The Matthew 28:19 Project

From the cradle to the grave, Christmas is a love story, God’s love story to us. It is the story of redemption, written not with sentiment, but with sacrifice. As I drove to work recently, I found myself thinking about how symbolic it is that Jesus, our Lord and Savior, was born in a manger because there was no room for Him. That detail hits close to home. So many of us—myself included—know what it’s like to have no room in our hearts or lives for Jesus. Even though I found Him at a young age, I spent many years distant and disconnected. There was literally no room for Him in my life, and yet God never gave up on me. He still made a way for me to come back. God is sneaky because while I had no room for Him, He always had room for me.

Jesus’ birth was foretold centuries before it happened. The prophet Isaiah declared, “All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’)” (Isaiah 7:14). Immanuel—God with us. And Jesus was with us long before Bethlehem. Scripture tells us, “In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Jesus is eternal. He always has been, and He always will be with us.
Jesus is a Savior for everyone. After His birth, lowly shepherds were tending their flocks in the fields when a host of angels appeared and proclaimed, “Do not be afraid…for there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10–11). That moment matters more than we often realize. Shepherds were considered the lowest on the social ladder, yet they were the first invited to see the Savior. Have you thought about that? The Shepherd of Souls was first introduced to the shepherds of the sheep. How incredibly perfect is that? Jesus was born the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, God in the flesh, and He came first to the overlooked, the forgotten, and the humble. He came to show us who God is and to make it clear that salvation is for everyone. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16).

Jesus came to us in human form to save us, and no one else could ever do that. “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15). I once heard a story that beautifully illustrates this truth. A farmer, caught in the middle of a blizzard, noticed birds outside struggling to survive in the freezing snow. Wanting to save them, he opened his barn as a place of refuge. But the birds were afraid of him and refused to enter. He tried to lead them with food, but they still wouldn’t come. Finally, in frustration and compassion, he thought, If only I could become a bird, I could show them the way. In that moment, it hit him that is exactly what Jesus did. He became one of us to lead us to safety.

When that connection sank in, it gutted me. Jesus went all the way to the cross for us. Fully God and fully man, He reached up to the Father with one hand and reached down to us with the other, becoming the bridge we could never build ourselves. He is our pathway to salvation, our way back to God when we stray. “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). From the cradle to the grave, Jesus came for us. Many people see Christmas as a season of family, tradition, and gift-giving, and while those things matter, they miss the greatest gift of all. The tradition of giving gifts began with the wise men, who followed a star to worship Jesus and brought Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. “When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy… and when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him” (Matthew 2:10–11). They recognized that this child was more than a baby. He was their Savior.

So what is the greatest gift of Christmas? It is not money, possessions, or anything this world can offer. The greatest gift of Christmas is three nails and a wooden cross. Jesus was born to die. He is the gift. And He came so that we could be saved. From the cradle to the grave, Jesus is God’s gift to us.
The question is simple and eternal: Will you accept His gift today?