BISHOP ROBERT BARRON: The mysterious fourth Christmas story of heaven battling evil
There are three well-known accounts of Christmas in the New Testament. We have St. John’s austerely metaphysical version ("The Word became flesh and dwelt among us."). And we have the more narratively dense tellings in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Unique to Matthew is the reference to the Bethlehem star, the massacre of the innocents, and the visit of the Magi. And peculiar to Luke are mentions of the census, the stable, the swaddling clothes, the shepherds and the angels. Most of us, when we imagine or depict Christmas, manage to mash together Luke’s and Matthew’s renderings.
But there is a fourth Christmas story in the New Testament, though it is rarely appreciated as such. Found in the twelfth chapter of the book of Revelation, it makes no reference to shepherds, Magi, or swaddling clothes, but it does speak of a birth and of a dragon. The portrayal of Christmas in the Revelation is not abstractly metaphysical but it is not straightforwardly narrative either; rather, it is highly symbolic and apocalyptic. One might say that it is the view of Christmas from God’s perspective, from the highest possible point of vantage.
Chapter 12 of the book of Revelation commences as follows: "A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars." Catholic interpreters have consistently read this figure as the Virgin Mary, and this is confirmed by what comes next: "She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth."
Here is the Blessed Mother, summing up in her person the whole history of Israel (hence the 12 stars, suggestive of the 12 tribes), about to deliver the long-awaited Messiah. But then we hear of an opponent, a cosmic foil: "Another portent appeared in heaven: a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns."
The purpose of this fearsome beast was entirely malevolent: "the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born." We are meant to see something of extraordinary significance in this awful threat, namely, that the arrival of the Son of God is met with enormous resistance by the dark and fallen spiritual powers.
Jesus represents God’s rescue operation, his attempt to set right his fallen creation. And this means that those forces, both visible and invisible, that have a vested interest in maintaining the world as it is will go to any length to stop him.
With this interpretive key in mind, we can read Luke’s more familiar account with fresh eyes. Mary and Joseph are making their way to Bethlehem, not of their own accord, but because a domineering emperor has ordered a census of the whole world.
TEXAS CHURCH DEPICTS HOLY FAMILY IN CAGE WRAPPED IN BARBED WIRE IN NATIVITY DISPLAY
When they come to the inn seeking shelter, they are turned away. The newborn child is wrapped in swaddling clothes, which the fathers of the church read as an anticipation of the burial cloths that will, some 30 years later, wrap his dead body. He is laid in a manger, the place where the animals eat, for he will, at the conclusion of his life, offer his body and blood in atonement for sin.
Within days of his birth, his parents spirit him away, for Herod is desperately trying to kill him. In a word, the Christmas tale is not a charming story that we tell to children; instead, it is redolent of the great spiritual struggle, the war between good and evil that plays out in arenas both seen and unseen.
Does all of this leave us frightened or discouraged? Absolutely not — and the fourth Christmas story makes this plain. We hear that the woman clothed with the sun gave birth to "a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron." Instead of being consumed by the dragon, he is snatched away and brought to the throne of God. The meaning is clear: this child will win the great war; through him, God will restore his creation; by him, God will establish his rule in the world.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION
We are then told that after the baby is taken away, "war arose out in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels fought back but they were defeated." The baby king masters the dark powers.
And now let us look again at Luke’s account. The evangelist tells us that an angel appeared the night of Jesus’ birth to shepherds keeping watch in the field. As is typical, the reaction to the manifestation of this other-worldly power is fear. Then, appearing with this fearsome reality is "a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying Glory to God in the highest."
The Greek term rendered here as "host" is "stratias," which means "army." Our words "strategy" and "strategic" come from it. Mary and Joseph were compelled to go to Bethlehem because of an order given by the man with the biggest army in the world, but the heavenly army of the baby king is far greater, far stronger.
C.S. Lewis understood this dynamic very well, which is why he commented that God came into the world the way he did — quietly, unobtrusively, as a helpless child — because he had to sneak clandestinely behind enemy lines. We are all beset by evil in its various forms, wickedness that we can see and wickedness that we cannot see. We all feel threatened by the dragon. The good news of Christmas is that the victorious king has arrived, and so we don’t have to be afraid.