I believe it is decidedly unoriginal to say that something
out of the book of Revelation is bizarre, but I’m going to anyway: the twelfth
chapter of Revelation is really bizarre!
It is especially true during Advent that people are
often inundated with renderings of Christ's birth from the
gospels of Matthew and Luke. Not often, however, do we Christians flip our texts to the back end of the New Testament in order to read the other nativity story. You
know, it’s the one with a seven-headed dragon, it has a woman crowned with stars who is also dressed in the sun, and it has an epic spiritual battle between archangels, angels,
and demons!
While there are many things that could (and have been said) about
the meaning, plot, and theological nuances of Revelation 12, there is one
thing presented there that, to me, is not only the central message
of the chapter but also encompasses within it a key aspect of the Advent
season. That thing is the idea of the "in-between." That is to say, for me, this chapter highlights the notion that we are living in-between two Advents!
Let me give you an example of what I mean. In the last few years, when I ruminate
on the nativity depicted in Revelation 12, my mind often lands on a friend I had a few
years back whom I met working at a soup kitchen in Juarez, MX. In homage to the
season, I will refer to her as Mary (that is not her actual name). When I met Mary, she and her husband were
expecting a child. With our every encounter, my team and I were struck at how she beamed because of her jubilant expectation of her baby! And, as we grew closer with Mary and her family, our group of
friends experienced many joys in the anticipated arrival of
the newborn. There were excited conversations about their home's rearrangement and newly purchased furniture, there was a growing belly, there were complaints of aches and
morning sickness, and occasionally one of our female friends would even palm Mary’s
abdomen convinced the little one was kicking her hand.
We were so very happy for Mary, and it was truly an exciting time for all of us!
Soon, however, we started to notice that Mary was having troubling interactions with some of the other workers at the soup kitchen. She was having weirdly confrontational conversations with some of the other ladies there. At first, my colleagues and I
just noticed some subtle things. When Mary would talk about her baby in
front of certain people, there would be a huff or an eye roll or a head shake.
It seemed a little rude, but my Spanish has never been great. So, I just assumed I had lost something in the language and was misunderstanding their
reactions. Not long thereafter, though, we began to see instances where Mary, obviously
distraught, would leave the soup kitchen early after speaking with some of these
ladies. Then one day, in the dusty concrete structure that served as our
mess hall, we found Mary alone, crying, and angry. When we asked her why she
was so upset, she would only tell us that one of the ladies had said something
incredibly mean to her.
My friends and I decided it was time to get to the
bottom of it all.
So, the next time we were working to prepare lunch, we slyly tried to probe the woman who had supposedly said these things
to Mary. This took almost no prodding on our part! She was all too keen to let us know that she and some of the other workers believed Mary was a
liar! They were convinced she was manipulating people into buying her gifts!
They recounted how Mary
had claimed to be pregnant many times before and never had a baby! They said she would
occasionally come to the soup kitchen claiming that she was with child. And, for the first couple times, the ladies celebrated and
prepared with Mary. Each time she did not produce a child, they assumed she had miscarried. But, this pregnancy was the fourth or fifth iteration of
her tale. So, the women had begun to believe her to be a grifter vying for
the sympathies and spoils of rich Americans who would come to serve in the soup kitchen.
None of this made much sense to me. Mary was not poor in the
way others were in the neighborhood. She was not desperate or starving. She never inquired about
handouts or the like. Her husband had a steady job. They had a large
comfortable home (at least in comparison to her friends and neighbors). She
was usually generous with both her time and money. In fact, by my memory, I was
more often on the receiving end of her hospitality and generosity than the
other way around. So, I was more than skeptical of what these women at the soup
kitchen were telling me.
I just didn’t see evidence that the pregnancy was faked. Nevertheless, when it came time for her to
deliver, she simply disappeared.
We tried for weeks, but we could not get a hold of her. Maintaining
hope, I convinced myself that she was simply recuperating from childbirth and
tried to stave-off dread that something terrible had happened during the delivery. Then after a few weeks, with a hung head and a gaze devoid of eye contact,
she came around to see us.
She admitted that she did not have a baby, that she was never
actually pregnant, and that this was not the first time such a thing had
happened (something she had never told us before). By her telling, every time
she thought she was pregnant, she was really convinced that she was! Her body
would go through the changes, she would feel the baby growing within
her, and a sense of expectation would progress in her household. But each time,
when birth pangs began, she would rush to the doctor only to arduously find out
that her womb was empty. Then, her “symptoms” of pregnancy would slowly
dissipate. I have often wondered how she could get so far along before she or
any doctor realized that she was having a false pregnancy, but it is not
uncommon for women in her area and economic standing to not have the best, or
any, access to proper medical care. And although, as I mentioned, she and her
husband were better off than many in the area, they would still be considered
deeply impoverished by U.S. standards. I also think that after the first couple times this happened, it became harder and harder for Mary to face the possibility of a false pregnancy happening again. Thus, she likely avoided normal medical checkups in order to avoid hearing the inevitable.
Regardless, the truth is I believed her. I still do. At the time, I ached in sympathy with her pain. And now, raising my own children and having had the
amazing opportunity to anticipate their coming, my heart actually breaks when I
remember walking with her through this situation. I can’t imagine the pain she
and her family must have felt when hopes for a child were dashed.
When I think of her now, in connection with Revelation 12, I
cannot help but think that this situation poignantly illustrates what
Revelation means to tell us and what a large part of Advent means to remind us
– we are in the in-between! The majority of Revelation 12 is spent narrating how
Satan is defeated in the heavenly realm until he is finally thrown to earth where he pursues the mother of the Christ child and wages
war against “those who keep God’s command and hold fast their testimony about
Jesus Christ.” In Contrast, the chapter also tells us that the Christ child was
snatched up to the throne of God, which is meant to show Jesus’ true reign in the
post-resurrection/ ascension era. In addition, Revelation 12 also says that “[believers] triumphed over [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of
their testimony!" [it. added]. Through all these points, there is a real tension that John (the author of the book) highlights: On the one hand, we ought to expect the hardship that comes from an
enemy who continually wages war against us (physically, psychologically, and spiritually), and yet on the other we have the
hope and assurance that the victory is already won.
That is to say, there is tension because we live in-between
two Advents. Christ has come, and He will come again!
Christ inaugurated his
Kingdom when He rose, and He will consummate it at His return! In the
meantime, 1 Peter 5:8-9 tells us, and I believe Revelation 12 confirms, that
our enemy prowls around like a lion seeking to devour us! And, although we are assured in the power and salvation afforded by the blood of the Lamb, we also continually wait for Him to finish what He started; We wait for him to return. Thus, Advent reminds us, especially as we anticipate Christmas
Day, that we perpetually wait for Jesus to come again!
Was my friend Mary’s ordeal a spiritual attack, a
mental ailment, or simply a by-product of a broken creation? I am not wholly sure. Maybe, it was partly all of these things. What I am sure of is what Revelation 12 tells us. It says that the dragon's “time
is short,” which is part of our great hope! So, I have always held that same hope that Mary was able to find real healing in
the wake of the tragic loss of her baby, even if her child only ever existed in
her mind. Even more than that, I am prayerfully that she, and all of us in this season, are able to cling to a different sense of expectation as we await the second arrival of our Lord.
In all this, I am confident there will come a time when our
damn-ed creation will breathe anew. There will come a time when Mary’s pain will be replaced with joy
and everlasting love. There will come a time when the tears of loss will be forgotten, for He
will have wiped them away. In that time, there will be no more mourning or
crying or pain.
