In case you missed it, this week marks the occasion beloved by would-be Jedi warriors the world over: Star Wars Day. (May 4 – as in, “May the (fourth) be with you.”) To date, and to my knowledge, Luke Skywalker and company are the only movie franchise to be semi-officially calendarized.
I enjoy Star Wars well enough, but for whatever reason was never as thoroughly beguiled as others when the “galaxy far, far away” came into the orbit of popular culture. I remember the phenomenon when it burst forth in all its cinematic glory, but for me, the first film was just a fun evening at the movies – not the beginning of Pop Culture As We Know It.
Do remember that, when the second film, The Empire Strikes Back, came along, in the summer of 1980, it swept all imaginations before it. You couldn’t stand in line at a restaurant or a concert or a wedding reception, much less a movie theater, without hearing boys (and girls) of all ages make “Eeyoooo! Eeyoooo!” sounds while swinging imaginary light sabers.
Star Wars lingo and quotations made the cultural rounds faster than the Millennium Falcon on the Kessel run. Children on playgrounds: “Laugh it up, Fuzzball.” Parents to children, “Do or do not – there is no ‘try.’” Young people trading, “I love you” for “I know.” Everyone working to master Yoda’s inverted syntax; everyone debating who “There is still another” might refer to.
And then there was The Line. The one everyone seemed to have to try out on someone, spoiler alerts be hanged, in their best heavy-breathing James Earl Jones tone:
“Luke, I am your father.”
As I said, ‘ve never given way to the full, unbridled, convention-going enthusiasm for these movies, so I speak as a relative amateur. But that line, I suspect – and Luke’s reaction – would probably be a finalist for the defining moment of the whole saga.
“I am your father.”
“No. No. That’s not true. That’s impossible!”
“Search your feelings. You know it to be true.”
It’s also, methinks, an apt metaphor for our time.
To be sure, you have to insert God in place of Darth Vader – a trade young Anakin Skywalker himself refused to make. But if you think of the great revelation – "I am your Father" – as something the Lord Almighty Himself whispers into the soul of every person, you’re on to something.
The Apostle John, who was on to quite a few things, spells out the point in the first chapter of his gospel:
“He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.”
The Apostle Paul, in the first chapter of his letter to the Romans, elaborates:
"… because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened."
The climax of The Empire Strikes Back echoes that eternal struggle between a loving Father and His creation … the latter determined to deny the authority, and even the love, of the former. To deny, as we all often do, the truth we know so well in our hearts.
Paul knew, from practical experience, how painful that kind of rebellion can be. Lying dazed and blind in the dust of the road to Damascus, he had heard that unmistakable voice say:
Tough, in other words, to deny what you know – know – to be true.
“Search your feelings. You know …”
It’s easy to see Paul’s goad-kicking in the insanities increasingly swirling about us. The burning hatreds of Antifa and the Critical Race Theorists … the educators determined to be social engineers … the souls lost in sexual confusion and bent on Pied Pipering as many children as possible with them into the psychological abyss. To see it, too, in the futile thoughts of the Global Warmers and the warmongers and the disinformers ad nauseum.
So many running blindly from God, hands over their ears, or clinging – like ‘Young Skywalker’ in the howling maelstrom – to whatever they can to keep from plunging into the fathomless depths below. The great hand reaches down, the voice softly offers its invitation, the Father reveals Himself, but –
“That’s not true! That’s impossible!”
Less easy to see, perhaps, is the same conflict within ourselves – drowned out by the howling winds of temptation, choked by the desperate grip of pride. We fight so hard to resist the truth we know. We kick and kick against the goads.
But the powerful hand keeps reaching. The unmistakable voice will be heard.
“Rebellions are built on hope,” says another Star Wars character, in another movie. And in the heart of every rebellious soul is the flickering hope that the One we fear so much is indeed a loving Father, who would make us His own.
This Star Wars Day, may the “impossible” be found possible. And may many, like Luke, find their way, in spite of everything, to joyful reunion.
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