When Jesus carried out his work as the promised Savior, he took a journey that ended in your heart through faith in him.

“Next stop, Junction City!” the conductor cries out. The train slows to a stop. Some passengers get off, while new passengers get on. The train speeds to its next destination, which the conductor will soon identify.

When Jesus carried out his work as the promised Savior, there were several destinations on his mission. Planet Earth was the first.

From heaven above to earth I come

The Christmas celebration in Martin Luther’s home in 1534 was memorable. Luther had composed a 15-stanza hymn, “From Heaven Above to Earth I Come.” A man dressed as an angel sang the first 7 stanzas, while Luther’s children sang the remaining stanzas. Wouldn’t it have been fascinating to witness that?

While the hymn title describes an angel announcing the Savior’s birth to shepherds, one can easily picture Jesus speaking those words of the title. And essentially, he did.

After the Lord miraculously fed thousands of people with a few pieces of bread and fish, he informed them, “I have come down from heaven” (John 6:38).

Jesus came down from heaven for a reason. Someone who had been with him in heaven had rebelled and was cast down into hell. One day, that fallen angel slithered his way into a conversation with Eve in the Garden of Eden. That conversation led to sinful actions that threatened the eternities of all people.

God did not respond by issuing a royal edict that reversed the effects of sin like the snap of a finger. No, God set into motion a plan formulated in eternity—a plan that involved his Son leaving the perfection and glory of heaven and coming to a world ravaged by sin.

Jesus would crush the old evil foe by living and dying as the world’s substitute. His resurrection from the dead and descent into hell showed the devil who had triumphed in the battle and who had lost.

No heathen god ever acted like this. False deities merely threaten people to fix their own problems. But the only true God sent a Savior to this world—and not to a random place. God chose the precise location of the Savior’s birth. The next destination from heaven to your heart is Bethlehem.

O little town of Bethlehem

Are you familiar with Mercersburg, Pennsylvania; Hodgenville, Kentucky; or Niles, Ohio? Those small communities each have a claim to fame. They are birthplaces of United States presidents.

According to God’s plan, a little village in the land of Palestine would rise to prominence by being the birthplace of the Savior. The place was Bethlehem Ephrathah (Micah 5:2).

Why did the prophet describe the location as Bethlehem Ephrathah? Because there were two Bethlehems in Palestine. The lesser-known Bethlehem was in the north, near Nazareth. The more familiar Bethlehem was in the south, 5 miles from Jerusalem.

Ephrathah, the older name for Bethlehem in the south, means “the fertile ones” or “the fruit fields.” Bethlehem means “house of bread.” How fitting for the birthplace of him who would proclaim, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35).

If you hunger and thirst after the stuff of this world—fame, riches, and pleasures—you will find out eventually that those things do not satisfy. How different it is with Jesus. On a hillside some 30 years after his birth, Jesus assured his followers, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6). Filled by the one born in Bethlehem. Filled by the one lying in rustic surroundings.

A manger is the next destination.

Away in a manger

“While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them” (Luke 2:6,7).

For Mary, there was no birthing suite like the ones on the ninth floor of the Langham Hotel in Manhattan. No cherry paneling or chefs delivering sumptuous meals. There was not even a guest room in Bethlehem. So, after the birth took place, a manger would have to do for a bassinet. Strips of cloth would soften the wood’s surface on the baby’s back and provide some warmth.

It was a humble beginning for the Word who became flesh (John 1:14), but humble living was far from over. Jesus would later note, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20). There was no room in the inn at his birth, and there was no room to call his own during his days of preaching and teaching.

Humble living turned into humble dying. Jesus “humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:8). No strips of cloth provided relief from the splinters of the cross. Jesus’ cross was total pain: unimaginable physical suffering and indescribable spiritual agony as he suffered the punishment of the world’s sins. What love!

But Jesus’ love was not just a wide beam of light aimed at the world; it was laser-focused on your heart. That is the final destination of Jesus’ mission.

All my heart again rejoices

Like Martin Luther, Paul Gerhardt also wrote a 15-stanza Christmas hymn. The title of the hymn, “All My Heart Again Rejoices,” and one of the stanzas focus on the human heart—the place where the Bible describes Christian faith or unbelief residing.

Jesus’ love was not just a wide beam of light aimed at the world; it was laser-focused on your heart.

The hearts of Adam and Eve were initially pure and clean, but their disobedience changed that condition for them and all people in the future. Need proof? Before the flood in Noah’s day, God observed that “every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time” (Genesis 6:5). Jesus also pinpointed the source of sin: “Out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testi-mony, slander” (Matthew 15:19).

Jesus’ mission was to cleanse hearts of sin, and he did just that. Through the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart, the forgiveness of sins Jesus won by his holy life and sacrificial death is yours. But there is more. The one who has existed from all eternity, the one who was born in Bethlehem, the one who walked through life in your place and died in your place, the one who rose from the dead now dwells in your heart through faith in him (Ephesians 3:17)!

That’s the final destination on the journey from heaven to your heart. A heavenly conductor has called out, “Earth,” “Bethlehem,” “Manger,” and “Your heart.” From beginning to end, it has been a journey of love and a journey that has focused on you.

There is one more destination. It is heaven . . . for you. And so, really, this is all about a journey from heaven to your heart and back to heaven. In that way, it is like a popular children’s Christmas present from the past: a train that chugged along on tracks that formed a loop.

So enjoy the journey—at Christmas and every day of life!

Author: James Pope
Volume 111, Number 12
Issue: December 2024