Pastor Commentaries,

Dean Kurpjuweit, Pastor - www.nextchristiancommunity.org
The song ‘We Three Kings’ was a favorite of mine as a child.  Perhaps it was the ‘oh, oohh, ooohhhhh, oooohhhhh!!!’ that my friends and I always belted out during Christmas caroling that made it enjoyable.  Or more likely, it is the alternative lyrics that we sang with great glee:  

“We three kings are really square.
Trying to sell our cheap underwear
Real fantastic, no elastic, why don’t you buy a pair!

‘We three kings of orient are.
Puffing on a rubber cigar.
It was loaded, it exploded.
BANG!”

Clearly I didn’t come up with this back then, instead the parody lyrics have been passed down from generation to generation.  They are proof positive that the REALLY good stuff always carries forward.  (As an aside, one of my favorite past-times is informing my daughters that the ‘trick’ or ‘saying’ that they learned on the playground is something that I use to do or know.  They truly believe it is all original material!)

Of all the spiritual songs written for Christmas, ‘We Three Kings’ has probably done the most theological damage (along with ‘Away in a Manager.’).  Here is why:

First we have no idea how many Magi there were.  There was more than one, but outside of that, we have no idea.  The tradition of there being three Wisemen is a result of there being three gifts given to Jesus by them.  So, the theory went, one gift for each giver.  It is somewhat logical, but is unsubstantiated.  ‘We Three Kings’, more than anything else, drilled in the notion that their three men from the East that came to visit Jesus.

Second, they weren’t Kings.  They were Magi, which is to say, they were astrologers and philosophers.  They were ‘Wisemen’ in that they were wise to the prophecies of the Hebrew bible and made decisions accordingly.  To call them ‘Wisemen’ is an accurate interpretation.  To refer to them as ‘Magi’ is to use their most literal title.  To call them ‘Kings’ is flat out wrong.  

What we can gather from this is something rather simple:  as you sing Christmas Carols, even the ones about the Christmas Story, don’t assume that the songwriter got it right.  It might be a decent song, but that doesn’t mean that it is correct.  I would strongly suggest that lyrics do matter!  They help to tell a story and teach about Jesus.  Let’s sing the ones that get it right.