Sacred Mother

Revelation 12: The Most High sends the Sacred Mother to earth to bear the Lamb as Christ. The dragon attempts to destroy them both. Jesus returns to heaven, but the Sacred Mother remains with us to sustain that which is good.

The Pregnant Earth image is made available by Gideon Wright under the WikiCommons License.

My geeky classmates were awed by the original Star Wars. The critics were less impressed. It wasn’t just the flaws in the special effects. They saw the movie as just another Western – though the heroes rode land speeders instead of horses, and the bad guys lacked any motivation beyond “Hey: I want to rule the galaxy! And why not? I have a Death Star!”

The deeper question came into focus only when Luke goes into the tree while studying with Yoda. In the vision, Darth Vader announces “Luke, I am your father.” This is a serious human question: how does a son avoid his father’s mistakes? In the original trilogy – chapters 4 through 6 of the series – the answer seems clear: a son’s loyalty changes his father’s heart.

But if compassion was strong enough in Darth Vader to save his son, how did he ever become so evil? That story is told in episodes 1-3.

Anakin’s corruption happened one small choice at a time, but if asked to pick a pivotal moment, many might see it in episode two, when Anakin avenges his mother’s death. To me, it occurs later. My heart broke for Amidala when she gazed across the Imperial Capital towards the emperor’s quarters. She was pouring her love and strength out to Anakin, and disaster fell because he was unable to receive it.

That grace of that feminine support has fallen out of favor in our society. Indeed, the final trilogy of the Star Wars series celebrates women as warriors: Leia as commander of the resistance, and Rey as Jedi.

If I seem disappointed, please don’t think that I disapprove of women who are strong and assertive.

No, it is something else entirely. Woman should receive the masculine virtues. That’s good. But there is a part of God that sustains. It is feminine, and it deserves honor and celebration just as the masculine part deserves honor and celebration.

As a fairly masculine person, I yearn so powerfully for that presence. It presents itself as a shy smile and averted eyes, or as widened eyes with lips parted. The feeling is of being accepted – not passively, but with a trembling that threatens my composure. It is a feeling of every fiber of her being announcing “Yes! Yes! More of this!” A plea that throws down my will, that immolates all my mighty plans, that brings me to submission by illuminating in me strength that I did not even know existed.

Rather than the masculine “Look at me!” it is “Look at you!”

Brewster Kingman was one of the elite Americans that joined their brothers in combat during World War II. Those men now lionize themselves as “The Greatest Generation.” Kingman himself knew where the credit lay. He said {I paraphrase):

My generation was blessed by the devotion of our mothers before the war, and of our wives afterward.

In chapters 4-7 of Revelation, we saw that God planned to use the living creatures to change the angels – to heal them of the selfishness that prevents them from receiving Unconditional Love. To do that, the Most High must change the angels while sustaining the good. The changing part is masculine. The sustaining part is feminine.

In Revelation 7, the 12 masculine elders sent 144,000 angels to earth to do the changing. In Chapter 10, we see the union of that power in Christ.

But what of the 12 feminine elders? They must have a role, because as God says in Genesis:

It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.

[NIV Rev. 2:18]

Revelation 12 finally reveals Christ’s partner in the great work of the Most High.

A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.

[NIV Rev. 12:1]

For personal reasons, this is my favorite verse in all the Bible. As before, the “stars” are angels – the virtues of the feminine elders are joined in this woman.

The woman is pregnant, and delivers “a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” A terrible dragon tries to devour the child, but he is “snatched up to God and his throne.”

Obviously the child is Christ.

Chapters 8 to 14 of Revelation explain how love worked through the living creatures – the animals of Earth. In Chapters 8 through 11, we hear the story of the extinction episodes announced by the seven trumpets. The story ends in victory, but there was a gap left between the end of the dinosaurs in Chapter 9 and the victory of faith in Chapters 10 and 11. We learned at the end of Chapter 9 that the angels that controlled the dinosaurs infected the mammals. How was that infection overcome?

The answer is so stunning that John is given it twice. The first telling is from the perspective of the sacred mother. When she leaves heaven to come to earth, the dragon appears, sweeping a third of the angels (described as “stars”) out of heaven. After the woman gives birth, she “fled into the desert” for “1,260 days” – which we know to be the time from Christ’s ascension to his return.

The second telling is the serpent’s story.

And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven.

[NIV Rev. 12:7-8]

John hears a loud voice proclaim:

They overcame him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much
as to shrink from death.

[NIV Rev. 12:11]

Again the dragon pursues the woman. She escapes, but the enraged dragon makes war against her children. As the loud voice warns:

But woe to the earth and the sea,
because the devil has gone down to you!
He is filled with fury,
because he knows his time is short.

[NIV Rev. 12:12]

Let’s try to relate this back to the story of the Lamb told in Revelation 5-6. The Most High created the lamb with perfect loyalty and courage.

Because of that, the Lamb could break the seals of the scroll without becoming infected by selfishness. Instead, selfishness is sent down to the Earth. For billions of years, it was dominant.

But the earth was what police call a “honey pot.” A honey pot is a something wanted by a criminal that is left in the open, but when the criminal takes it, the police sweep in to capture them.

In one case here in Los Angeles, for example, the police called many criminals to tell them that they had won a contest. When they were gathered together, the police arrested them.

The earth was a honey pot for the selfish angels. While here, they tried on new shapes and competed for control, but over time they forgot how to survive without bodies. They could no longer escape the Earth.

This is when the Most High chose to send the Sacred Mother to earth to bear the Lamb as Christ. Love comes down to earth, and the dragon is terrified.

He knows that if the will of Christ cannot be broken, then love will conquer the earth, leaving him nothing.

While the dragon is distracted, the Most High completes the first half of his task: Michael and his brothers force selfishness out of heaven.

Well, good for heaven, but that really sucks for those of us here on earth. Just remember one thing though: Christ returned to heaven, but the Sacred Mother remained, keeping with her all those feminine virtues – the virtues that sustain what is good.

Let’s summarize this week’s study.

In Revelation 12, the feminine virtues gather in heaven to birth the Lamb into the world as Christ. Taking the shape of its favorite creatures – the dinosaurs – selfishness attempts to devour Christ and defeat the Sacred Mother. Instead, the dragon is hurled down from heaven.

Christ is called back up to heaven, but the Sacred Mother remains to give courage to those that confront the enraged dragon. Her feminine virtues sustain

…her offspring, those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

[NIV Rev. 12:17]

Well, at least we know now why loving hurts so much. The dragon is trying to beat it out of us! Will he succeed?