The Second Coming
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The Parousia
 (The Second Coming of the Messiah)

Zechariah 14:7

For it will be a unique day which is known to the LORD, neither day nor night, but it will come about that at evening time there will be light

Programme title: The Second Coming

Writer: Russell T Davies Starring: Christopher Ecclestone
Production company: Carlton Broadcaster: ITV1
First broadcast: 2003
Christopher Eccleston gave a typically first rate, rather edgy performance as Steve Baxter, a video shop assistant from Manchester who suddenly realises that he is, contrary to all previous expectations, the Son of God.

This revelation comes to him after a drunken night out during which he finally kisses Judith (Lesley Sharp), a girl he'd fancied while they were at school together. After forty days and forty nights in the Pennine wilderness that is Saddleworth Moor, a light-generating miracle in Manchester City football ground (he's a big fan), the death of the pope, and various other miracles, people start believing him. Baxter announces that there is to be a third Testament and it will be written by one of the people, who can post it or email it to him.

  

 
 

 

 But while friends and acquaintances come to put their faith in him, Judith is less impressed. She does, though, get to have sex with him after all those years - Baxter is a very flawed human messiah. Eventually she reluctantly concludes that he might be right and, if so, it's time for God to die. On the night which Baxter expects to be the world's last, Judith invites him for a meal - spaghetti and rat poison Bolognese. When he realises that she is not joking when she tells him the ingredients, he protests that he can't be killed - a claim that he had already substantiated pretty impressively by being invulnerable to both fire and bullets. But Judith tells him that when the time is right, he can die. She says, 'and when you die, you're not going to Paradise. You're dying properly and for ever, and you're taking the whole thing with you. God and heaven and hell - all dead. The end of this world and the start of a new one without religion on our backs.'

Steve asks what kind of world it would be without God. Judith is confident that it would be better because 'right now we're promised an afterlife so we waste the seventy years we've got. If God is dead, though, this is all we've got. Then maybe we'll use it. Maybe we'll become better - than you.'

Steve Baxter stares into camera and sees that Judith is right. He realises what the content of the third Testament is to be: 'family business closes down.' And faced with the apparent rightness of his friend's judgment on him, he shoulders his own responsibility and greedily swallows down his spaghetti to die a rapid, but clearly painful, death. 'In that second,' says one of the characters afterwards, 'all of his creations felt his death. Right at the end, everyone believed, everyone. And everyone knew he was gone.'

New Testament teaching about Jesus' is rather different there will be no second virgin birth, no repeat of growing up in northern obscurity. People will not be trying to work out whether or not he's genuine. Jesus himself says that when he does return, 'all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other' (Matthew 24:31 (NIV)).

  

 

The question you have to answer is:
A. iii.) Analyse and explain the way in which a religious theme of concern to Christians has been dealt with in a film or television drama.

Then answer the following questions in your book.
1. What is the religious theme of concern in this film for Christian?

The film seems to parallel known aspects of Jesus� life in the New Testament. There are loads of examples of this scattered through the film. 2. Copy the table below into your book and try and list examples you have spotted in the film.

Examples in the Film

Mirror examples in Jesus� life?

 

 

 

The film centres around the idea of the second coming when Jesus will return to the world. This is a central aspect of Christian faith that Jesus will come back to judge us at the end of the world � on The Day of Judgement.  3. What does the word Parousia mean?  Plus make a basic note on the quotation from Zechariah (Old Testament) and St.Matthew (New Testament) about the second coming. 

4. How do you think Christians would react to the second coming of Stephen Baxter (as Jesus) the way it is portrayed in the film?

5. The 3rd Testament is supposed to be written by the public to save the world � there is no mention of this in the New Testament. Is it a good idea for people to try and work out ways of trying to save the world or is this God�s job? Do we need a God to look after us?

6. The film portrays Baxter as having sex with Judith before his �last supper� what would Christians view on this be?

7. In the New Testament Jesus has his last supper with his disciples before he is captured and crucified the next morning. In the film he has the last supper with Judith (Judith betrays him as Judas betrayed Jesus). Why does she believe the world would be better off without God?

 


8. What do you think Christian�s reaction to the film in general would be? Would they be pleased that the idea of the second coming has become a talking point a vehicle for discussion due to a drama on TV? Or would they be totally opposed to the end with its Atheist viewpoint.

9. To conclude do you think it works as a piece of drama putting forward both a Christian and Atheist viewpoint? What would you have done to make this a more convincing piece of drama?

10. At the end of the drama it talks to people as if it is a documentary. Do you think the people are happy that there is no longer a God or do you think they regret the death of Baxter? How would Christians react to this aspect of the drama?