Religion in Popular Music: Woody Guthrie's Jesus Christ

I am a major fan of folk music and folk-influenced popular music and I thought it might be fun to point out interesting songs I've come across about religion now and then. For starters a song that most any folk music listener would be familiar with, but which continues to amaze me: Woody Guthrie's "Jesus Christ." Guthrie wrote it in the 1940 according to notes he wrote on an early manuscript of the lyrics. Woody Guthrie was deeply concerned with social injustice and the plight of the poor, and one day in 1940 Guthrie said he was thinking about how "the poor folks lived" and what Jesus would say about it if he were preaching today. This is what he came up with.

"Jesus Christ" by Woody Guthrie

Jesus Christ was a man who traveled through the land
A hard-working man and brave
He said to the rich, "Give your money to the poor,"
But they laid Jesus Christ in His grave

Jesus was a man, a carpenter by hand
His followers true and brave
One dirty little coward called Judas Iscariot
Has laid Jesus Christ in His Grave

He went to the preacher, He went to the sheriff
He told them all the same
"Sell all of your jewelry and give it to the poor,"
And they laid Jesus Christ in His grave.

When Jesus come to town, all the working folks around
Believed what he did say
But the bankers and the preachers, they nailed Him on the cross,
And they laid Jesus Christ in his grave.

And the people held their breath when they heard about his death
Everybody wondered why
It was the big landlord and the soldiers that they hired
To nail Jesus Christ in the sky

This song was written in New York City
Of rich man, preacher, and slave
If Jesus was to preach what He preached in Galilee,
They would lay poor Jesus in His grave.

Guthrie's Jesus is amazing it seems to me for the 1940s. This is decades before Pier Paolo Pasolini made "The Gospel According to St. Matthew" with it's depiction of Jesus as social crusader. Guthrie's Jesus works no miracles, and no resurrection is hinted at. Guthrie's Jesus is completely recognizable and true to his traditional depiction in many ways but is transformed to match Guthrie's own ideals and to address his contemporary concerns. His Jesus's main virtue is that he was a "hard-working man and brave." The only hint of divine transcendence in this Jesus is that the "landlord" and the "soldiers" were hired to "nail Jesus Christ in the sky." The crucifixion, in this version, makes him a martyr because he preached for the advancement of the poor, much like the union and immigrant heroes Guthrie admired so much.

The difference between those other heros and Jesus is that Jesus becomes a martyr for all the poor who fight against the bankers, the rich, and the landlords. I think the key is how Guthrie plays with time here. This is clearly talking about the Jesus of the NT, but by having him talk the "sheriff" and the "bankers" and the "working folk around" he also places him in the time of Guthrie. He is in both times and places at once and perhaps when he is "nailed to the sky" he is in all times and places at once. He becomes more than a fighter against injustice, he becomes a symbol of the fight against injustice itself - which is still relevant 2000 years later in New York City.