The Last Judgment by Jean Cousin

The Man Comes Around

This will be a relatively short post.  Also, I’ll offer apologies to our loyal readers who may have seen some of what I’m about to discuss in comments to an earlier post.

He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
–from the Apostles’ Creed

After yesterday’s discussion that invoked Jesus as lover, this one will take up a musical vision of the Second Coming.  Shaleane’s excellent exploration of the artistic relationship, via murder ballad, between Nick Cave and Johnny Cash, already introduced us to Cash’s song “The Man Comes Around,” a song that describes, through a recomposition of various Biblical references, Jesus’ Second Coming at the end of the world.

Instead of portraying an endlessly compassionate and loving Jesus, or a Jesus focused primarily on the plight of the downtrodden, “the Man” is arriving in judgment.  Jesus returns to offer salvation to those who will have it; those who won’t have it face a separate fate.  

“The Man Comes Around,” by Johnny Cash (Spotify)  Lyrics

Hear the trumpets hear the pipers.
One hundred million angels singin’.
Multitudes are marchin’ to the big kettledrum.
Voices callin’, voices cryin’.
Some are born and some are dyin’.
It’s alpha and omega’s kingdom come.

Johnny Cash Credit:  Tim Bauer

Again, you’re probably saying, a bit of a stretch between this relatively recent (if Biblically-informed) composition, and the murder ballad genre.  I would have thought so, too, but for the fact that my introduction to this song was in the following clip from a television show I happened to turn on one night more or less by accident.  It was the concluding scene from the season finale of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, a television prequel/sequel to the Terminator movies.  (Whether it is a prequel or a sequel is difficult to pin down, as the whole series is based on the premise of time travel).

I think this is one of the more effective pairings of soundtrack to scene that I’ve seen on television:

I’m not so familiar with the ins and outs of the series to be able to describe exactly what is going on here.  The use of the music as the lead in to the S.W.A.T. team’s assault, and the Terminator figure sending them through the air to a kind of baptism in death is an incredibly rich set of images.  It definitely fires those synapses of coming to grips with one’s end–not too far distant from the protagonist’s expression of “my race is run beneath the sun,” in “Down in the Willow Garden.”

Clint Eastwood in Pale Rider

I am grateful to my friend, and McDaniel College religious studies professor, Greg Alles for years ago pointing out to me a number of ways that Jesus figures show up in cultural sources, particularly film, as a violent kind of savior.  The two examples below are ones that he drew to my attention.

Here’s a favorite from Clint Eastwood’s Pale Rider.  I believe it’s the only time in the movie when Clint Eastwood’s character, “The Preacher,” has a proper name ascribed to him.  Unfortunately, I can’t embed the clip, so you can see it here.  The allusions do not all fit into a nice tidy bundle, but watch the clip, and particularly pay attention to the gunmen running away, and then read Luke 17: 11-37. [Update: Feb 2013:  The link above is currently dead.  When I can find a comparable clip, I’ll post it.]

A more recent version of a violent savior can be seen here in The Matrix.  

Relative to cinematic depictions, of which there are many more, musical depictions of the Jesus of the Second Coming, at least in folk and popular song, seem relatively few–at least that I’m aware of.  It’s not the Jesus that most people seem to want to connect with.  If you know of examples, I’d be grateful to learn of them.  Please post below in the comments.

Coda:

  

“John the Revelator,” by Son House (Spotify)

Program note:

I had originally hoped to cap the week with a discussion of a few songs taking their bearings from the Cain and Abel story in Genesis.  As it turned out there was too much material and too little time to fold it into just one post at the end of this week; so, I’ll beg your indulgence to defer that exploration to a later week.  I’m currently waiting on a small surprise for our readers, which I hope will be some compensation.  Stay tuned.