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When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: \u201cA voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.\u201d After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, \u201cGet up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child\u2019s life are dead.\u201d (Matthew 2:16-20)

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The sinful violence of the Kingdom of this world, represented by Herod, spills over into the furious slaughter of innocent children.\xa0 Jeremiah the prophet laments with Rachel and all the mothers of Bethlehem.\xa0

Sin, when pushed to its natural end, brings death.\xa0

Innocents are still put to death in our world today.\xa0 Collateral damage of war, victims of genocide, victims of abuse even here in Canada.\xa0 They are still the ones bearing the brunt of sin incarnated in our world today through the abuses of the powerful.\xa0

We may think these are issues somewhere out there in some other place in the world that doesn\u2019t impact us.\xa0 After all, we may not see ourselves either as oppressor or as oppressed, as victim or as powerful.

But we don\u2019t get off the hook that easy.\xa0 Through the caricature of Herod, Matthew means to make the point that this is the nature of sin that lives within all of us.\xa0 This is the death that our sin brings.\xa0 Sin does not only bring our own death: sin is social.\xa0 It spills over into the lives of others.\xa0 Our sin brings the ways of death to bear on our world and our neighbours.\xa0 This is the kingdom of this world still very much at work, not just in our world, but in our own hearts.\xa0 \xa0\xa0

Within us lives the kind of greed, lust, selfishness, and prideful desire to be right, have status, control, and seemingly benign privileges that would pollute the planet, tarnish relationships, perpetuate racism, and enslave people in sweatshops, human trafficking, and precarious gig work.

Remember Paul in Romans 7: \u201cAlthough I want to do good, evil is right there with me.\u201d

But this is also the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the one who would save his people from their sin.\xa0 He, the true and righteous King.\xa0 And His kingdom is also taking root in our hearts and in our world, bringing life.

Herod is referred to as king at the beginning of chapter 2, but not here.\xa0 As the narrative progresses, the term \u201cking\u201d drops from Herod\u2019s name.\xa0 The Magi bowing in worship before the new-born-king is the pivot.\xa0 After that moment, Herod the Great is not called king again.\xa0 He has been dethroned.\xa0

And so it is.\xa0 The New King, King Jesus has come, and he has dethroned the powers of sin and death at work in our hearts and in our world. \xa0He has come to save us and all creation, to set us free, and to invite us more deeply into His work of lamenting and of bringing life to the places, people, and situations that most need it in this world of death.\xa0 Sin is social, spilling over into the lives of others, but so is salvation.\xa0 Thanks be to God.

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