Christmas is a time of great joy. But it can devolve into a season of great self-centeredness. Even if we disconnect from the commercialism and gifting emphases all around us, we can slide into a kind of spiritual narcissism. What is my relationship with God like this year? How can I have deeper intimacy with my personal Lord and Savior?

These questions, if employed in the pursuit of spiritual maturity, are not bad in and of themselves. But we must see that the blessings of salvation are for all people. Advent can be a time of renewed commitment to the expansion of God’s kingdom, for introducing others to the focal point of Christmas: Jesus the Messiah, the son of Abraham.

Matthew’s mention of Abraham in the very first verse of his Gospel holds significance beyond that patriarch’s place on Jesus’s family tree. Abraham was the one to whom God made His covenant that would bring blessing to all the nations. (See Genesis 12:1–3.)

Jewish readers would catch Matthew’s implication that this Messiah, Jesus, was the Messiah for the Jewish people as well as all other peoples. This emphasis on reaching all the nations would be repeated at the very end of Matthew’s book, in the recording of Jesus’s Great Commission (Matthew 28:18–20). Recognizing Jesus as your Messiah must include recognizing Him as the Messiah for all peoples.