What Child Is This?

TobyMac performs William Chatterton Dix's 1865 carol without alteration, and its third verse does something most Christmas songs avoid entirely — it names the crucifixion directly, in the same breath as the manger. 'Nails and spears shall pierce Him through, the cross He bore for me, for you' answers the opening question, 'what child is this,' with an answer that reaches decades past the infant being described.

John 19:34's account of a soldier piercing Jesus's side with a spear sits behind that verse's specific, physical detail, and 'hail, hail the Word made flesh' echoes John 1:14's declaration that 'the Word became flesh, and lived among us.' The carol's refrain, 'this, this is Christ the King, whom shepherds guard and angels sing,' repeats after each verse regardless of how far the content shifts — from a sleeping baby to a foretold crucifixion to a closing lullaby — holding the whole span of Christ's life together under one identical answer to the title's question.