I was thinking about Boba Fett, Han Solo and Jesus. I know. I'm weird. Boba Fett was the coolest bounty hunter in the universe, and he is probably the most popular Star Wars character in proportion to exposure by screen time. My least favorite part of Return is when the coolest bounty hunter ever was knocked into the Sarlacc Pit, although it was funny the way they did it. It was also frustrating to have to wait over two decades to learn that he survived. Yes, Boba Fett survived. There is more to the Star Wars universe than the films. Boba Fett managed to survive the Sarlacc pit and escape his torturous thousand-year death.
Then, there's Han. I loved Han. I cried when....well, I cried in Episode V, as a nine-year-old boy, when Han was lowered into the carbonite (I hated George Lucas at that moment.), and I cried in Episode VII as a 44-year-old over that scruffy looking nerf herder. Han was my fiction hero. The greatest. He was funny and sarcastic and cool. I wanted to have powers like Luke, but I really wanted to be Han. I didn't like the carbonite scene in Empire. Return became my favorite Star Wars for a little while because Han came back. Love set him free from being frozen. He survived against all odds, which of course we were never supposed to think about or tell him.
These are both characters we wanted to live, but in all truth probably shouldn't have survived if this hadn't been fiction. They both deserved all kinds of bad stuff, and both managed to get out of most of it, and we like that because we all deserve bad stuff and don't want to get it. I know, this isn't real life. It's Star Wars. It's fantasy. But I'm not the first to read spiritual allegory into the tale.
"Long, long ago, in a galaxy far away...."
(Star Wars)
The time was long, long ago.
It was not so far away.
As a matter of fact, it was much closer home
than you might think.
You think it is lust pure fantasy, don't you? You think it's just a grand and glorious put-
on.
You think it's great fun, and there's nothing more to it.
Ah, but great fairy tales have a way of telling the truth.
Snow White.
Cinderella.
Pinocchio.
Sleeping Beauty.
Star Wars.
So begins chapter one of Star Wars Star Trek: And the 21st Century Christians, a book that came out in 1978 by Winkie Pratney, trying to tie in to the popularity of the Star Trek TV show, the phenomenon that had just begun and would become the Star Wars universe and Christianity. When it was written, none of the Star Trek movies existed and none of the Star Wars sequels had been released. That must be taken into context when reading it, but it's still...well, bad. It's so bad it's good. Even as a child, I knew it was ridiculous, but I also thought it was funny. And come on, how could I not read a book whose dedication page reads:
With love and affection to:
George Lucas
creator of Star Wars
Gene Roddenberry
creator of Star Trek
and Jesus, the Christ of God creator of the Stars
It turns out Darth Vader was not Satan in disguise or allegory, which the book claimed. In fact, he was a lot like a lot of us. Born with a lot of awesome potential, getting wrapped up in self and anger and ending up on the way wrong path and having to die to find life and redemption. And Obi Wan was not an archetypical Christ with His self-sacrifice, being struck down becoming more powerful, etc. Although it is kinda cool to look at it. George Lucas isn't C.S. Lewis, and Star Wars isn't Narnia. And we can get really off track when we try to find spirituality and Jesus in places where it and He really aren't. But at the same time, God spoke through an ass in the Old Testament, And He can still do that today. I am reminded of that whenever I get proud about being a minister. He can also reveal Himself to us in a rainbow, a sunset, a baby's smile and, yes, even sci-fi characters.
Things can make us think about the need for redemption, or Jesus Himself. But while it may be stranger than fiction, the story of Jesus isn't fantasy. He really did do miracles that would've made a Jedi jealous. And He did give Himself up in sacrifice. And He did not survive the cross in some wild fiction miracle, but actually died and rose again, defeating death and sin. And He did it so that we can escape the judgment and fate we deserve, so that we can get out of our inescapable Sarlacc pits and carbonite that we deserved, so that we can become like Him and have a relationship with our Creator.
It's a story we would never create on our own. A weak and humble servant who is victimized without fighting back and embraced His death as the hero. He wasn't about what He could get out of life or from us, like Boba and Han would've been. He wasn't about escaping suffering like us either. He didn't even sacrifice self to become more powerful like Obi Wan and us. Oh yes we have. I'm powerless and dying. In order to have freedom and life I must surrender and die to self. OK, I guess I will. That's the essence of the start of our spiritual journey. It's why we come to God in the first place. To escape death and receive power that we don't have on our own. Even in surrender and death to self, we're selfish, because if there were no reward, no becoming a child and heir of God, no eternal life, no power to change and love and live differently, just sacrifice and servitude, would we do it? I wouldn't. But Jesus did. He didn't become more powerful. He didn't get anything He didn't already have, except us. It was all totally and completely for us and for love that He lived, that He suffered and that He died.
No one compares to Jesus, not even in our favorite fiction. Yet, He is real. And He loves us as we are, not as we should be, even when we have to have Him love us and give us life before we even think about loving Him. But that's OK with Him, because He's all about the life giving, and the freedom giving and the heart and mind and soul healing. He's all about giving us power, not power to overcome others, but power to overcome self and sin and all the traps, pits, and chains that have us killing ourselves and living as slaves until we die. It's not fantasy, and it's not science fiction. There is in fact One who can give us escape from addiction, sin and even death. He really gave up everything, even His life, for you and for me. He's not about His own reward or what He can get out of bringing us to justice and judgment. Everything He does is to give us more and more life, love, peace, joy, contentment and so much more. There really is freedom and life in relationship with Jesus, may you find it.
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