The Holy Innocents

If God is all powerful and good then how can there be evil in the world? No doubt you’ve heard this question before. Either God is good but powerless to prevent evil, or he is all powerful but the existence of evil proves that he is not good. From the time of Job until now, believers and unbelievers alike have been wrestling with this question in one form or another. Nearly every textbook that explains the Christian faith has a chapter devoted to the problem of suffering. And you too, especially if you’re over twenty, likely have a chapter devoted to suffering in your life. If not, you will. No one escapes. We all suffer because of sin and evil. And this manifests in many ways – sickness, disease, chronic pain, barrenness, broken relationships, betrayal, divorce, theft, murder, and finally death.

Death, the violent tearing apart of body from soul, is the ultimate expression of evil, and all men, even unbelievers, recognize in their hearts that death is wrong. It’s not the way things should be. It’s not natural. It’s not part of the circle of life. Death is evil. And this is never more apparent than with the death of a young child. When a four-year-old dies of cancer or is murdered, our collective sensibilities are outraged. We cry out for justice and we look for someone to blame. In the face of such evil, even atheists add their voices to the age-old question, “How could a good God take the life of this innocent child?”

This question may have been on the lips of the mothers of the holy innocents of Bethlehem. God sent an angel to warn Joseph and the Holy Family to flee, but the other families received no warning. We don’t know exactly how many children Herod murdered. Scholars estimate that there were perhaps twenty male infants in the small town of Bethlehem. Even if there was only one child it is still a horrific tragedy. These children are rightly called “innocent” in the sense that they had no claim on Herod’s throne. They were no threat to him. None of them would have grown up to be the new King. None of them was Jesus. They were innocent of the crime for which they were murdered. Yet they were not innocent in the sense that they were without sin. They were not innocent before God. They were sinners, and God’s Word clearly states, “The soul who sins shall die” (Eze 18:20).

“How could a good God take the life of an innocent child?” The first answer to this question, according to God’s Word, is a harsh truth: There is no such thing as an innocent child. Every baby ever born to a human father and mother was born under the sentence of death. At the moment of your conception, before you had any opportunity to act out the evil in your heart, you stood already condemned before God, justly deserving temporal and eternal punishment. We don’t become sinners by doing sins; we sin because we already have a sinful nature from birth. David writes, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Ps 51:5).

Perhaps you’ve heard someone ask, perhaps you’ve asked, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” This question presumes that there are good people, but Scripture tells that this isn’t true. Jesus says, “No one is good except God alone” (Mk 10:18). This question is an attempt to reverse the roles. It attributes our evil and sinfulness to God and claims his goodness as our own. Sinful man sets up a mock courtroom and attempts to put God on trial for being unjust. We call hurricanes and natural disasters “acts of God” and we ask, “How could God let this happen?” When we ask these questions, we fail to see that God is actively working to restrain and limit evil in the world, the evil that we introduced to his perfect creation.

From the first moment that sin and death entered the world, God’s plan of redemption has been unfolding. God chose to rescue every child born into sin by becoming a child himself, the one and only, innocent child. God promised the serpent that the woman would give birth to a child who would crush his head. For this reason, Satan hates childbirth, and used every possible means to destroy the seed of the woman. But he could not prevent the birth of the Christ with barrenness. Instead, eight times in history, God intervened supernaturally, opening the wombs of Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Hannah, Sampson’s mother, Naomi, Elizabeth, and finally, Mary, the mother of our Lord. Satan hates childbirth, and tried to destroy the seed of the woman with the sword. Pharaoh gave orders to kill all newborn Hebrew boys. But God struck down Pharaoh and brought Israel, his son, out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Herod also gave orders to kill the newborn boys of Bethlehem. But God struck Herod down and brought Jesus, his Son, out of Egypt.

In Revelation we read that Satan, “the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but the child was caught up to God and to his throne. […] Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short! […] Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.” (Rev 12:4-5, 14, 17). We see the wrath of Satan today in this world. He could not destroy the seed of the woman, yet even so, his hatred for childbirth continues. In our nation alone, sixty-million of our children have been murdered, not by a wicked king, but by their own mothers and fathers, and by a medical industry that profits in their deaths. These children are executed, not for the sake of a kingdom, but for the sake of convenience and sexual freedom. We, the church, must decry and mourn their deaths, as Rachel, refusing to be comforted, because they are no more (Mt 2:18).

Yet even as we mourn, we rejoice, knowing that God’s redemptive plan has been and is being accomplished here on earth. Nothing can hinder God’s purpose – not Satan’s will, not the will of the world, and certainly not your sinful will. For when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law (Gal 4:4). Jesus, the Holy Innocent, could not be swayed from this purpose. He resolutely made his way to the cross, bearing the iniquities of the whole world upon his shoulders. Spikes pierced his hands and feet. Thorns were driven into his head. He became the greatest sinner in the world and bore the punishment, yet he was innocent. Why did bad things happen to the only good person? Why did the Innocent suffer for the guilty? Because God loved the world. Because God loved you. And this is how we know love: God sent his only Son into our flesh, to suffer and die at our hands, to redeem us from the power of Satan, from sin, from hell and death. God sent his Son, that you might believe, and by believing may have life in his name (Jn 20:31). That sinful nature born within you, and to which you have added since, was drowned beneath the saving flood of baptism. Every last stain was washed away and you now stand before God, pure and spotless, holy and innocent. The name of the Lamb and his Father’s name is written on your forehead (Rev 14:1). You are marked as God’s own child and Satan cannot harm you.

Will you still suffer in this life? Yes, perhaps more so because you are a Christian. Jesus does not promise a life without suffering, as the false teachers do. On the contrary, he says, “In this world you will have tribulation” (Jn 16:33a). The world, the devil, and your sinful flesh will assail you. Herod will rage, but Jesus sits on his eternal throne. The dragon will make war upon the children of God, but his time is short. The battle is already over, for our Lord and King says to you, “Take heart; I have overcome the world” (Jn 16:33b). So even though you still face the final enemy, though you will one day close your eyes in death, for you and all believers it will be the gateway of heaven. For [God] will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new” (Rev 21:4-5). Amen.