No Christmas song is more loved than this tender children’s carol. For some time “Away in the Manger” was titled “Luther’s Cradle Hymn.” It was thought to have been written by Martin Luther for his own children and then passed on by German mothers. Modern research discounts this claim, however. Stanzas one and two first appeared in the Little Children’s Book, published in Philadelphia in 1885. The original two-stanza form probably originated among German Lutherans in Pennsylvania about 1885. The third verse was written by a Methodist minister, Dr. John T. McFarland, in the early 1900’s when an additional stanza for this carol was desired for use at a church children’s day program. There are about 41 different tunes for these verses. The tune we sang this morning was composed by James Murry in the mid to late 1800’s and titled “Luther’s Cradle Hymn” and erroneously attributed to a bogus name of Carl Mueller. In your hymn books, “Mueller” in the name of the tune. The more popular tune outside of the US is called “Cradle Song” written by American composer William Kirkpatrick and first published in 1897. Both of these tunes are in our hymn books. (1)
This hymn reflects the humble birth of our Lord. Jesus did not come as a full grown man, He came, born of a woman, just like the rest of us. Born, not in a mansion, a royal palace, but from poor parents in place where animals were kept and fed.
Luke 2:1–7 (NKJV) And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. 3 So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city. 4 Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. 6 So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. 7 And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
In 1994, two Christian missionaries answered an invitation from the Russian Department of Education to teach morals and ethics in a large orphanage. About 100 boys and girls who had been abandoned, abused, and left in the care of a government-run program were in the orphanage.
It was nearing Christmas and they decided to tell them the story of Christmas. It would be the first time these children had heard the story of the birth of Christ. They told them about Mary and Joseph arriving in Bethlehem. Finding no room in the inn, the couple went to a stable, where the baby Jesus was born and placed in a manger. Throughout the story, the children and orphanage staff sat in amazement as they listened. Some sat on the edges of their stools, trying to grasp every word.
When the story was finished, they gave the children three small pieces of cardboard to make a crude manger. Each child was given a small paper square, cut from yellow napkins that they had brought with them since no colored paper was available in the city. Following instructions, the children tore the paper and carefully laid strips in the manger for straw. Small squares of flannel, cut from a worn-out nightgown an American lady was throwing away as she left Russia, were used for the baby’s blanket. A doll-like baby was cut from tan felt which the missionaries had also brought with them.
It was all going smoothly until one of the missionaries sat down at a table to help a 6 year old boy named Misha. He had finished his manger. When the missionary looked at the little boy’s manger, she was startled to see not one, but two babies in the manger. Quickly, she called for the translator to ask Misha why there were two babies in the manger. Crossing his arms in front of him and looking at this completed manger scene, Misha began to repeat the story very seriously. For such a young boy, who had only heard the Christmas story once, he related the happenings accurately until he came to the part where Mary put the baby Jesus in the manger.
Then Misha started to ad-lib. He made up his own ending. He said, "And when Maria laid the baby in the manger, Jesus looked at me and asked me if I had a place to stay. I told him I have no mamma and I have no papa, so I don’t have any place to stay. Then Jesus told me I could stay with him. But I told him I couldn’t, because I didn’t have a gift to give him like everybody else did. "But I wanted to stay with Jesus so much, so I thought about what I had that maybe I could use for a gift. I thought maybe if I kept him warm, that would be a good gift. So I asked Jesus, 'If I keep you warm, will that be a good enough gift' And Jesus told me, 'If you keep me warm, that will be the best gift anybody ever gave me.' "So I got into the manger, and then Jesus looked at me and he told me I could stay with him--for always."
As little Misha finished his story, his eyes brimmed full of tears that splashed down his little cheeks. Putting his hand over his face, his head dropped to the table and his shoulders shook as he sobbed and sobbed. The little orphan had found someone who would never abandon nor abuse him, someone who would stay with him--FOR ALWAYS. (2)
Here is one poor little orphan boy that gets the message of the manger, much more than most of us. There is a message in the manger and I want us to look at that that this morning. Our focal verse is the last verse we read:
Luke 2:7 (NKJV) And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
The scene at the manger was not one of sweetness that we imagine. It was dirty and smelly. It was scandalous. It was a scene of desperation of the poor and rejected. The irony of the most important event in history taking place in a manger should not be lost sight of; it reveals how God elevates the lowly and humble and rejects the proud and mighty of this world. (3)
You see: The world was and still is steeped in sin. It all began in the Garden. God set the rules in the Garden and there was only one:
Genesis 2:17 (NKJV) but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Death was the penalty then and it is the penalty today for offending a holy God.
Romans 6:23a (NKJV) For the wages of sin is death . . .
Many may say to me, “Yes, Yes, Pastor you have said this many time before, let’s move on.” I really don’t think we quite understand the significance of this; I myself don’t quite grasp it all, so I believe it worth repeating over and over, because I need to hear it over and over again. I’m a sinner, I need saving. One reason I believe the world is as lost as it is, it is because the world does not know it is lost, the world does not know it has offended God, the world does not know they are dead spiritually and eternally. This is why God sent Jesus. Jesus came to deliver us from sin and death
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NKJV) For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
God told us from the beginning our delivery from death would be through a Man and not an angel.
Genesis 3:15 (NKJV) And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”
God is talking to the serpent here. The woman’s Seed is the whole human race. Jesus is of that seed. Satan will cripple mankind, pulling them away from the God that created them. But the Seed that is Jesus, a Man, will crush the serpent’s head. This was to be done by a Man, not an Angel.
Hebrews 2:16–17 (NKJV) For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham. 17 Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
God further said this man would be a Jew and not Gentile and from the tribe of Judah, born of a virgin, and in the little town of Bethlehem.
All of this occurred just as the Scriptures said, and Caesar Augustus unknowingly played an important part in ordering the census. All of history is in the hands of God and God brings it all about at His timing.
Galatians 4:4 (NKJV) But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
We look at the irony of Caesar ordering the census. Caesar may have made the decree, but it is God that is in change. God orders all of History for His purposes. God does not sit back and watches things unfold. Not as Bette Midler sings, God does not watch us from a distance, God is History itself.
And here is a real irony; The baby Mary carried was not a Caesar, a man who desired to become a god, but a far greater wonder—the true God who had become a man! (4)
Philippians 2:6–7 (NKJV) who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
Please to not miss the significance of this. We cannot save ourselves; the penalty of sin is death, and this death is eternal. Jesus became a man to take our place, to pay the price we could not pay. Now back to the manger:
Luke 2:7b (NKJV) and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
This was an omen of what was to come and how the world, His own people, the Jews, would receive Him. Royal figure though he is, the entire drama that surrounds the birth of Jesus takes place with no part given to the secular or religious rulers of the land.(5)
Joseph and Mary capsulized the mystery of grace—the King does not come to the proud and powerful but to the poor and powerless. (6)
Why does God choose to work this way?
1 Corinthians 1:27–29 (NKJV) But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 28 and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, 29 that no flesh should glory in His presence.
Jesus was born to desperately poor parents, born in a barn among the stench and smells. The Royal announcement of His birth was not to Kings and or to the High Priests working in the Temple, God sent angels to announce His birth to lowly shepherds. Shepherds were rejected as unclean, with only lepers being more unclean. Jesus did not come for the high and mighty, those who know their lofty position in life, Jesus came for the lowly, the humble.
Mark 2:17 (NKJV) When Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
Jesus came for you and me. That is the message of the manger. The promised king came to his people but did not have enough power to secure a resting place for his birth. The descendants of David descended to a stable to find a place to lay the head of the King of kings. This is how God used earth’s lowest to bring salvation from heaven’s highest.(7)
Having said all of this, here are the points I want you to take away from the message of manger:
1. God’s message of salvation is for all, Starting the lowliest and humbled among us.
2. Jesus came as a Baby. The Shepherds found an ordinary baby, lying in an animal feeding trough. But Jesus needed to grow up. It was 30 years later before Jesu even began His ministry and three years after that to the cross. Jesus did not come as a grown man to go straight to the cross. God’s plan was a slow process. The even bigger picture is the thousands of years of history passed before God sent Jesus. People do not come to Christ overnight. God’s ways are not our ways. He is at work even if we do not see it.
3. We have a Savior who understands our position in life because He has been there. We cannot say He has not experienced life with all its poverty and pitfalls. Jesus was born to poor parents and He experienced the stuggles of just surviving.
Hebrews 4:15–16 (NKJV) 15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Jesus knows where we live. We can come boldly before the throne of grace. That is the message of the manager. Jesus came for you. Jesus came for me.
Will you come to Him accept His free gift of salvation?
(1) Kenneth W. Osbeck, Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1996), 371. https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-away-in-a-manger and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Away_in_a_Manger
(2) https://www.sermoncentral.com/illustrations/sermon-illustration-sermoncentral--stories-christmaseve-80037?+ref=TextIllustrationSerps
(3) Robert H. Stein, Luke, vol. 24, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 107.
(4) R. Kent Hughes, Luke: That You May Know the Truth, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1998), 83.
(5) John Nolland, Luke 1:1–9:20, vol. 35A, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 2002), 106.
(6) R. Kent Hughes, Luke: That You May Know the Truth, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1998), 82.
(7) Trent C. Butler, Luke, vol. 3, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 29.
