Here Was a Man

(Joy to the world the Lord is come) Here was a man a man who was born in a small village the son of a peasant woman He grew up in another small village Until he reached the age of thirty he worked as a carpenter Then for three years he was a traveling minister But he never traveled more than two hundred miles from where he was born And where he did go he usually walked He never held political office he never wrote a book never bought a home Never had a family he never went to college and he never set foot inside a big city Yes here was a man Though he never did one on the things usually associated with greatness He had no credentials but himself he had nothing to do with this world Except through the devine purpose that brought him to this world While he was still a young man the tide of popular opinion turned against him Most of his friends ran away one of them denied him One of them betrayed him and turned him over to his enemies Then he went through the mockery of a trial And was nailed to a cross between two thieves And even while he was dying his executioners gambled For the only piece of property that he had in this world And that was his robe his purple robe When he was dead he was taken down from the cross And laid in a borrowed grave provided by compassionate friends More than nineteen centuries have come and gone And today he's a centerpiece of the human race Our leader in the column to human destiny I think I'm well within the mark when I say that all of the armies that ever marched All of the navies that ever sailed the seas All of the legislative bodies that ever sat and all of the kings that ever reigned All of them put together have not affected the life of man on this earth So powerfully as that one solitary life Here was a man (joy to the world the Lord is come)