Songs of Love and Rebellion/Jesus Christ
JESUS CHRIST
Then they seized you and they crowned you with a burning crown of thorns;
Now, the masters bow before you and a servile priesthood fawns;
In a far and distant Eden, in a hidden, gold-kept shrine,
They have buried all the treasure of the truth that was divine.
On the cross they built for labor, lo! they hanged you in the night,
And the jeering preachers cheered it as a deed for good and right;
But the workers gathered 'round you, and the Revolution spread,
And the priesthood and the masters for a moment were afraid.
Down the high-road of the ages marched your resurrected soul,
And the pagan powers trembled as their strong hands lost control;
But the priesthood and the masters they were ever full of guile,
And they re-enchained the workers with a promise and a smile.
Yea! they built you divers temples, and they took you from the sod
And set you up in heaven as an Emperor and God;
And they read a mystic meaning in your pure and simple creed
To the foolish workers dying on the battlefields of greed.
'Round your white and splendid altars they have reared a ghastly pile,
Copied from the Roman Masters, imitations weak and vile,
Where they hide you from the workers, where they rave at all who come
Seeking for the priceless truths you uttered ere your lips grew dumb.
Superstition-blighted knowledge—prison upon prison piled—
And the brazen creed of profit—thus have master hands defiled
All the mighty work you fashioned in the ages long ago,
When you led the hosts of labor and when labor loved you so.