Lyrics
Tell me the story of Jesus,
Write on my heart every word;
Tell me the story most precious,
Sweetest that ever was heard.
Tell how the angels in chorus,
Sang as they welcomed His birth,
'Glory to God in the highest!
Peace and good tidings to earth.'
Tell me the story of Jesus,
Write on my heart every word;
Tell me the story most precious,
Sweetest that ever was heard.
Fasting alone in the desert,
Tell of the days that are past,
How for our sins He was tempted,
Yet was triumphant at last.
Tell of the years of His labor,
Tell of the sorrow He bore;
He was despised and afflicted,
Homeless, rejected and poor.
Tell of the cross where they nailed Him,
Writhing in anguish and pain;
Tell of the grave where they laid Him,
Tell how He liveth again.
Love in that story so tender,
Clearer than ever I see;
Stay, let me weep while you whisper,
Love paid the ransom for me.
Public domain hymn text (1880). Words by Fanny J. Crosby.
The Story Behind the Hymn
Fanny Crosby wrote 'Tell Me the Story of Jesus' in 1880, setting it to music composed by John R. Sweney, one of several composers she worked with regularly throughout her prolific career writing gospel song texts.
Rather than making any single doctrinal claim or personal testimony, the hymn takes the unusual form of a direct request, repeatedly asking someone else, implicitly the church, Scripture, or God Himself, to simply retell the gospel narrative once more.
That request-based structure, 'tell me,' repeated as both opening line and refrain, gives the hymn a childlike, receptive posture distinct from many of Crosby's more declarative texts, positioning the singer as a listener eager to hear familiar news again rather than as someone testifying to it.
Its first verse moves straight to the Nativity, quoting the angels' announcement from Luke 2 nearly verbatim; its second verse shifts to Christ's wilderness temptation and the years of His active ministry; and its third verse moves on to the crucifixion and resurrection, tracing the gospel narrative in careful chronological order from birth to empty tomb.
That deliberate, sequential structure, moving the listener through birth, temptation, ministry, and the cross across successive verses, gave the hymn particular usefulness in children's and Sunday school settings, where retelling the gospel story in order served a clear teaching purpose.
Crosby's description of Jesus as 'despised and afflicted, homeless, rejected and poor' draws directly on the Suffering Servant language of Isaiah 53, tying His earthly circumstances explicitly to that older prophetic portrait rather than describing His ministry only in triumphant terms.
The hymn remained a fixture of Sunday school and children's hymnals for generations, valued for its simple, repeatable request and its patient, orderly retelling of a story its earliest young singers may have been hearing, in full, for one of the very first times.
