Star Wait. It’s a documentary about a group of people who stood in line for 6 weeks, yes I said 6 weeks, in order to be the first ones to buy a ticket to see Star Wars episode 2. Now I consider myself an avid Star Wars fan, but I could never spend a month and a half of my life waiting in line for a movie no matter how much I loved it, 6 days maybe, but not 6 weeks. Talk about your committed people. Maybe if we as Christians could be as committed to Christ as much as that……... but that’s another blog. Anyway, while waiting in line two guys got into a debate over Darth Vader. The argument was whether or not Darth Vader should be allowed to become one with the Force. His predecessors Obi One and Yoda had already done so. The offense argued that Darth Vader lived 30 years of his adult life as a murderers dictator bent on the destruction and oppression of the entire galaxy letting nothing, or no one, stand in his way. For crying out loud he killed the younglings. And after everything he did all it took was a single act of mercy and self sacrifice to make everything O.K. Luke forgave him, he brought balance to the force, fulfilled the prophecy, and the Galaxy was O.K. In the documentary the man could not be convinced that he should get off that easy. There was no punishment for all the horrible wretched, disgusting, and downright evil things that he did, only absolute forgiveness.
Ask any Star Wars fan what their favorite movie is and I can come near guaranteeing that at least 80% of true fans would say The Empire Strikes Back. Mine was Return of the Jedi. I’ve seen the movie dozens of times. I can remember as a child boohooing at the scene where Luke took off his father’s mask so that Anakin could look upon Luke “with his own eyes”, his face scarred and deformed. Luke goes on to say he wants to save him, but Anakin, aka Darth, replies, “You already have”. To this day I get emotional at that scene. I believe my love for it was because of the redemption factor, the happy ending, and dare I say it..…the ewoks. But as I watched the documentary I realized the absolute truth in the argument. No matter what we say, no matter what we do. If we live our entire lives in absolute evil, God is still there waiting for us to come home, He is waiting for us to take off our masks and show him our true selves, all broken, scarred and deformed, and look upon Him with our own eyes. God is absolute love. We are born slaves, we are slaves to this world, slaves to ourselves, we are slaves to sin. But in God we are set free.
Who knows, maybe my love for this movie was part of the reason I was so receptive to the forgiveness of Christ. But whatever the reason I thank God for being there for me when I needed Him.
Ask any Star Wars fan what their favorite movie is and I can come near guaranteeing that at least 80% of true fans would say The Empire Strikes Back. Mine was Return of the Jedi. I’ve seen the movie dozens of times. I can remember as a child boohooing at the scene where Luke took off his father’s mask so that Anakin could look upon Luke “with his own eyes”, his face scarred and deformed. Luke goes on to say he wants to save him, but Anakin, aka Darth, replies, “You already have”. To this day I get emotional at that scene. I believe my love for it was because of the redemption factor, the happy ending, and dare I say it..…the ewoks. But as I watched the documentary I realized the absolute truth in the argument. No matter what we say, no matter what we do. If we live our entire lives in absolute evil, God is still there waiting for us to come home, He is waiting for us to take off our masks and show him our true selves, all broken, scarred and deformed, and look upon Him with our own eyes. God is absolute love. We are born slaves, we are slaves to this world, slaves to ourselves, we are slaves to sin. But in God we are set free.
Who knows, maybe my love for this movie was part of the reason I was so receptive to the forgiveness of Christ. But whatever the reason I thank God for being there for me when I needed Him.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. John 3:16-17
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