“Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the Magi.” Matthew 3:16.
Herods must be resisted, but we must also not forget that the fear that possessed Herod’s life is not absent from our own lives. “All Jerusalem” was also frightened by the news of this child’s birth. And the same fear continues to possess cultures — our culture — that believe they have no time or energy for children. Abortion is one of the names for the fear of time that children make real. Children rightly frighten us, pulling us as they do into the unknown future. But that pull is the lure of love that moves the sun and the stars, the same love that overwhelmed the wise men with joy. It is the love that makes the church an alternative to the world that fears the child.
Hauerwas, Commentary on Matthew, Chapter 2.