In my early days of ministry, I had an unforgettable confrontation with a man in our church lobby. I was a young youth pastor and had to make one of my first calls to the police, after learning about the abuse of a young girl. This man in the church lobby somehow heard about the situation and was very angry at me, “Why didn’t you show him grace or forgiveness? Why did you get the police involved? You know you’ve ruined his life, right?”
God gave me courage for the moment, “Actually I did not ruin his life,” I responded. “He attempted to destroy one of God’s image-bearer’s lives. Plus, this is a crime.” Then I added, “And by the way, I am not the enemy here. Evil is.” Throughout that situation, God’s Spirit strengthened my resolve with Jesus' words from Matthew 18:6:
“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”
In other words, woe to those who hurt God’s most precious ones, children. As we read about the growing number of persecuted Christians around the world- you can find updated statistics about this at places like Open Doors or The Voice of the Martyrs, I confess that I have tended to pray for, consider, and talk about the adults in these life-threatening situations. But the reality of church persecution becomes more potent when we consider the harm done to vulnerable children—these precious ones of God who have suffered, who have been torn from their loved ones, indeed who have died, all for their family’s faith. As a mom of three, it’s hard not to think about my own children. Indeed, these persecuted children are our spiritual children.
There are sons of martyrs who still cling to Jesus even though their fathers were killed for their faith. There are young girls who were still babies in their mothers’ womb when their parents were killed for helping Christians. There are young women and men who love Jesus even though their mothers were murdered for their faith. When we read stories like these, and when we remember that there are countless more untold stories of children in the persecuted church, this can, admittedly, cause a crisis of faith. It can certainly cause your heart to break.
So how do we cling to hope with such horrific realities for kids around the globe? How do we even pray in the midst of such horrific realities for children? How can we hold this evil and cling to hope in Jesus at the same time?
We find a helpful model in the Old Testament book of Lamentations, written by the weeping prophet, Jeremiah. In Lamentations chapter three, we read about the prophet Jeremiah cursing his enemies, “Pay them back for what they deserve, Lord... May your curse be on them!” (Lamentations 3: 64-65). The weeping prophet, is expressing what is known as an imprecatory lament, or a “curse-lament.” Jeremiah is calling down a lament curse on his enemies.
We don’t often pray like this or curse our enemies. But, the point is this: when we are faced with the vile evil of child persecution, God is not the enemy; Evil is. And we are invited to stand firm against Evil by lamenting on behalf of God’s children.
The Persecuted Church's Children: Our Invitation to Lament
Lament, a biblical expression of grief and pain, articulates grief for personal plights of pain and sorrow, but true lament is most often a public cry for collective justice in the face of evil. Throughout Lamentations, Jeremiah was grieving the fact that his entire community was being destroyed—especially the children. He could do nothing but express horror and outrage at the pain he was bearing witness to:
“How the precious children of Zion, once worth their weight in gold, “Jeremiah laments, “are now considered as pots of clay, the work of a potter’s hand...Because of thirst, the infant’s tongue sticks to the roof of its mouth; the children beg for bread but no one gives it to them...With their own hands, compassionate women have cooked their children, who became their food” (Lamentations 4:2, 4, 10).
Jeremiah held onto his pain and his faith at the same time. He named the reality of Evil while also crying out to the only Judge who could actually bring an end to it. Jeremiah’s lament demands a just ruling from God. He pleads for God to hear Israel’s case, take up the children’s cause, and begs God to declare a better verdict than the one Jeremiah currently sees (Lamentation 3: 55-59).
On behalf of the children of the persecuted church today, we are invited to become lamenters like Jeremiah. We are invited to hold our faith and their pain at the same time. We are called by God to become people who say, “We will not brush aside your plight any longer. We will intercede for you at the throne room of God. We will demand change from the only Judge who can do something about Evil. We will enter into your pain as if it were our own as if you were our own children because you are God’s children. And, woe to those who hurt God’s little ones.”
May we be those who lament ceaselessly for the children of the persecuted church. May we not ignore the plight of hurting children around the world. May we remember that the Christian faith is global and that our prayers of lament matter. For the precious children that Jesus loves so dearly, may we stand firm in our resolve to pray, cry out against evil, and advocate with action for justice—for the most vulnerable around the world.
Lord, do not close your ears to your son’s and daughters’ cries. Draw near when they call on you. Take up their cases, redeem their lives, uphold their cause. Bring a swift and definitive end to Evil against children in our day. And give your little ones strength to endure until they see you face to face.
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