Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
Original Manuscript:
This is an interactive manuscript. To follow links, click the highlighted words below.
Star Wars is a franchise where we very much see people who believe that “might makes right”. It is the intrinsic way of the evil Sith Lords, especially Palpatine, Emperor of the Galactic Empire. His entire work has been to slowly amass a show of power to take over and rule everything. He always desires the strongest apprentices, and uses his power to tempt Darth Vader to serve at his side, discarding his previous apprentice in the process.
That is what happens again at the very end of Return of the Jedi. Palpatine pits Luke against his father Darth Vader in hopes that he can turn the more powerful Luke to the dark side. He does everything he can, including putting Luke’s friends in danger, to push him to the edge so he will fight.
What finally pushes Luke over is the threat to his sister Leia. On hearing that Darth Vader will pursue her and bring her to the dark side instead, he brutally starts to attack his father until he corners him and cuts his lightsaber hand off, leaving him defenseless. The Emperor couldn’t be more pleased. “Good,” he says, “your hate has made you powerful. Now fulfill your destiny and take your father’s place by my side.”
Luke looks at what he’s done in horror, realizing he has taken the same hand from his father that his father took from him in The Empire Strikes Back. He clams himself, shuts off his lightsaber, and says, “Never. I’ll never turn the dark side.” He tosses his lightsaber to the side and declares, “I am Jedi, like my father before me.”
Palpatine says, “So be it, Jedi. If you will not be turned, you will be destroyed.” He proceeds to attack Luke with force lightning. With nothing left to do, Luke begs his father for help.
After so many years of serving power and dominion under Palpatine, Darth Vader stares at the scene. Finally, he can take it no more. He grabs Palpatine, lifts him up, taking all the force lightning on himself, and throws him down the exhaust port of the Death Star where they have been fighting, ending the Emperor’s reign of terror.
While Palpatine’s promise of power is what originally sways Darth Vader to his side, it is Luke’s show of the power of weakness that ultimately changes and persuades him. It is Luke’s love, throwing away his weapon, that brings out his compassion. It is Luke’s weakness in the face of the Emperor that ultimately destroys this evil.
Today, in 2 Corinthians 12:9, we hear that the power of God Himself is made perfect in weakness. God’s power isn’t like the Emperor’s, crushing all in his way and rewarding only the mightiest. God’s power is at its strongest when it appears to not be power at all.
When it came to saving the world, God didn’t ride in with an army or a Death Star. God came down in the simple form of tool maker’s son from a poor, backwater town in a backwater country in the Roman Empire. When it came to saving our souls from evil, God didn’t pick a fight. God suffered death instead. Through that death, and God’s rising to glory, we all are able now to rise from death to new life in our Lord Jesus Christ.
The same is true for us. As Paul says in the next verse, “Whenever I am weak, then I am strong.”
Luke Skywalker and Paul chose the path that seemed weakest, but through it they were able to bring about the most good in their lives. Jesus too brings good and love to all humanity through what seems like weakness. We are called to do likewise as well.
Don’t seek power for powers sake. That is not what does good in the world. It is not even what true power is. When you see someone who chooses this kind of power, like Emperor Palpatine, turn the other way. This is not the power of God.
Instead, the power of God is made perfect in weakness. It is the power that turns death to itself in order to save others. It is the power of Love, not might. It is the power that does not seem like power at all, and yet it is the very thing that changes all things and changes them for the better.