Lyrics
The head that once was crowned with thorns
Is crowned with glory now;
A royal diadem adorns
The mighty Victor's brow.
The highest place that heaven affords
Is His, is His by right,
The King of kings and Lord of lords,
And heaven's eternal Light.
The joy of all who dwell above,
The joy of all below,
To whom He manifests His love,
And grants His name to know.
To them the cross, with all its shame,
With all its grace, is given;
Their name an everlasting name,
Their joy the joy of heaven.
They suffer with their Lord below,
They reign with Him above,
Their profit and their joy to know
The mystery of His love.
The cross He bore is life and health,
Though shame and death to Him;
His people's hope, His people's wealth,
Their everlasting theme.
Public domain hymn text (1820). Words by Thomas Kelly.
The Story Behind the Hymn
Thomas Kelly wrote 'The Head That Once Was Crowned with Thorns' in 1820, setting two crowns directly against each other and letting the second permanently answer and replace the first.
Its later verses extend that contrast to Christ's followers, arguing that the same pattern, shame giving way to glory, applies to them as well, since 'they suffer with their Lord below' and 'reign with Him above.'
That structure ties believers' own hardship directly to Christ's, treating suffering not as a separate misfortune but as genuine participation in the same pattern His own life followed.
The hymn's closing verse restates its opening image once more, calling the cross itself, once an instrument of shame, 'His people's hope, His people's wealth,' the community's lasting theme of praise.
Kelly, an Irish clergyman who funded and led his own independent congregations, wrote hundreds of hymns emphasizing Christ's present, ongoing reign, and this text remains one of the clearest examples of that emphasis.
