Where is Jesus From?
A reflection on Pastor Jeremy MacDonald’s last sermon of the year
This is the second of two sermon reflections for Sunday, December 28, 2025. In this essay I share my reflections about Pastor Jeremy MacDonald’s last sermon of 2025
Where is Jesus from?
Jesus chose these locations deliberately to teach us His mission and purpose in and for humanity.
Eternity. Jesus is the Word. In Greek, Logos. What does Logos mean in Greek? It refers to “reasoning (the mental faculty) or motive; by extension, a computation.” To describe Jesus as Logos means to describe Him as the intelligence behind the universe. In Jesus divinity and humanity became one, eternity stepped into time. Jesus is the One to come, before all things. Creation happened through Him. Jesus wasn’t Plan B. Jesus humbled Himself, stepping into the dregs humanity.
You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. —PHILIPPIANS 2:6-8
He is the image of the invisible God the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. —COLOSSIANS 1:15-17
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. — JOHN 1:1-3
Bethlehem. Jesus entered the human world in a stable in town called Bethlehem, which means house of bread. After giving birth to Him, Mary placed him in a manger, a feeding trough. He came into humanity to be the Bread of Life, Tree of Life, the tree whose fruit we can and should eat. A tree serves as a conduit between heaven and earth. Micah 5:2, 5;
2 But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.
5 and he shall be the one of peace. If the Assyrians come into our land and tread upon our soil, we will raise against them seven shepherds and eight installed as rulers. — MICAH 5:2, 5
I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. — JOHN 6:35
Egypt. We are slaves to sin without Christ in our lives. He overcame sin and death by paying a ransom to death. Jesus draws us out of the waters of evil and death. Through His own baptism, He saves us from the waters of death. As saved his people Moses, through the parting of the Red Sea, so Jesus saves humanity through the parting of the waters of death. In 1 Corinthians 10:2, Paul describes the passage of the Israelites through Red Sea as a baptism: and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. What G-d did physically for Israel he does spiritually for humanity.
13 Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.’ 14 Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt. — MATTHEW 2:13-14
Nazareth. We will face what He did as we become like Him. In his gospel, Matthew uses a play on words in 2:23 with the word Nazorean. There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, ‘He will be called a Nazorean.’ There’s Nazarene and Nazorean. At some point they’ve converged, and have become synonymous with persecution. In 1:46 John it says, Nathanael said to him, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.’ Jesus faced persecution and rejection, he came from a town that was not known for greatness, and whose people faced scorn and denouncement.
In our present day secular society, we observe the denouncement of Christian ethics, such as stripping Jesus from Christmas. Freedom of religion has really become freedom from religion—for example, Canadian Armed Forces chaplains can’t pray publicly anymore, they have to give spiritual reflections. And then, there’s the persecution of Jimmy Lai by the PRC.
image: Jimmy Lai | “Lai is an entrepreneur and publisher of the former newspaper Apple Daily who was imprisoned by Hong Kong authorities in December 2020 for his role in pro-democracy protests. The 77-year-old has been held in solitary confinement since his arrest and has been denied the reception of Holy Communion.” — Catholic Register
After deciding to stay in Hong Kong, Lai said: “If I go away, I not only give up my destiny, I give up God, I give up my religion, I give up what I believe in.”
“I am what I am. I am what I believe. I cannot change it. And if I can’t change it, I have to accept my fate with praise.” — Catholic News Agency
Reader, where are you from?