Why Jesus Was BornSample

Unto You

For unto you is born this day . . . a Savior. (Luke 2:11)

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, a retired pastor took my place to preach. At the head of the service, an announcement was made: “Rev. Hoezee and Rosemary had a baby girl this morning.” 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” the whole church, or 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!