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<\/a><\/p>\nWhat we know about the nativity of Jesus comes from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.\u00a0 Mark starts his account of Christ with His baptism, and John goes back as far as possible for His origin:\u00a0 \u201c\u00a0<\/span>In the beginning was\u00a0the Word, and\u00a0the Word was with God, and\u00a0the Word was God\u201d (John 1:1).\u00a0 Then, like Mark, John jumps to John the Baptist.<\/p>\n But John does write about the Christ Child, not in his Gospel but in the Book of Revelation.<\/p>\n Like everything in that description of a vision, the account is enigmatic and mysterious.\u00a0 But it\u2019s John\u2019s Christmas story.\u00a0 And it\u2019s also about us today:<\/p>\n And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman\u00a0clothed with\u00a0the sun, with\u00a0the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.<\/span>\u00a02\u00a0<\/sup>She was pregnant and\u00a0was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth.<\/span>\u00a03\u00a0<\/sup>And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great\u00a0red dragon,\u00a0with seven heads and\u00a0ten horns, and on his heads\u00a0seven diadems.<\/span>\u00a04\u00a0<\/sup>His tail swept down\u00a0a third of the stars of heaven and\u00a0cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child\u00a0he might devour it.<\/span>\u00a05\u00a0<\/sup>She gave birth to a male child,\u00a0one who is to rule\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was\u00a0caught up to God and to his throne,<\/span>\u00a06\u00a0<\/sup>and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for\u00a01,260 days.\u00a0 (Rev. 12:1-6)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Most of the attention given to this passage has to do with the identity of the woman.\u00a0 We\u2019ll discuss that controversy later.\u00a0 But most commentators agree that the child \u201cwho is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron\u201d is Jesus.<\/p>\n This passage describes the great hatred that the dragon, explicitly identified as Satan, has for Christ.\u00a0 How he sought to kill the child, recalling his servant Herod and the slaughter of the innocents.\u00a0 All through the child\u2019s life, Satan tried to \u201cdevour him,\u201d until Christ\u2019s Ascension.\u00a0 Whereupon this \u201cdragon\u201d is defeated and \u201cthrown down.\u201d<\/p>\n Even though Satan is defeated and thwarted, he continues to persecute the woman and \u201cthe rest of her offspring\u201d; namely, us Christians:<\/p>\n 7\u00a0<\/sup>Now war arose in heaven,\u00a0Michael and\u00a0his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back,<\/span>\u00a08\u00a0<\/sup>but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.<\/span>\u00a09\u00a0<\/sup>And\u00a0the great dragon was thrown down,\u00a0that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan,\u00a0the deceiver of the whole world\u2014he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.<\/span>\u00a0. . .<\/p>\n 13\u00a0<\/sup>And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued\u00a0the woman who had given birth to the male child.<\/span>\u00a014\u00a0<\/sup>But the woman was given the two\u00a0wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent\u00a0into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished\u00a0for a time, and times, and half a time.<\/span>\u00a015\u00a0<\/sup>The serpent poured water\u00a0like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood.<\/span>\u00a016\u00a0<\/sup>But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth.<\/span>\u00a017\u00a0<\/sup>Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off\u00a0to make war on the rest of\u00a0her offspring,\u00a0on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to\u00a0the testimony of Jesus. <\/span>\u00a0(Rev. 7-9; 13-17)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So who is the woman who gives birth to the child?\u00a0 The Virgin Mary?\u00a0 Catholics certainly think so<\/a>.\u00a0 They see in the \u201cwoman\u00a0clothed with\u00a0the sun, with\u00a0the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars\u201d the Queen of Heaven, whom they portray in their iconography as standing on the crescent moon with stars in her hair.\u00a0 (I had heard that the medieval depictions of Mary with the moon under her feet derive from depictions of the pagan moon-goddess Diana, which is evidence that the veneration of the Virgin Mary is simply a displacement of early European goddess-worship.\u00a0 But the imagery clearly derives instead from this passage.)<\/span><\/p>\n And yet, this passage does not completely accord with Catholic Mariology.\u00a0 This woman \u201cwas crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth.\u201d\u00a0 Catholics believe that Mary had an \u201cimmaculate conception,\u201d so that she was born without original sin.\u00a0 That means that she was not under the curse of Eve, which included \u201cpain in childbearing\u201d (Gen 3:16).\u00a0 Thus, Catholic piety insists that she experienced no pain<\/a> in giving birth to Jesus.<\/span><\/p>\n A Protestant reading could also allow for the woman to be the Virgin Mary.\u00a0 We know that Jesus on the Cross entrusted His mother to John\u2019s care (John 19:17).\u00a0 Revelation is said to have been written by John when he was at an advanced age.\u00a0 By then, Mary would have died\u2013or, as Catholics believe, ascended into Heaven, since her lack of original sin meant that she was not under the sentence of death\u2013and John would have surely thought of her as being in Heaven.<\/p>\n Yet the passage goes on to describe the dragon\u2019s persecution of the woman in extended and elaborate conflicts.\u00a0 We don\u2019t know how Satan might have tormented Mary after her Son\u2019s Ascension, but what Revelation describes here sounds more universal.\u00a0 The dragon is also making war \u201con the rest of her offspring,\u201d clearly identified as \u201cthose who keep the commandments of God and hold to\u00a0the testimony of Jesus\u201d; that is on Christians.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure that even Catholics would consider Christians to be \u201coffspring\u201d of Mary.<\/span><\/p>\n This leads to other interpretations of the woman\u2019s identity.\u00a0 Some say she represents the Church.\u00a0 But the Book of Revelation depicts the Church as Christ\u2019s bride, not His mother.\u00a0 And surely the Church doesn\u2019t bring forth Christ; rather, He brings forth the Church.\u00a0 Others interpret the woman as Israel.\u00a0 Certainly, Satan has persecuted the Jews since Christ\u2019s ascension, but, as a group, they have not been in league with Jesus.<\/p>\n The Lutheran Study Bible probably gives the best answer in saying that she represents \u201cGod\u2019s People,\u201d both in the Old Testament and in the age of the Church.\u00a0 The Jews did give birth to Christ, and the Church was being severely persecuted at the time of John\u2019s vision and thereafter, including today.\u00a0 Then again, as Al Collver<\/a> of the LCMS points out, the Virgin Mary is a type of the Church, the New Israel, so perhaps the symbols all come together.<\/p>\n At any rate, the message of Christmas is unambiguously given in John\u2019s account:<\/p>\n 10\u00a0<\/sup>And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, \u201cNow\u00a0the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers[b<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0has been thrown down,\u00a0who accuses them day and night before our God.<\/span>\u00a011\u00a0<\/sup>And\u00a0they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for\u00a0they loved not their lives\u00a0even unto death.<\/span>\u00a012\u00a0<\/sup>Therefore,\u00a0rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them!\u00a0 (Rev 12:10-12)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n