Christmas through a Star Wars Lens

Today being the 12th day of Christmas, and this being a season of Star Wars fandom, I want to do a quick post drawing some parallels between the two universal phenomenon. I want to compare Anakin Skywalker (turned Darth Vader) and Christ! Yes, compare... not contrast! This isn't to say that there aren't contrasts between the two. Darth Vader has few qualms committing genocide if that will serve the purposes of justice in his own eyes. On the other hand, Jesus is a turn-my-other-cheek kind of guy. That said the point of this post is tease out some aspects of the meaning of Christmas by exploring some interesting parallels between the life history of Darth Vader and Christ, not the least of which is their virgin birth. 

So yes, they both were virgin born. In the Starwars world, Darth Vader is born Anakin Skywalker, conceived by midi-chlorins which is the physical manifestation of "force sensitivity". In the Bible, Jesus Christ is born of the virgin Mary conceived of the Holy Spirit. There are some interesting parallels between the Holy Spirit in the Bible and the Force in Star Wars. The Holy Spirit is the omnipresent perveyour of common grace, but the Holy Spirit manifests strongly in the life of the believer through special grace. On the other hand the Force too pervades all living beings in the Star Wars world. But the Force is manifest powerfully only in a select few who are called force sensitive. So one could make at least a partly facetious that Anakin being conceived of midi-chlorins and Jesus conceived off Holy Spirit is not far off base.

But of course, of course, there are key differences between Holy Spirit and the Star Wars Force. For one Holy Spirt is a person with a personality in the Bible. Force is impersonal for the most part. There is mention of the Force having a Will but it is not quite clear what the Will stands for. The other big difference is that the Force has a light and dark side. In the Bible the Holy Spirit does not have a shadow side as a part of His being.

The other parallel between Anakin Skywalker turned Darth Vader and Jesus Christ is that they both have a specific prophecy about them. Anakin is said to be the one who will defeat the Dark side and bring balance to the Force. Jesus Christ has the prophecy of Genesis 3, to be the one who would crush the grip of evil in the world. The other fascinating parallel related to this is that the people around both figures, Jesus and Anakin Skywalker misinterpret how the prophecy will come true in their lives.

The Jedi expect Anakin Skywalker to become a powerful Jedi and defeat the Sith. However, contrary to Jedi expectations, Anakin Skywalker turns to become a Sith Lord himself. Then, finally, upon seeing his son's love for him, he turns back to the light side, in the process taking down the Sith order from within, brining balance to the force. Thus the way Anakin fulfills the prophecy is quite contrary to the expectations of the Jedi around him.

Similarly, Jesus subverts the expectations of His disciples. Jesus' disciples expect Him to take up the mantel of the Messiah, as a powerful military leader who will ultimately overthrow the military might of the pagan Roman empire. However, Jesus does not attempt to bring about a military revolt. Rather, Jesus takes on an approach of embracing peace, love and forgiveness, eventually, dying on the Cross and resurrection, paving way for those believing in Him to have access to the Holy Spirit. Jesus' disciples empowered by the Holy Spirit are in some ways like the Jedi Knights. The Spirit powered disciples end up taking down the paganism in the Roman empire from within through peace, love and forgiveness. 

It behooves me to point out that Christian theology and Philosophy of Star Wars diverge on key points, which I will explore in another post. That said, by exploring the meaning of Christmas in a rather circuitous route through the story of Star Wars one gets to see that there is deep within the human psyche a longing for redemption and defeat of evil through super natural means, even virgin birth. The bigger paradox though is that often times, the super natural wisdom subverts conventional thinking. Conventional thinking operates by a logic of power: meaning might is right. Super natural thinking operates by a logic of faith: meaning love is right. 

Both the Jedi and the Sith operating with conventional expectation of logic of power, miss the miracle of the story of Star Wars: the miraculous power of Luke's love turning Darth Vader to a loving father. Christmas season is a time for us to set aside our conventional expectations for our own lives, whether the expectation is for more health or wealth or happiness, and wait with awed eagerness, making space for God's miracle in our own lives. The miracle of Christmas is that somehow own own meager manger unconditionally surrendered to God will becomes a place where God's presence Forcefully manifests to redeem the darkness in this world.