What better way to start the year than with a new episode of Sherlock?
Since its first episode back in 2010, the hit BBC show has established itself as one of the most successful reinventions of this classic fictional character. This is a resolutely modern, London-based adaptation: gone are Conan Doyle’s smog and carriages; in their place are laptops, mobile phones and Twitter hashtags. Our crime-solving hero is presented as ‘a new sleuth for the 21st century’, supplementing his trademark methods of logical deduction with cutting-edge scientific methods and the latest technology. Sherlock is brilliant, fast, dynamic, dapper and funny. Yet he’s also arrogant, odd, obsessive and, as journalist Amanda Mitchison puts it, ‘slightly Aspergers-ish’. He is able to make us laugh, but he’s also part of a world that is dark and frightening.
The detective and the Doctor
Doctor Who’s head writer and executive producer Steven Moffat played a major role in Sherlock’s creation, and the two shows’ protagonists are strikingly similar. Both delight in their intellect, which allows them to solve problems and save lives – always being one step ahead, and always winning in the end. However, Moffat explains that the two characters are almost opposites: ‘The Doctor is the angel who aspires to be human, and Sherlock is the human who aspires to be an evil god’.
Leap to save others?
The final episode of the second series, The Reichenbach Fall, certainly hinted at a possible Messiah complex. After an arduous battle to track down ‘a good old-fashioned villain’, Sherlock finds himself standing on the roof of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and facing his ultimate rival. The evil mastermind, Moriarty, taunts him with the possibility that he is nothing special: ‘You’re ordinary. You’re on the side of the angels.’ This may be the case, but with Moriarty goading him to jump off of the building, there is no promise of angels to bear him up. Then Moriarty delivers the killer blow: Sherlock will have to sacrifice himself if he wants to save those few people that he loves.
And so, stretching his arms out wide like a crucifix or the wings of an angel, he lets himself fall to his death. The gruesome shots of his blood-smeared head leave us in no doubt that he has met his end. Yet only a few scenes later, as mourners surround his grave, we see that he is — miraculously — alive. As Twitter would have it, #Sherlocklives!
Self-sacrifice
How interesting that our culture is inherently drawn to the story of a hero who sacrifices his life for others and is miraculously resurrected. Perhaps this will come as no surprise to those of us who are Christians, for we know that Jesus showed the ultimate love in laying down his life for us, yet was raised in glory. And even those in our society who have turned away from him are compelled to relive lesser versions of this same narrative over and over again.
Defeated not cheated
Yet, of course, Sherlock’s story is not the same as Jesus’. Sherlock is neither immortal nor divine. By some intellectual prowess, sleight of hand, or trickery, he cheated death. But Jesus did much more than that: he defeated death. We can know with certainty that his resurrection is genuine. We can rejoice in the fact that he overcame the powers of darkness and that, through him, God allows us to share in his victory over sin and death (1 Corinthians 15.57). And we can embrace his as our Saviour, for the 21st century, and for all time.
