This is a question I've been thinking long and hard these past couple of days and I have some THOUGHTS SO. Buckle up.

Aziraphale and Crowley watching the Crucifixion (Good Omens, 2019)

First off. The answer to the question posited is relatively simple. What is Jesus up to in GO3? With s2's ending in mind and with the hints we've gotten for 668: Neighbor of the Beast over the years, we know he's descending to Earth to initiate the Second Coming. And that Aziraphale would probably make that happen - or do everything that he can as Supreme Archangel to sabotage it.

But I wanted to examine on how Jesus might fit into Good Omens' overall narratives and established themes - about morality and humanism and free will, and. I'm just saying, there are A LOT of fascinating routes they could do for his character.

(Disclaimer as usual: this is a theory that I obsessed over when I was stuck at the cemetery during All Souls' Day and must be treated as such. In no way am I insisting this should be how canon events must happen. I am just doing this for the funsies.)

The THING about Jesus if you situate him in the world of Good Omens (with the assumption that most of the pop culture Christology mythos associated with him remain intact) is that in this context he very quickly becomes: 1. Adam Young's narrative foil; and 2. an Aziraphale parallel.

Now, the first one is obvious. Of COURSE he is Adam Young's foil, duh. Adam isn't called the ANTICHRIST for nothing. Brought into the world just for the sole purpose of ending it. However, when the time comes for him to fulfill the Will of his Satanic Father, Adam flat out REFUSES.

Both the book and the show attribute this to Adam's human upbringing. He was raised as a human, and because of that he has the trait that the book uses to DEFINE human beings: free will. At the end, Adam had the AGENCY to reject the destiny planned out for him.

'Adam stood smiling at the two of them, a small figure perfectly poised exactly between Heaven and Hell.

Crowley grabbed Aziraphale's arm. "You know what happened?" he hissed excitedly. "He was left alone! He grew up human! He's not Evil Incarnate or Good Incarnate, he's just… a human incarnate—"'

- (Good Omens, 1990)

That is NOT what happened to Jesus.

Adam Bond as Jesus in Good Omens (2019)

Like Adam, he was raised as a human -- being a human incarnate was his WHOLE DEAL in Christology. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us... yada yada yada.

UNLIKE, Adam, though, Jesus wasn't able to REJECT his Destiny of Dying Really Horribly and Painfully on the Cross. Narratives in the Bible also made it clear that the Crucifixion was NOT his Will, but that of God's. Like... him begging to be spared from torment but ultimately following God's Will is such an important event entire devotional practices are made out of it.

"39 And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt."

- (Matthew 26: 39, KJV)

We get a glimpse of that in s1ep3 of Good Omens, too:

"JESUS

(muttering through the pain)

Father, please . . . you have to forgive them . . . they don’t know what they are doing . . .

Crowley, in black, comes up next to Aziraphale.

CROWLEY

You’ve come to smirk at the poor bugger, have you?

AZIRAPHALE

Smirk? Me?

CROWLEY

Well, your lot put him on there.

AZIRAPHALE

I am not consulted on policy decisions, Crawley."

- (The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book, 2018)

SO. Here we have the character of the Christ whose free will and agency had been STRIPPED from him in the guise of a "noble sacrifice." He comes back again on this Earth to fulfill another "inescapable destiny."

Aziraphale and Crowley need to stop him. The solution the Good Omens narrative offers to "inescapable destinies and systems" (both in s1 and s2) is for the character to realize they have the freedom to choose their own fates. It happened with Adam, and it happened with Gabriel, and perhaps it will happen to Jesus.

(At this point my sister frowned and said: "Are you telling me you think Aziraphale and Crowley are going to help Jesus realize he has agency and that him Dying on the Cross for the 'Great Plan' was kinda fucked up actually?" which sounds crazy when you put it like that BUT NEVER SAY NEVER BABIE.)

Because that brings me to my second point: if this all happens, Jesus becomes an AZIRAPHALE parallel.

In the same way Anathema is an Aziraphale parallel and Sergeant Shadwell is an Aziraphale parallel. Here is a character stuck in a suffocating status quo. To save the world, he needs to know he can escape that status quo and decide for himself. In the same way Anathema has to learn how to stop being a descendant or Shadwell to stop being a Witchfinder, or Gabriel to stop being an Archangel, and Adam to stop being an Antichrist, perhaps Jesus has to learn he can stop being... Well, the Christ, as well.

And this, of course, supplements Aziraphale's journey of letting go of the idea of being an idealized vessel of God, so he could finally enjoy the freedom of personhood and choice on Earth, with Crowley.

rated T, ~8k words

Fandom: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett

Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)

Tags: Good Omens Season 2; Post-Good Omens (TV) Season 2; POV Outsider; Original Character; 6000 Years of Pining (Good Omens); Crowley Prays to Aziraphale; Emotional Hurt/Comfort; Angst and Feels; Heaven is a Bureaucracy (Good Omens); Shenanigans of the Prayer Sorting and Inventory Department; Heaven is Terrible (Good Omens); Supreme Archangel Aziraphale (Good Omens); Crowley is a Mess (Good Omens); Biblical Scripture References (Abrahamic Religions); Canon-Typical Drinking; Transcripts; Love Confessions; Fix-It of Sorts; Character Study; Prayers; One Shot

Summary:

Heaven receives an unlikely prayer. A prayer accountant is having a strange day.

༻❁༺

Or: Crowley is drunk, and heartsick, and hurting, and he does what any human does best when facing off adversity.

He prays to Aziraphale.

___________________________

"Uhm - that's the thing?" Sariel wrings their hands. Here comes the anomaly part. "The prayer did not come from a mortal, you see." They brace themself.

"It came from a demon."

There is a long silence.

The Supreme Archangel's smile is strained. He tries to laugh, and it comes out fragile and wrong. "Terribly sorry, my dear, but I must have misheard you. You said the prayer – came from a demon?" 

"You can hear it for yourself," Sariel offers, and before the Supreme Archangel could answer, before Sariel could even register that their boss, the head honcho of Heaven himself, had gone - if possible - even paler, they had selected an audio file and projected it unto the ether. And then they pressed play.

Of course, we've technically seen Crowley's thought process in this, because he was the focal character when it came to the Antichrist baby switch. He was angry, and frustrated, desperate, and scared. He needed a plan, a way out (?), so he called the only being he could ever trust in this.

The same being whom he had a spat with, 41 years ago. Who told him he goes too fast. Who, by all technicalities, accepted and rejected him at the same time.

And like. Put yourself in Aziraphale's shoes for a sec. The last time you see your dearest friend was 41 years ago, which technically isn't that much time when you're an immortal being. But the last time, you THOUGHT he wanted to harm himself. You THOUGHT he was being reckless and self-destructive and in constant danger. YOU THOUGHT he was in constant danger because of YOU. So even though you're scared of what he's going to do with it, you give him the holy water he asked from you. And with the thermos given, you think the safest bet of him never ever putting the wretched thing to use is to STAY AWAY from him. Which is why you pushed him away. And then, because you cannot help it, you promise a distant, seemingly impossible future together: go to a picnic. Dine at the Ritz. One day, maybe. You Haven't seen him since.

Maybe it's for the best.

So imagine the curiosity when your Head Office tells you the demon Crowley is up to something, before it immediately turns into sheer horror when you find out it's actually about the upcoming Apocalypse. Last Battle. End of the world.

And like, of course Az is in denial, because the heaven brainwashing is too strong. But how must he have dealt with that? Coming to the realization that the world is ending in a few years, and you've spent the eternity you had here on Earth denying your feelings for him. Did he regret it? All those missed moments gone, their time now reduced to 11 short years? That the last time you've seen him was when you gave him the very thing that could destroy him, and then stayed away from him because you think you're keeping him safe. And now both of you aren't safe at all.

And then he calls you. You meet up. You dine at the Ritz. You get drunk together. You formulate plan. You realize things are still the same way between the two of you. You want to stop the world from ending, and you tell yourself it's for humanity. Nothing more, nothing less.

You look at your dearest friend, trying to open another bottle of alcohol, and you think, I miss him. You think, I'd like a little more time with him. Even if it's just a little.