Jesus was a working man   And a hero you will hear   Born in the town of Bethlehem   At the turning of the year   At the turning of the year      When Jesus was a little lad   Streets rang with his name   For he argued with the older men   And put them all to shame   He put them all to shame      He became a wandering journeyman   And he traveled far and wide   And he noticed how wealth and poverty   Live always side by side   Live always side by side      So he said, "Come all you working men   Farmers and weavers too   If you would only stand as one   This world belongs to you   This world belongs to you"      When the rich men heard what the carpenter had done   To the Roman troops they ran   Saying put this rebel Jesus down   He's a menace to God and man   He's a menace to God and man      The commander of the occupying troops   Just laughed and then he said   "There's a cross to spare on Calvaries hill   By the weekend he'll be dead   By the weekend he'll be dead"      Now Jesus walked among the poor   For the poor were his own kind   And they'd never let them get near enough   To take him from behind   To take him from behind      So they hired one of the traders trade   And an informer was he   And he sold his brother to the butchers men   For a fistful of silver money   For a fistful of silver money      And Jesus sat in the prison cell   And they beat him and offered him bribes   To desert the cause of his fellow man   And work for the rich men's tribe   To work for the rich men's tribe      And the sweat stood out on Jesus' brow   And the blood was in his eye   When they nailed his body to the Roman cross   And they laughed as they watched him die   They laughed as they watched him die      Two thousand years have passed and gone   Many a hero too   But the dream of this poor carpenter   Remains in the hands of you   Remains in the hands of you