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\u201cOur hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done. Accept this atonement for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, Lord, and do not hold your people guilty of the blood of an innocent person\u201d (Deuteronomy 21:7-8).

The first part of Deuteronomy 21 deals with unsolved murders; it is concerned with justice for innocent victims. Rooted as we are in cinematic enactments of bloodshed and murder our eyes may pass over this text without a second thought. When murders are reported in Newscasts, we tune in more with a morbid curiosity than with horror that another human life has been lost. So, something is going on in this text that is worth pausing to consider.

Our text invites us to reconsider the value that we place on human life, on each human life. From early in the Biblical story blood speaks. \u201cListen! Your brother\u2019s blood cries out to me from the ground,\u201d God says to Cain after the murder of brother Able. And after the flood God gives the animals as food to humanity but warns them not to eat animals with the lifeblood still in them. Then God warns, \u201cI will demand an accounting for the life of another human being\u201d (Genesis 9:5). Innocent blood will call to God for justice.

Blood is life and life is precious, human life especially. If someone is found murdered and the murderer cannot be found, then those in the closest town are to enact a ritual. During the ceremony, they are to declare their innocence and ask God to accept animal blood as atonement for the murder of an innocent person.

They are to recall that they are a redeemed people because God saw their oppression by the Egyptians and acted. As a redeemed people they were to hold life precious as their God does. Murder of the innocent brought defilement down on the whole community, even on the land. Through this ritual they appealed to God to redeem them again.

This text calls us to renew our commitment to the sanctity of human life. In North America, Christian evangelicals have long been known for their advocacy for the unborn. This is good, though some of our methodologies leave much to be desired. During the past decade, there has been a call to expand our advocacy for the sanctity of life. if we truly believe that each life is precious than we ought to be concerned for refugees, for people being trafficked, for those caught in addictions, for those facing homelessness, for those facing the effects of environmental degradation.

The list could be expanded. But the accusation that our advocacy for \u2018right to life\u2019 has been limited rings true. It is high time that those who advocate for the \u2018right to life\u2019 take a much broader perspective. It is time for the Christian community to put \u2018our backs to the plow\u2019 to use an old expression. I think our work for innocent victims has become rather lack luster.

There is more here. Blood is shed, innocent human blood and the blood of a heifer. I think that we have also become so used to the image of the cross that we forget that on the cross, innocent blood was shed. But that shedding was unique. Jesus offered himself for the guilt of the world. The blood in our text is part of that bloody trail running through the Bible that leads us to Jesus\u2019 cross. It leads us to Jesus holding up the cup of the new covenant formed in his blood. Blood which still speaks, speaks for us, making atonement for us.

That covenant of blood established a kingdom in which there would be no more innocent victims. Our text calls us to inspect our concern for this kingdom. When we see reports of innocent victims, are we moved? Does it matter to us? Do we join the course in heaven asking God, \u201cHow long yet?\u201d Does it get you wondering which innocent victims God is calling you to seek justice for?