Today, according to some accounts, is the Feast of the Holy Innocents. The Holy Innocents are those boys under the age of two who Herod (out of fear of coming King of the Jews) killed in Bethlehem. Many traditions regard these masacred children to be the first martyrs, for they (in a very literal sense) were killed because of Christ.

The basic story can be found in Matthew 2:13-20:

When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

“A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.”

After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”

The story serves as a reminder of what can happen when authority is challenged by the Kingdom of God. Today is as good a day as any to lament the loss of innocent life in our world–to cry out on behalf of those children in our world who have been beaten to death, starved to death, worked to death, aborted, or neglected to death.

Let us grieve. Let us remember what ugliness the powerful can sometimes embrace in their desire to maintain power. Let us mourn the oppressions of children in the Holy Land that continue to this day.

Today, let us remember that so many of the victims of oppression and war are children. Let us remember that our Lord Jesus Christ entered into the world as an oppressed baby amidst a time of bloodshed and violent repression. And let us imagine that the Christ was being born into every region or city experiencing violence and death.

About Mark Van Steenwyk

Mark Van Steenwyk is a member of Missio Dei. He is a speaker, writer, educator, and grassroots organizer. With the support of the Central Plains Mennonite Conference, he travels to radical and intentional communities around the country to help network and offer support.