts the magnifi-cent woman relentlessly across the earth, but God rescues her. Impotent in all his pursuits, the dragon’s fury turns to “the rest of her offspring … who … hold to the testimony of Jesus” (Rev. 12:17).
This dragon story turns out to be a surprisingly applicable summary of human history. Satan, it turns out, is a muzzled accuser; an exposed deceiver; a frustrated dragon. All he can do is rage against us—Jesus’ church. But even this he does while standing “on the sand of the sea” (Rev. 12:17)—on the unsteady sandy ground at the edge of the sea’s imminent chaos. He cannot win. We cannot lose.
Are you wondering if your shield will hold up to whatever fiery inferno is coming at you? I sometimes wonder that too. But this—the best dragon story—reminds me that we can start learning how to smile, even in the heat of dragon fire, because we walk with Jesus.
“For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” 2 Corinthians 5:1
“And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testi-mony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them!” Revelation 12:11-12a
