When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Herod's disturbance and Jerusalem's collective anxiety at the news of a messianic birth sets a pattern that will repeat at Jesus' entry into Jerusalem in chapter 21: the city that should be most ready for its king is most alarmed by his arrival. The Magi's innocent question has created a political crisis at the highest level of power. Luke 1:51–52 anticipates this dynamic: the mighty are brought low and the lowly exalted. The one who threatens no one threatens everyone in power. Herod's fear is not merely political but tells us something about how the powers of this age receive the kingdom of God — with disturbance, with secret plotting, with calculated violence.

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