Herod, the New Pharaoh, a sermon based on Matthew 2: 1-12, preached on January 4, 2026

Gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Why not a stroller, a Pack ‘n Play, and some diapers? No expectant parent registers for gold, frankincense, or myrrh. They’re not good gifts to bring to a baby shower, yet why did the magi bring them to the manger? We must think of them symbolically. They’re gifts for kings who rule over and control people, and they work kind of like this. Imagine someone leaves a message on your phone: “Do I have an opportunity for you! I’m on the ground floor of a new business, and I need a few sharp, motivated people to join my inner circle. Do you have 15 minutes for a quick chat that will change your life?” That quick chat leads to a meeting in a hotel conference center. There, the presenter lays out the qualities of the amazing product. All we have to do is recruit two people to sell it with us, then those two each recruit two more, on and on the model goes, earning commissions all the way down. “Just look at the math,” they say. “If your network grows just 10 levels deep, you’ll be earning passive income from over 1,000 people. We’re talking six figures a month. Easy money!” Have you ever been in this situation? I have at least twice, both times at the invitation of a trusted family member, and while I was in the hotel conference room listening to the sales pitch, the logical part of my brain was screaming, “This is a scam,” yet the part of my brain that didn’t want to offend my family member told me to sit politely. That’s the power of a ritualized environment. There were no smells nor bells, but there was a stage and lights. It had all the right ingredients to legitimate the one speaking who then told me: “You have to have a little skin in the game. The starter kit costs $500, but it will pay for itself in no time at all.” If you’ve been in this position, you may have taken a deep breath, then handed over a credit card number, but two months later you finally got out, a little poorer and a little wiser than when you first began. That’s a pyramid scheme, and building bricks for Pharoah’s pyramid is not the life that God wants you to live. Follow the magi, who give their gold, frankincense, and myrrh, not to Herod, the new Pharoah, but to Jesus. The gold represents wealth and the promise of it. The frankincense, an incense burned in worship, represents ritual, and whether the ritual takes place in a temple or a hotel conference room, it doesn’t matter. The pharaohs of the world are using conference rooms, board, rooms and press conferences to glorify themselves all the time, in the hopes of using myrrh, an oil used for burial, to magnify their legacy and build for themselves a pyramid off the sweat of your brow. Jesus wasn’t like that. Jesus never accumulated anything, saying, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none,” and when someone handed Him a coin with Ceaser’s image on it, He said, “Render to Ceaser what is Ceaser’s.” He wasn’t interested in gold coins bearing the image of Ceaser. Jesus was interested in human beings who bear the image of God. Likewise, while Herod, like the pharaohs before him, would have used the frankincense in religious rituals to maintain control over his subjects and to get them to do what he wanted them to do, the King of Kings kneeled before His disciples to wash their feet saying, “As I have done for you, so must you do for each other. This is my command, this is my mandate, that you love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” That’s why they gave Him the frankincense. It’s because the religion of Jesus is a different kind of religion that humbles the proud and brings dignity to the afflicted, so this cloth that we wear is the sign that we pastors are the chief foot washers in a church called to lift up the lowly rather than keep them in their place, following the Savior, who on the night of His arrest, before He was crucified like a criminal, washed His disciples feet, offering His very body and blood that we all might have abundant, eternal life. His death and burial were the very opposite of a pharaoh’s, for while the pharoah brought honor to himself with that grand memorial, the pyramid, Christ died the death of a criminal and was buried in a borrowed tomb not to bring glory to Himself but to bring salvation to all. My friends, the magi could see what is different about the Savior. Can you see it? Can you tell the difference between King Herod and the King of Kings? George Bailey could. In my mind, there are three essential Christmas movies: It’s a Wonderful Life, The Bishop’s Wife, and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Of the three, the greatest, surely one of the greatest movies of all time, is It’s a Wonderful Life. The hero of the movie is George Bailey. His whole life is lived in service to others. As a boy, he saved his brother Harry from drowning. He postponed going to college so his brother could stay in school. On his way out of town for his honeymoon, the stock market crashed. He and his new wife used their honeymoon money to bail out the Bailey Bros. Building and Loan, and so long as the Building and Loan was in existence, it kept Mr. Potter from having a monopoly and charging as much interest in loans as he so desired. Mr. Potter was in the business of building a pyramid for himself, and so he wanted all the gold, all the frankincense, and all the myrrh, but George Bailey wouldn’t stand for it, launching into an incredible speech in the Building and Loan that goes like this: Now, hold on, Mr. Potter. Just a minute. Now, you’re right when you say my father was no businessman. I know that. Why he ever started this cheap, penny-ante Building and Loan, I’ll never know. But neither you nor anybody else can say anything against his character because his whole life was… why, in the twenty-five years since he and Uncle Billy started this thing, he never once thought of himself. He didn’t save enough money to send Harry to school, let alone me. But he did help a few people get outta your slums, Mr. Potter. And what’s wrong with that? Doesn’t it make them better citizens? Doesn’t it make them better customers? You said that they had to wait and save their money before they even thought of a decent home. Wait? Wait for what? Until their children grow up and leave them? Until they’re so old and broken-down that… you know how long it takes a working man to save $5,000? Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you’re talking about, they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? Anyway, my father didn’t think so. People were human beings to him, but to you, a warped, frustrated old man, they’re cattle. Well, in my book he died a much richer man than you’ll ever be. If you’ve seen the movie, then you know that without George Bailey, Mr. Potter would turn the town of Bedford Falls into Pottersville, a town where the poor are trampled and women are objectified. It is a town without hope, which is the kind of town we’ll all be living in if we give all our treasure to the Herods of this world. I know what he promises. Power, wealth, prestige. Yet think about how being a cog in his wheel makes you feel. On the backs of whom is his pyramid is built. Is a larger paycheck worth sacrificing your morals? Is going along with the crowd filling up your heart with joy? My friends, Herod lives, and his message is still the same: “Do I have an opportunity for you!” Don’t listen, for there is only one way to eternal life. It comes through following Jesus, who promises not a Cadillac but a cross, who came not to be served but to serve. Through serving others rather than glorifying Himself, He leads us from isolation to community and from material wealth to a wonderful life. Remember George Bailey, surrounded by so great a crowd of family and friends at the end of that movie that his brother declares him, “the richest man in town,” while Mr. Potter sits in his office virtually alone. No one is there other than that creepy old guy who pushes his wheelchair around. That’s the message of the wise men, the magi, the three kings or whatever you want to call them. They show us that Herod just wants to glorify himself. Avoid him and people who take all the glory. Avoid those who create monuments to glorify their own name, for there is only one name to be lifted above all others and His name is Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Herod wants our treasure, but do not kneel before his throne. No. Kneel before the manger. Amen.