Mike Novotny - Away in a Manger
Why We Love Classic Christmas Music
The Washington Post published a really fascinating piece of research in an article entitled «Why We Love Christmas Music.» Essentially, what they did was look at the Christmas playlists that most of us play—the songs that topped the charts last Christmas, the Christmas before, and the Christmas before that, basically over the last ten years. What they discovered were two fascinating things.
Number one, they found that the songs we listen to year after year generally don’t change; there aren’t many new additions that crack the Christmas top 10. And maybe even more fascinating is that the songs we turn to each Christmas for our playlists were not written 10 years ago, or 12 years ago, or 20 years ago. They actually go way, way back, most of them to before the time I was even born.
The Top Christmas Classics
Let me show you a picture of what The Washington Post found: the top 10 songs on our Christmas playlist, which include Bing Crosby’s classic from 1942—before my parents were even born—Nat King Cole in 1946, and Brenda Lee’s «Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree» from 1958. «Feliz Navidad» was released in 1970. In fact, of the top 10, there are only two songs that were written after my birth in 1980. If it weren’t for Wham’s classic—still a mystery how that became a classic when I was in preschool—and then Mariah Carey’s chart-topping hit that came out when my first whisker was popping off my face in middle school, if it weren’t for those two songs, all of them were written before my birth, and some even before the birth of your aunts and uncles, your parents, maybe even your grandparents.
For a culture that loves things that are new—the latest shows, the latest screens, the latest phones—around Christmas time, it turns out we don’t love the new and the novel; we love the classic and nostalgic. This kind of begs an interesting psychological question: why would that be?
Why We Crave the Old at Christmas
Turn on pop radio from January through October or November, and the songs are always fresh; nothing stays in the top 10 for more than a month or two or six at the most. So why, during the Christmas season, do we not want the new? We crave the old.
Well, here’s one theory to answer that question: at the end of the year, when so many things in our lives have changed, we love to end the year with something that is unchanging, rock steady, and stable. I’m not sure how good your memory is, but think back to a Christmas a year ago. Has anything changed in the world since then? Has the economy changed? Just a little bit. Have some of your retirement accounts changed? More than a little bit. Have the governors, leaders, and politicians changed? Some of them, yes. Have the laws of the land changed? Some of them, yes. Have the best sports teams changed? For sure. Has the climate changed? Yes. Everything, it seems, has changed.
Changes in Our Personal Lives
And it’s not just an out-there-in-the-headlines thing; it’s actually under our own roofs that so much has changed, right? For better or worse, I bet compared to 12 months ago, so much is different about your life now than it was last Christmas. Some of you got a new job; some of you got a new promotion or a raise. For some of you, your bank account has changed; it’s looking a lot better or maybe quite a bit worse. Maybe you’ve made a new friend over the past year whom you’re going to invite to your Christmas meal, or maybe the last one who was at the Christmas invitation party last year.
For some of us, the family that’s going to sit around the Christmas feast has changed; Grandma’s in heaven; she’s passed on. A brand-new baby is going to wear her first Christmas dress and have pureed whatever shoved into her mouth with a little plastic spoon. Maybe you got some new in-laws after your summer wedding, or maybe you lost some in-laws after a divorce this past year. Maybe you finally cleared that two-year mark after battling cancer, or maybe cancer showed up for the first time three or nine months ago. It’s everything: our health, our mental health, our money, our economy, the world we live in— a culture where everything either did change, is changing, or probably will change before the next year is over.
So, maybe psychologically it makes sense that when we have to worry about all of these things all the time, we just like to end the year with something we don’t have to worry about—something that we don’t have to learn, something that’s nostalgic and predictable, that feels like a rock we can set our feet upon.
Adding Classic Carols to Our Playlist
You know, this time of year, we talk a lot about big words like peace, joy, and hope, but it’s hard to be still and have peace when everything changes. So maybe this Christmas playlist makes sense: we want something that reminds us of the past, something that hasn’t changed and probably won’t.
Now, if that’s the case—if you agree with me that so many things have changed and we just want something steady and reliable—I’m super happy you’re here today, and I’m super excited you’re watching at home because today I want to add to your Christmas playlist. I want to take some classic songs—not just those on pop radio in the car—but classic songs that the Christian church has sung around this time of year, not just for the last year or two, but maybe for the last century or two or more.
I’m going to go back to those classic Christmas carols, and here’s what I want to do: I don’t just want to call back the nostalgia for some of you from growing up in church—the Christmas Eve service when everything got quiet, and they lit the little candle, and we all sang «Silent Night"—and the organ dropped out. That’s emotional, but I actually want to give you something so much better than that. I actually want to strip away the music for just a second and have you look really intentionally at the lyrics in these classic Christmas songs because, the truth is, music can move you for a moment, but only a message can bless you when the moment is over, right?
Eventually, the band stops playing, and music loses its effect. But if it’s possible in the next few weeks that I can put a message about an unchanging God and unfailing love into your heart, then whether something changes in your life this Christmas or next Easter or next summer, you would actually have something rock steady and reliable to depend on. You would have a Jesus who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
So, that’s my goal for the next few weeks: we’re going to look back at these classic Christmas carols. If you’re here live at the core, we’re going to sing them after the sermon is done—I hope with more meaning than ever—but just for a second, so the music doesn’t distract us, I’m not going to sing them a cappella for you, thank the Lord. Instead, we’re just going to look at verse after verse, chorus after chorus, and see the truth about this amazing God that we have packed inside these beautiful and classic songs.
Diving into «Away in a Manger»
So, if you’re up for that, we’re going to dive into our first song today—a classic, «Away in a Manger.» A quick church show of hands: how many of you have heard or sung «Away in a Manger» before? Hands up. Nice and high. All right, hands down. Any of you here today or watching at home, is it your very first time singing «Away in a Manger»? Zero votes? All right, so this is a song that lots of us know. It actually had an interesting rumor attached to it; many people in the early years thought that «Away in a Manger» was written by Martin Luther, the great German theologian. Some of the titles of the song were «Luther’s Cradle Song, » but it turns out, I know a Lutheran probably said that.
It’s a good song, and Martin Luther probably, it turns out, he didn’t do it. The song was actually written in the late 1800s right here in America, and it was almost an instant classic. It was like that one Bruno Mars song that’s just on the radio forever and ever and ever. By 1891—I learned this—the song was sweeping the country. Multiple artists were recording multiple musical settings, different musical remixes that all focused on this incredible and touching song about the birth of Jesus.
Now, over the years, people have tweaked the wording and lyrics; you’re going to notice that today, but I hope you find in this classic tune and this classic text the unchanging truth about the birth of Jesus. Here’s how the song starts: «Away in a Manger, no crib for a bed, the little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head. The stars in the sky looked down where he lay, the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.»
The Meaning of «Away»
Now, I’m 42. I’ve been singing «Away in a Manger» every Christmas season for about 42 years, and if there’s one word I never thought about—not even once for all of those years—that now I can’t stop thinking about, it’s the word «away.» Have you ever meditated on the meaning of that word?
If the point was just that the Lord Jesus came down from heaven and Mary put him in a manger, the song could say «Look, there in a manger, » or «Right there in a manger, no crib for a bed.» But it doesn’t say that. It says «Away in a Manger.» What does that mean?
Well, the word «away”—I don’t have to tell you this—implies a distance between two things. If I start a conversation with you in the lobby after church and you say, „Pastor Mike, go away, ” don’t say that; that would be very un-Christian of you. But you’re basically saying „put some distance between the two of us.“ Or if you say, „My husband went away to serve in the military, ” or „My daughter went away to college, ” you’re saying there’s some significant distance between where you are and where that person is.
So this song, from the very first word, wants you to know that the Jesus who is in the manger is „away.“ And how far away was he? He is the Lord, as this first verse says two times, the Lord of Heaven. Jesus is the Son of God who lived with his Father and the Holy Spirit for all eternity in perfect comfort and glory—in a place where there was no struggle, no suffering, and no pain—where saints and angels worshiped him for years upon years, centuries, and millennia upon millennia. That’s where Jesus belonged.
And yet, here he comes, way, way, way, way, way, way far away from his home, and is placed in a manger. In fact, if you want to know just how far from the comforts of Heaven Jesus was, think about that word „manger.“ You know what a manger is? I kind of hate how we Hallmark most of the original Christmas story. We kind of think of this perfectly symmetrical two pieces of wood and just this Egyptian-like cotton straw—something like this beautiful little ancient crib and Jesus all snuggled up; it looks so great.
You know what a manger was? It was a feeding trough that barnyard animals would lick. This is kind of like saying the little Lord Jesus in a dog dish, right? Your dog licks his dish; your cat scrapes the bottom of the bowl, and barnyard animals would have taken their gritty, wet tongues and licked a manger.
Now, how desperate do you have to be, moms—you can answer this question—how desperate do you have to be to put your firstborn child in a manger? I mean, Jesus, who was living in perfect comfort and glory, his first moment out of the womb—after Mary’s arms—was there. There were no sanitizing scrubs; there was no Febreze to make it smell better. Jesus was so, so far from his heavenly home that he came into the muck and the mud of life on Earth.
He humbled himself, so his love for you was so profound he desperately wanted to save you so, so badly that he didn’t just come down to live away in a palace, or away in a castle, or away in a comfortable chair; he was born—I hope you never sing those first four words the same way again—he was „Away in a Manger.“ There should be like a parenthesis and just a bunch of exclamation points after that.
The Lord Jesus became little and ended up in a manger. The one who made all the stars and looked down upon them was now being looked down upon by the stars. He was so, so low in humility and love. And when I think about Jesus getting into the middle of it, I think about an epic run that I had about nine months ago. My wife, Kim, my friend Matt, and I were on this trip in Israel. We were staying in a hotel right on the Sea of Galilee, and right next to it is an epic national park called Mount Arbel.
Now, we got up before the sun came up; we ran to the start of the trail, and then we started going back and forth to get up to this amazing view so we could watch the sun come up over the Sea of Galilee. Does it sound idyllic? It almost was because we were not alone on Mount Arbel; cattle were low—animals covered the sides grazing on the hills, wild animals with big horns. In fact, I took a picture when we came across one. We were on the side of this cliff trying not to die, and right in the middle of the path was this giant beast with these huge horns, and we looked at each other like, „Ah, what do we do now?“
And since Mt. Arbel, we said to my wife, „Ladies first, ” right? We actually made it past the cow; there were tons of them all over the place. Not to be too graphic about it in church, but the cows were not just taking things into their bodies—they were pushing things out of their bodies, and they weren’t hiding them in the corner of the national park—stuff was everywhere.
So we were trying to dodge and not die, stepping on rocks, dirt, and mud. We think it’s mud, but we’re not quite sure; it was pretty nasty. In fact, there were a bunch of times we were so caked with stuff on the bottoms of our shoes that we would find a jagged rock and scrape it off. We got back to the hotel, got a hose just to salvage our shoes.
But then it hit me; this is the exact land where Jesus lived 2,000 years ago. When he was away from his heavenly home, he didn’t just live in a dirty manger and then jump to the palace; he walked—not with closed-toed modern running shoes, but with open-toed sandals—these exact same trails and hills. He didn’t have fancy running water in a swanky hotel to clean himself up. He got right into the middle of all the things that it means to be human.
When I thought about that, the King of all kings, the Lord of the earth, the one who made the stars, is in the middle of this—in a manger, in the muck, on a cross. How can you not be moved by the profound sacrifice and love that God has for us?
Verse Two: The Dawn of Salvation
Which gets our hearts ready for verse two. Now, I want to warn you before I show you these words: people have used different versions of the song. The version I’m about to share with you may not be the one that you grew up with, but don’t be mad at me. All right, here it goes:
„The cattle are low, the baby awakes, the dawn of salvation beginning to break. I love thee, Lord Jesus, O gift from above, the King of the heavens forever with us.“
I know, I know, it’s supposed to say, „The cattle are low, the baby awakes, the little Lord Jesus“ can you finish this with me? „No crying he makes, ” right? But some people have asked, is that true?
Once again, let’s not make this a beautiful Hallmark moment. Did Jesus, you know, always have that peaceful expression? Did Mary not sweat or grunt? Did Joseph not run around the manger totally panicked? Did Jesus never cry? They just put him in this feeding trough, and he didn’t cry at all? Is that true?
Some people have said, well, do we know Jesus was a baby? Babies cry, and Jesus likely cried. No crying he makes. So this author has chosen to tweak the lyrics, and I love the update.
„The cattle are low, the baby awakes, the dawn of Salvation beginning to break.“ That’s a great line! The dawn is the start of something—the dawn of salvation. In this case, it’s the dawn of salvation, so the act of saving us started with the conception and birth of Jesus. It led through his life, to the cross, and to his resurrection.
Understanding Salvation
I would say to you that to really understand the joy and relief of the Christmas season, in fact, to really understand what the Christian faith is all about, if you’re kind of new to church— that it is so, so essential to define that word „salvation“ in an emotional way.
We talk about that a lot in church, don’t we? Jesus is our Savior; here’s the dawn of salvation. We sometimes ask, „Have you been saved?“ or „Were you saved by grace?“ You know what that word means? Saved means to be rescued from a horrific danger—like something unthinkable that just chills you to the core—like, that could have happened, and someone or something rescued us.
So we became not in danger, but safe. That’s what it means to be saved. Have you considered that if there was no Jesus in a manger, you would have been in horrific danger? Imagine that for a second: there’s no Jesus; there’s no manger; there’s no Christmas; there’s no cross; there’s no Easter. Imagine it was just you living life. How do you think you would make it through death and into the presence of God?
What would you do? Would you try to be nicer or cut back on some of your worst vices? Would you give a little extra to charity and maybe try to be more patient with the kids? Would you work on this part of your character, or step away from drinking or smoking like you used to? What would you do so that at the end of your life, you would feel confident and not absolutely terrified that you’re actually going to make it to a better place?
And Jesus would say, whatever your answer is, however much effort you were ready to put in, it would not have been nearly enough, and you would have been in horrific danger. Without a manger, you and I would have lived, however good or bad, we would have died, and then God would have looked us in the eye, shaking his head, and said, „Go to hell.“ And he would have been right.
Now, some of you are shocked to hear that because you’ve grown up in a warm and fuzzy culture that doesn’t think about sin. But just imagine if there you are, standing with all the world as a witness, and God just opens a book and starts to read—you know, the thing you said to your dad when you were 15, the thing you said to your worst enemy when she wasn’t in the office when you wanted to win that argument with your ex or your spouse. The depths that you sunk to.
If God, with no commentary, just read the bare facts of the worst moments of our lives, who of us would look around to the angels and say, „I’m worthy“? The answer is no one.
Listen, if on the main road that led into church today, God put up a single billboard with your three worst sins, I guarantee you would not have walked into this church.
Thank God Jesus is in that manger. Before you and I had to face death trying to be good and knowing we could never be good enough, thank God that the little Lord Jesus came down and the dawn of salvation began to break. Thank God that you and I don’t have to hope and pray and strive and sweat, thinking, am I good enough? Am I not good enough? Instead, we can look at the Jesus who started there and ended there and know that we don’t need to be afraid, that there is forgiveness for everything we’ve done wrong and that the blood of Jesus takes everything bad in that book and erases it, giving us a whole new story.
I love how the book of Hebrews talks about the birth of Jesus. It says this in Hebrews chapter 2: „Since the children have flesh and blood—since you and I are human—Jesus too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.“ That’s a poetic verse, understand what it means.
We would have been so afraid to die; we would have been enslaved to that fear: „Am I good enough? Am I going to hell? Can I make it to heaven?“ Jesus fixed it! He shared in our humanity so he would have a life to give on the cross, so that by his death he might free all of us so that we would not have to be afraid.
I hope the next time you see a picture or a painting of Jesus in a manger, instead of saying „Oh, how cute, ” you say, „Thank God.“ I hope the sight of your Savior there—not your teacher, your instructor, or your counselor, but your Savior in a manger—is the greatest relief, because it is the only way to be saved. That’s why the song says, „The dawn of salvation beginning to break. I love thee, Lord Jesus, O gift from above, the King of the heavens forever with us.“
A Real-Life Rescue Story
Did you hear the story of those three men whose boat sank off the coast of Louisiana in early October of 2022? Three guys were boating when their boat sank, and for 28 straight hours, they were stranded. They actually tied together their ice chests to have something to sit on, but then the sharks came. One of the sharks— you can find this picture on the internet—actually leapt out of the water and, with his jaws, ripped off the front half of one man’s life vest. He had to take his thumbs and gouge the shark in the eye so it scurried away, but it would be back, and it would bring friends.
One of the men, desperate and knowing the horrific danger, jumped into the water and swam. His cell phone had 1 or 2% left on the charge. He was looking for a signal, and by the grace of God, he found a signal, screenshotted his location, sent it to someone just before his phone died.
Then the men were there, floating on the ice chests, around them, four blacktip sharks circling and hungry until they heard in the distance, a Coast Guard helicopter appeared. Can you imagine how that must have felt? We are about to perish; something unspeakable is about to happen to us until someone else saves us.
That’s just like Christmas. The little cries of that infant are like the blades of the chopper coming to save us. It’s not just some heartwarming story like on Hallmark where we lost love and then Prince Charming walked into the room. No, this is us about to die and suffer the punishment of our sins until God, in his great love, gives up everything he has to give us everything that we need.
So when you see baby Jesus there, when you sing these songs, when you remember „Away in a Manger, “ remember the dawn of salvation— a Savior given to you. And if you believe that because of your sin you deserve to go to hell but because of Jesus you won’t come anywhere near it, only then are you prepared to sing the last verse of this song.
Verse Three: Worship and Surrender
Here’s how this modern rendition goes: „I worship you, Jesus, for all of my days; the highest of praises be unto your name. My God and my Savior, my King and my friend, yours is the glory forever. Amen.“ I love that rendition; it’s a big praise party for Jesus, right? The honor, the glory, the praise, all of my days! It’s all yours, Jesus.
In a few minutes, some of you are about to sing that, but before you do, I need you to understand what you’re singing. „I worship you, Jesus”—you know what that means? It means, „Jesus, I’m willing to do whatever you want because you’re worth it.“ That’s what’s packed into the word „worship.“
„Jesus, whatever you want me to do, whatever you want me to stop, whatever you want me to start, whatever you want me to change; not my will, but yours.“ That’s what it means to worship Jesus.
If you’re going to sing this song from a sincere heart, you’re basically saying to Jesus, „Blank check. You tell me what you want, and I will live the rest of all of my days trying to serve you, saying your will be done to the best of my ability.“ That’s a huge thing to say!
In fact, that might be the reason that some of you are kind of tentative about church or the Bible, or the Christian faith, because you know there are some things that you do or like to do that are different than what Jesus says. You know it’s like you’re handing your whole life, hopes, and dreams over to Jesus and saying, „Whatever you want, you’re worth it.“
It’s like you’re taking every desire; you’re taking your sexuality, your dollars, your cents, your budget, your retirement, your career, your relationships, and you’re saying to Jesus, „Doesn’t matter what I want. What do you want? Not my will, but yours be done.“
I’m not going to lean on how I see the world or understand things; I’m going to trust in you with all of my heart. That is a massive thing to say! You thought it was a warm and fuzzy church word, didn’t you? „Yeah, we worship Jesus.“ No! Anything and everything, Jesus is yours because you’re worth it.
But I want to tell you today, before I say Amen, he’s worth it! What Jesus wants to give you is so absolutely worth it that whatever you need to change, whatever it costs you to repent, you will never regret.
A Personal Story of Worth
When I was a junior in college, I was pretty serious about college Spanish. My professor, his name was Basis, we called him „Pro, ” and he was pitching this big college immersion trip to go study in Ecuador for four or five weeks. I was a college kid; I barely had any money. I was working in the summers during my breaks to save things up. I had to make a choice: have this amazing once-in-a-lifetime trip to Ecuador with my college classmates and one of my favorite professors or buy an engagement ring for my first-ever girlfriend.
And I made that Pro face so mad! I said, „This sounds amazing, but I’m going to give all this up because this woman is worth it!“ Yes, thank you! I know my wife gave you 10 bucks to clap, didn’t she? For years, you’d give me grief: „You should have been on the trip! You should have been on the trip! You missed it; it was so fun.“
Like I bet it was, but my choice was worth it. There come times in life where doing things that God doesn’t like could be so fun for you, and they could be so comfortable for you and so easy for you. But anyone who gives up all the things they have to follow Jesus knows „I’m no fool. If this is the God who would be ‘Away in a Manger’ so the dawn of salvation could break, he is—he’s worth it.“
And I will worship you, Jesus! He’s not just a mean God telling me how to live my life. Did you catch the song? He’s my God, God, and my Savior; he’s my King and my friend. The King of all the universe says he is my friend! The God who needs nothing decided to give me everything and become my Savior.
That is why I will sing these words from the heart! „I worship you, Jesus, not just today, but for all of my days. Not just some praises; the highest of praises be unto your name, my God, my Savior, my King, and my friend; yours is the glory forever. Amen!“
What a sweet song, huh? It touches the heartstrings with that nostalgic melody, but it is so much more. Jesus in a manger, coming to save—there’s nothing new and novel in the song, but maybe that’s not what you need this Christmas. Maybe, like me, you just need the old, old story of Jesus and his love.
Prayer
„Jesus, we call her, the people who leave the comforts of home and family and friends to serve and fight for freedom overseas, but that sacrifice, as great as it is, is nothing compared to you. We honor those who gave up personal comfort and went through the trauma of war to fight for a greater cause, but that is nothing compared to your cross.
God, some of us might be used to these scenes of the Son of God on a cross or that little baby Jesus in a manger. I pray that you would wake us up this year to realize how profoundly beautiful and sacrificial all of that is—that the one who had the right to live in absolute comfort for all eternity gave all of it up to be so, so far away, right down to a manger.
Jesus, it is not easy to follow you. For some of us, it’s financial; for some of us, it’s forgiveness; for some of us, it’s sexual; for some of us, it’s materialism. There are challenges and temptations and decisions we make every single day.
Today, we are praying that your Holy Spirit would open our eyes to see and believe that if the King of Heaven gave up Heaven and came to Earth so that the people of Earth could end up in Heaven, you are worthy. So, Jesus, we lift up your Holy Name today as we pray, as I preach today, and as we sing „Away in a Manger.“ What an amazing Savior. It’s in the name of Jesus that all of us pray, and all God’s people said, „Amen.“
God, some of us might be used to these scenes of the Son of God on a cross or that little baby Jesus in a manger. I pray that you would wake us up this year to realize how profoundly beautiful and sacrificial all of that is—that the one who had the right to live in absolute comfort for all eternity gave all of it up to be so, so far away, right down to a manger.
Jesus, it is not easy to follow you. For some of us, it’s financial; for some of us, it’s forgiveness; for some of us, it’s sexual; for some of us, it’s materialism. There are challenges and temptations and decisions we make every single day.
Today, we are praying that your Holy Spirit would open our eyes to see and believe that if the King of Heaven gave up Heaven and came to Earth so that the people of Earth could end up in Heaven, you are worthy. So, Jesus, we lift up your Holy Name today as we pray, as I preach today, and as we sing „Away in a Manger.“ What an amazing Savior. It’s in the name of Jesus that all of us pray, and all God’s people said, „Amen.“