Away in a Manger -
Luke 2:7 - “…and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped
him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room
available for them.
In our exploring the Carols of the
season thus far, we have pointed out some of the dramatic license hymn writers
have taken with the biblical accounts of the events surrounding Jesus’s
birth. Today we encounter a hymn itself
that has apocryphal (meaning not in the bible) stories surrounding it. Away in a Manger is sometimes called
“Luther’s Cradle Hymn.” This is because
the first time it showed up in a published book, it was reported that this
Carol was composed by Martin Luther himself and he would sing it to his
children every night as they went to sleep.
This was on March 2, 1882, in the "Childrens' Corner" section
of the anti-masonic journal The Christian Cynosure. Under the heading "Luther's Cradle
Song", an anonymous author contributed the first two verses, writing:
“The following hymn, composed by Martin Luther for his
children, is still sung by many of the German mothers to their little ones”
It would take too long to go through the process of how it
came to be known that most likely, the first two verses and the tune were
written by an unknown American author in the mid-eighteenth century. The third verse was most likely added by Charles
H. Gabriel in around 1892, but Gabriel also gave Luther credit. I guess the sentimental idea of the great
reformer Luther singing his children to sleep with this song was too hard to
confront.
The other issue that I have always had with this song (and
I’m not alone) is the line that reads, “But little Lord Jesus, no crying he
makes.” I understand the sentiment. This is the Son of God; he should be above
crying. However, this actually feeds
into a belief about Jesus that has been deemed heresy repeatedly by the church
– the heresy of Docetism. The word
Docetism comes from the Greek “dokein,” which means “to seem like.” The idea is that Jesus, while he was here on
earth, only appeared to be human. He was
always God, and thus, he never actually felt pain or experienced suffering of
any kind. God is above such human things
as the theory goes.
If you object to that, I say “awesome.” because that means
you have had some good solid teaching on Christology, or the nature of
Christ. The church, since it’s beginning
has held that Jesus was “fully God” AND “fully human” simultaneously. Hundreds of thousands of pages have been
written by theologians over the centuries to try explain how such a thing can
be true, but here’s the bottom line for me.
I don’t think we can ever truly know how it is possible to be fully
human and fully divine at the same time, but I still believe that is the truth
about Jesus.
That’s a long explanation to say that I believed that the
dear baby Jesus did actually cry. That’s
how human babies communicate and Jesus was a human baby. We worry about babies who never cry because
that usually means something is wrong.
Jesus got hungry and cried to be fed.
Jesus got scared and cried to be held.
He got hurt and cried to be comforted.
He needed a diaper and cried to be changed. He experienced everything all babies
experienced.
I love thinking about that because it reminds me that Jesus
also has experienced everything I experience now. He knows what it feels like to feel
brokenhearted, abandoned, depressed, angry, jealous, jubilation, excitement,
nervousness, and every other emotion I can think of. Because He knows all of that AND because He is
God, he can help me with whatever I’m going through.
I think about all of that when I sing “Away in a Manger” and
it comforts me.
Question: What do you think about the fact that the
Creator of the Universe submitted to become a helpless human baby?
Prayer: Emmanuel,
thank you for being with us and being one of us. Amen.
Prayer Focus: Pray
for children who cannot live with their parents and are “in the system.”
Song: Lauren Daigle -
Away in a Manger
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