Jesus and the Dragons

I've been reading a book called "The Other Gospels" every morning, which is a book containing all (or a large portion of) the stories of Jesus that for various reasons did not make it into the Bible.  Some of the stories in these writings are very similar to the ones you might find in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John while others are quite different and seemingly outrageous.

(Like, CRAZY things.)

Some of the letters were written quite early (the 1st and 2nd centuries, close to the time that the 4 Gospels in our Bible were written) while others were written much later (the 6th / 7th centuries), for they were often revisions or rewrites of earlier documents with some new stories added or older stories tweaked.

Anyways.

I recently finished reading "The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew" which dates somewhere around the mid-7th century and seems to be a rewrite or a revised edition of "The Proto-Gospel of James", which was written in the late 2nd century.  Both Gospels contain the story of Mary (Jesus' Mother) as an infant and her journey to growing up to become the mother of the Messiah.

At the end of this Gospel Mary, Joseph, and Jesus have narrowly escaped the wrath of King Herod who unleashed his fury by commanding soldiers to kill every male child 2 years and younger in Bethlehem.

We know this story from the 4 Gospels we're most familiar with, right?  Nothing new here.

King Herod was ticked off that another "King" had been born and since his ego was so fragile he felt incredibly insecure and afraid that some baby would grow up to overtake his thrown and so he sent soldiers into the streets to find all of the male babies who were 2 years and younger so that they could be taken from their parents and murdered.

Nice guy.

(** By the way, this event likely never happened as there is little to no historical or archeological evidence, but that's a story for another day.)

And so we find this same event happening in The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew where Herod sends the soldiers out to kill the babies, but Joseph was warned in a dream to hightail it out of there and head to Egypt where they would be safe for the time being ... and this is where the story takes an unexpected turn.

On the way to the Egypt the Gospel says that they arrived in a cave to cool themselves off.  They were hanging out and relaxing for a bit and a few servants were with them tending to Mary and Jesus when suddenly "many dragons came out of the cave."

Dragons?

Yes, DRAGONS.  

(This is so much better than the Bible, people - we have DRAGONS.)

The dragons came out of hiding and I guess they were roaring or maybe they were breathing fire - who knows.  But whatever they were doing, they were there, they were loud, and they were about to have some lunch.

That is until Jesus (not even 2 years old at the time, mind you) "roused himself, got to his feet, and stood in front of them."

Woah.

Wait?

Yes, the text says that baby Jesus stood up and defiantly faced the dragon - eye to eye, nose to nose.

"Are you roaring at me?"

"What are you gonna do?"

"You wanna go?"

"We gonna do this right now?"

I told you these stories were outrageous, but I love them - isn't this wild?

Anyways, so text says that after Jesus got up and faced them the dragons "worshiped him and when they finished, they went away" and that all of this was done to fulfill Psalm 148:7 which says, "praise the Lord from the earth, O dragons and all the places of the abyss."

I love this story because even though it's not "true" in the sense of historical accuracy, it's still "true" (which is how most of the Bible is meant to work, I think).

Isn't it?

Because.

I mean.

The Christ has certainly tamed some dragons in my life.  Maybe he's done the same for you?  There have been plenty of times where I've been resting in the coolness of a cave ...

Lost in a Netflix series.

Halfway through a gallon of ice cream.

Staring off into space.

On a long car drive, trying to clear my head.

... just trying to gather myself and my sanity after a tiring season of life only to be overtaken by a dragon breathing out flames of fear of the future or regrets over mistakes from my past.

Do you have fears?  Regrets?  Thoughts that haunt you in the night?

"How am I going to make this work?"

"Where will the money come from?"

"What if my loved one doesn't get better?"

Anxiety races.

Heart rate sky rockets.

Has this ever happened to you?  These internal dragons?  Have they ever snuck up on you?

And sometimes "deconstruction" can feel like a fire breathing dragon, can't it?  Whew.  Tell me about it!  Sometimes the questions and doubts and uncertainties over the beliefs of my past life are relentless and the more I voice them the more the dragons of family, friends, old church friends, etc. seem to come out of the cave to breath their fiery accusations.

As much as I've faced these dragons, though, and as long as their fire sometimes seem to last ... I can honestly say that each and every time (whether it took a few hours or a few months or a few years), The Christ has helped calm the dragons within me and send them away so that I could experience moments and glimpses of peace and calm in the midst of my inner storms.  

This is the Good News, I think ... isn't it?  That we are never alone, that The Christ is with us always - inside of us and all around us - always there, not so much to snap his fingers and make life all better, but to come along side of us and face the dragons within us, helping us to bring them into submission, and helping us experience a sense of peace and inner calm.

I hope you can experience some peace and calm today.

I'd highly recommend picking up "The Other Gospels".  The stories are wild and different, but you will hear the unmistakeable voice of the Spirit calling to you from within them.  You won't be sorry.

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