The Carol that Broke Chains

Merry Christmas! You’re about to grow closer to each other and closer to Jesus!

This season of the True Girl podcast, we’re exploring “The Wonder of Christmas.” To do that, Dannah Gresh is taking you into the past to look at the true stories behind some favorite Christmas carols. The best ones point you to Jesus and what He’s done.

Last time, we heard about the song that paused a war: “Silent Night.” Today’s episode is about “The Carol that Broke Chains.”

[Sound of cell phone ringing, goats, and ducks]

Staci Rudolph: Hello, Dannah Gresh!

Dannah Gresh: Staci, Hello. Merry Christmas! Brrrr. It’s a cold morning.

Staci: Merry Christmas. Where are you?

Dannah: The barn. I’m just giving the animals some hay before heading inside to share some time with our True Girl family. And, well, I was missing you. It’s not the same without you! Do you have anything you want to say to us on this fine, cold Christmas Eve Day?

Staci: [Staci to actually say hello and Merry Christmas to True Girl. And just say what she is doing today on Christmas day and express her love for the girl listening. Then tells Dannah to get inside and warm up.]

Merry Christmas, Dannah!

Dannah: Bye, my friend! Merry Christmas.

Oh, that was fun. Now . . .

[Door opens and closes. Fireplace crackling. Chair creaking.]

Ah, that’s better! Sit down with me by this warm fire. Much better than that cold barn out there.

Well now, let’s talk about another Christmas carol. I’d better get to it, because Addie and Zoe and Stella and Theo will be coming through that front door for Christmas peppermint bark pancakes any moment. 

Let’s see. I’m going to need my Bible.

[Pages turning]

This story begins in France, almost two hundred years ago.

A minister asked a local poet—a man named Placide Cappeau—to write a poem for Christmas Eve.

Now, Placide wasn’t known for being a Christian. In fact, he was a wine merchant who didn’t go to church much. But he opened his Bible and began to read the Christmas story in Luke 2.

The Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this census.

And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David’s ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. He took with him Mary, to whom he was engaged, who was now expecting a child.

And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. She gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.” (vv. 1–7)

When Placide read those words, the Spirit of God began to make them come alive to him. He imagined standing in that stable. No place for the son of God! Cold, perhaps like my barn this morning. And that’s where God in human flesh was born!

He pictured the baby Jesus, the wonder of His mother, the glory of the moment. And words began to flow:

O holy night, the stars are brightly shining,
it is the night of our dear Savior’s birth.

The writer thought, How sinful was the world to put a mother about to give birth in a stable? And he kept writing: 

Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
till He appeared, and the soul felt its worth.

Those words just take my breath away.

Somehow, that sinful man who wrote those words read the story of Jesus’ birth and he felt worth! He felt the love of Jesus. He sensed the affection of the Baby born to save his soul. The God of the universe came to earth as a human because Placide was worth it to him.

Well, Placide asked his friend Adolphe Adam to set the poem to music. Adam was a well-known composer.

When the song was performed that Christmas Eve in 1847, the congregation was simply stunned by the power of the song.

Song: “O Holy Night” by the Choir of King’s College

Dannah: People wept. But . . . soon after, church leaders in France tried to ban it. They had discovered that Placide Cappeau was—get this—a sinful man.

Now, all of us are that: sinners. Romans 3:23 reads, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard.”

But some of the people in France forgot that, it seems. Since a sinful man wrote the song and not a “churched” person, they called the song “unfit for worship.”

But the people loved it too much to let it go.They kept singing it—at home, in gatherings, in secret. And the song traveled across the ocean to America. It was translated into English by a man who was fighting against American slavery. His name was John Sullivan Dwight.

He was moved by one line in particular: “Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother; and in His name, all oppression shall cease.”

For Dwight—and for thousands of Christians fighting against slavery—those words became a hymn of hope. They sang it in homes and churches across the country, believing that the same Jesus who broke the chains of sin could also break the chains of injustice in our nation.

You know, the story of Christmas has always been about God reaching into a broken world and setting people free. So when we sing “O Holy Night,” we’re joining a centuries-old chorus that declares: Jesus came to break chains!

Not just the heavy ones we see in the world because of things like slavery, but the ones that wrap around our hearts—guilt, shame, sin. And that truly is the wonder of Christmas. 

One line of the song says: “Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices.”

When we really see what Jesus has done for us—freedom, forgiveness, worth—all we can do is kneel in wonder.

So this Christmas, as you unwrap gifts or sip cocoa or sit by the fire, pause for a moment. Be a little like that sinful guy who read Luke 2 and felt his worth to a little Baby in a manger.

Jesus loves you, True Girl. He loves you so much that He gave up the privileges of being God and came to earth as a little human being. When he got here, there was no room for him in the local inn, so he slept in a stable. A cold barn. Why? Because you were worth it to Him.

He loves you!

Song: “O Holy Night” by Sidewalk Prophets

Claire: That was “O Holy Night” by Sidewalk Prophets.

Merry Christmas, True Girl.

The True Girl podcast is produced by Revive Our Hearts, calling women of all ages to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ!

“O Holy Night (Arr. John Rutter),” Daniel Hyde, The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge & Britten Sinfonia, Rutter: Orchestral Carols (Bonus Track Edition) ℗ 2023 King’s College, Cambridge.

“O Holy Night,” Sidewalk Prophets, Merry Christmas to You (Great Big Family Edition) ℗ 2019 Curb | Word Entertainment.