Recently, we’ve been hearing a lot about injustice in our society. But in today’s passage, we are reminded that injustice is not a new problem at all. Take King Herod, for instance. Yes, he was a Jew, but not a descendant of David. He had been installed on his throne by the Romans, who propped up his reign with their invincible legions. To the Jews, he was thus a constant reminder of the people’s bondage to Rome.

And perhaps this explains Herod’s mania to hold on to power at all costs. After all, when some foreign stargazers came to his court, raising the possibility that the Messiah had been born, Herod took no chances. That’s why he tried to deceive the magi into revealing the location of the child (Matthew 2:8) – so that he could murder Him. And when the wise men refused to play along, Herod simply ordered the death of all the boys who might fit the description they had given him (Matthew 2:16). Now, that’s real injustice.

But as Herod’s soldiers slaughtered all those children, Matthew reminds us of other, even more ancient outrages. He points out that the Assyrians and Babylonians had murdered many other children during their conquests of Ramah, just north of Jerusalem, hundreds of years earlier (Matthew 2:18). Moreover, he reminds us that, in fleeing to Egypt and then returning Judea, Jesus and his family were reenacting an even more ancient injustice – the Egyptians’ enslavement of God’s people (Matthew 2:15).

So, did God do about all this injustice? In the first place, He did not try to provoke a conflict with the worldly rulers of the day. Instead, God warned Joseph in a dream to take Jesus and flee into Egypt (Matthew 2:13). And when Joseph returned to Judea after Herod’s death, he moved as far away as he could from Herod’s son, who had taken control of Judea (Matthew 2:22). No, God the Father had no intention of making Jesus into a worldly revolutionary, One who would try to set up a perfect earthly kingdom.

Instead, Jesus confronted the worst injustice of all – the tyranny of sin and death – by allowing His own people to crucify Him precisely because He refused to lead them in a revolt. In short, He took the greatest injustice on Himself in order to save the world, to save sinners like us.

So, instead of embracing the use of violence to seize worldly power, let us walk the road of self-sacrifice that leads to the cross (Matthew 16:24). For could there be any other way to follow Jesus?

Matthew 2:13-22 (NASB)

13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise and take the Child and His mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him.”
14 And he arose and took the Child and His mother by night, and departed for Egypt;
15 and was there until the death of Herod, that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, “Out of Egypt did I call My Son.”
16 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 in all its environs, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had ascertained from the magi.
17 Then that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled, saying,
18 “A voice was heard in Ramah, Weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children; And she refused to be comforted, Because they were no more.”
19 But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying,
20 “Arise and take the Child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel; for those who sought the Child’s life are dead.”
21 And he arose and took the Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel.
22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And being warned by God in a dream, he departed for the regions of Galilee,
23 and came and resided in a city called Nazareth, that what was spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He shall be called a Nazarene.”