Read: Luke 2:8-21
For unto you is born this day . . . a Savior. (v. 11)
Thirty years ago this month our daughter was born. I was serving as a pastor and because the birth took place in the wee hours of the morning on a Sunday, I called my lead elder to say I would not be available to preach that morning. A retired pastor took my place, but at the head of the service the elder went to the pulpit to announce why I was not there. “Rev. Hoezee and Rosemary had a baby girl this morning,” he said. But wouldn’t it have been odd if he had said to the congregation, “This morning there is born unto you a child”? Our daughter was born to my wife and me. But she was not born “unto” anyone else.
But that is what the angel told those scared-out-of-their-wits shepherds: A Savior had been born “unto you.” But how does that make sense? It was Mary’s baby and Joseph’s too (though not in the usual sense). But it wasn’t the shepherds’ baby. They would change no diapers. They would not feed and raise the child. They would visit the child and then head back to their sheep.
Except that Jesus was no ordinary baby. He came for everyone. He was born unto all of us. He was not the shepherds’ baby, but he was their Savior. He had come for them, lowly and despised and marginalized though they were in that day. “Unto you.” We pass over those words so easily. But they contain the essence of the gospel! —Scott Hoezee
As you pray, thank God for the Savior born unto you.
About the Author
Scott Hoezee is an ordained pastor in the Christian Reformed Church of North America. He served two Michigan congregations from 1990-2005 and since 2005 has been a faculty member at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he serves chiefly as the Director of The Center for Excellence in Preaching. He is the author of several books, including most recently Why We Listen to Sermons (Calvin Press 2019) and is the co-host of the “Groundwork” radio program.
