When most people think of the greatest sacrifice, we think of Jesus dying on the cross and being raised from the dead, but as horrific as His death was, I’d make an argument that Jesus made an even bigger sacrifice.

At the cross, He was beaten, cursed, took our sins upon Himself, was separated from God, and died. It is hard for us to comprehend anyone intentionally going through that for us. It was horrible, and we should be so thankful. As bad as it was, it was one bad day (or 3 if you count His time in the grave).

One thing I’ve found is that I can endure most things if they are only for a short period and I know that the end of the pain and hardship is coming soon. It is much harder to endure the same thing if I don’t know when it will end.

As hard as it was to suffer and die on the cross, Jesus endured more. We can relate to pain, shame, and guilt, but Jesus sacrificed more, and we can’t fully relate to what it means because we are finite. We aren’t an infinite God, so we can’t fully understand how much He lowered Himself.

Jesus is infinite. He is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. He is all-knowing, all-powerful, and present in all time and space. When He came to earth as a man, He gave all of that up. He went from being everywhere to being a single cell in His mother’s womb. He went from being all-powerful to being reliant on His creation for His every need. He went from being all-knowing to limiting His knowledge.

If I could lower myself and become a single-celled amoeba, I wouldn’t be lowering and limiting myself anywhere near how Jesus limited Himself.

I don’t know if any of you have issues with small spaces. If you have claustrophobia, you can’t stand having your space and movement limited. Imagine being all-powerful and present in all of time and space and then being limited to a tiny being in a woman’s womb or even being a baby dependent on others for food and cleanliness. That is taking claustrophobia to a whole new level.

Jesus is also holy. In the Old Testament, God had commanded the Israelites that they were to be clean or God couldn’t be in their midst. There were even commands that they had to leave the camp to relieve themselves. They had to bring a spade to dig a hole and then cover their excrement. When Jesus came to earth as a baby, He couldn’t control His waste. I’m sure sometimes our holy God was left lying in a dirty diaper, in contact with His dirty waste. Our holy God lying in excrement.

We love reading about the little baby lying in a manger. It is such a comforting picture. We need to remember that Jesus lowering Himself to become a man was a greater sacrifice than we can ever comprehend.

This Christmas season, every time you see the baby lying in a manger, remember that your God lowered Himself for you. Remember, He limited Himself for you. Remember how His Holiness was abused by the conditions He endured, not just on the cross, but every day of His incarnation.

May you never take for granted what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for you. May you share the good news with everyone around you so the whole world will praise His name.

Trust Jesus

All verses are NASB unless otherwise noted.