Celebrating Life from Womb to Tomb
Sanctity of Human Life Sunday
January 22, 2012
First Baptist Church, Jackson, Tennessee
C. Ben Mitchell, Ph.D.
In 1983, theologian Francis Schaeffer and former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop asked President Ronald Reagan to create a special day to focus on “the intrinsic value of human life.” That same year, President Reagan issued a proclamation establishing a National Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. So, today, we join Christians around the world as we celebrate the gift of life.
One of the tragedies of the abortion debate in America is that we often define Sanctity of Human Life Sunday by what we are against rather than what we are for. There is plenty to be against, of course. Since the passage of Roe v. Wade in 1973, there have been more than 53 million abortions in the U. S. alone. At the other end of life, three U.S. states, Oregon, Washington, and Montana, now permit physicians to assist in the killing of their patients. Between conception and death, assaults on human life continue to grow. For instance, it is estimated that through prenatal testing, 90% of Down Syndrome babies are either “selected out” at the embryonic stage or aborted. Again, at the other end of life, in our youth-oriented, ageist culture, increasing numbers of senior adults are neglected, abused, and “tossed out.”
Christians have always been at the forefront of protecting human life. For instance, during the first century, an early church manual called the Didache (c. 85-110 AD) said: “thou shalt not murder a child by abortion nor kill them when born.” Tertullian, one of the church fathers who died around 220 AD, devoted an entire chapter of one of his books to repudiating the Roman gladiatorial games, calling on Christians not to attend. Under the reign of a Christian emperor, Theodosius I, the games were ended in the 4th century in the East and in the early 5th century, under his son, Honorius, in the West.
Having said that, Sanctity of Human Life Sunday is an important opportunity to celebrate God’s marvelous handiwork in creating us. We should meditate on Psalm 139, where David speaks powerfully about the nature of human life. In this lofty psalm, he exults both in God’s omniscience and omnipresence (vv. 1-12). And in verses 13-16, he celebrates God’s intricate involvement in his own development in the womb: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb…My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Interestingly, the words “woven together” in the womb might be translated “colorfully embroidered.” The tapestry that is a human being—body, soul, and spirit—is the work of the Master Artist.
In the person of Jesus of Nazareth we see both perfect God and real humanity. The affirmation of the Apostles Creed that Jesus was “born of the Virgin Mary” reminds us that, like every other member of humanity, Jesus was once a human embryo. The affirmation that we believe in “The resurrection of the body; And the life everlasting” suggests that the body is a necessary aspect of our humanity from the beginning of life throughout eternity. Thus, every human life—from conception to natural death—is to be received as a gift from the sovereign Creator, to be treated with reverence and respect, and is not to be harmed without biblical justification.
And so, today, along with those who have gone before us, let us celebrate, honor, and protect human life from the womb to the tomb. Here are some practical steps:
