Star Wars: Savior

"I'm Luke Skywalker, and I'm here to rescue you!"

And so it begins. Luke Skywalker is a savior. Once he completes his training, he becomes the one who saves. His transformation from impetuous kid in A New Hope to eager learner in The Empire Strikes Back is complete as savior in The Return of the Jedi. The story wastes no time in making hims so; the first conflict in The Return of the Jedi is relatively minor in the larger scope of things. Han Solo, friend and ally, is to be rescued from the notorious Jabba the Hut.

Leia and Chewbacca have a plan to save Han, but it only makes problems worse for Luke, in the end. Now he has three to save instead of one. And he does it; he does it calmly, quickly, and easily. He saves. Without batting an eye, he becomes the savior. With this daring, those watching know his role immediately: he is a savior. But it's not actually the galaxy that he saves.

He saves Darth Vader, who represents man. He saves the one they said could not be saved. Too far gone, too evil, too ensnared. But that was not what Luke believed. Luke believed that there was good in him, Luke believed that he could leave the dark side. Luke was not going to give up; the caution of Yoda, Ben, and Leia as well as the resistance of Vader didn't slow him down. He was going to save the fallen one, because he loved him.

And thus he set out on an offensive mission to save. Luke was not captured in The Return of the Jedi. He turned himself in. The first words out of his mouth are not, "Oh, please don't kill me!" No, he's there with a purpose, with one thing on his mind.

"I've accepted the truth that you were once Anakin Skywalker...It is the name of your true self. You've only forgotten. I know there is good in you. The Emperor hasn't driven it from you fully. That is why you couldn't destroy me. That's why you won't bring me to your Emperor now."

He is a man with a mission. He's coming in with guns blazing. He has a purpose, and that purpose is to save.

When Jesus came, he didn't come in a wishy-washy way. He came with one purpose, the purpose of saving those He loves. He didn't wait around to begin saving; the moment he began His ministry, it was, "I am here to save. Like it or not, I'm on a mission. That's why I'm here. I'm on a saving offensive."

The ultimate rank for Luke was that of a Jedi Knight. That was what he was striving to attain, the glory he wanted and had trained for. Yet Yoda told him that he must confront Vader. "Then, only then, a Jedi will you be."

Luke could not attain the pinnacle of Jedi Knight until he faced Vader, the fallen one. Until he saved Vader, the fallen one. Jesus received His glory and His worship through saving the fallen.

"...he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has exalted place and given him the name that is above every name..." - Philippians 2:8-9

Luke's sole mission, his sole passion, his sole direction was to save. He wasn't there to save a life. He was there to save a soul. The redemption of the chosen one, the fallen one was his mission. He succeeded and became a Jedi.

Jesus' sole mission, His sole passion, His sole direction was to save. He wasn't here to save lives. He was here to save souls. The redemption of the chosen ones, the fallen ones was His mission. He succeeded and at His name every knee shall bow.

~~~

A/N (Author's Note): My search for accurate quotes took me far over the internet (and made typing this blog post a lot longer than it should have been). In my quest, I discovered the International Movie Script Database, which is one of the coolest sites I've found, though I don't really know its use. In the script for A New Hope, I discovered that Star Wars was originally meant to be taken from the Journal of the Whills. Having never heard of this, I happened upon this Wookiepedia article and learned all about it. (For as much of a Star Wars fan as I am, I was surprised I didn't know this.) But there was an interesting note there (that I discovered after I had finished this post):

"...and in the time of greatest despair, there shall come a savior."

At the time that the prophecy was written (1975), the prophecy of the Chosen One had not yet been written. Thus it did indeed refer to Luke. Then, in the 1990s (while introducing the Special Edition of A New Hope on VHS), George Lucas said the following:

"...Anakin's offspring [Luke] redeem him..."

Whoa. That I discovered in the course of writing this A/N. (If I had discovered it earlier, I'm sure this post would have been a lot longer.)