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In Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Luke Skywalker is finally a full fledged Jedi after struggling throughout the other movies. He is confident, powerful, and finally paying attention to what the Force has to tell him. As he enters this stage, he finds himself ready to encounter Darth Vader again, who revealed himself as Anakin, Luke’s father.
Both of Luke’s mentors, Obi-Wan and Yoda, recommend that Luke takes Vader down. They believe this is the only way to bring peace to the Galaxy and bring balance to the Force. Both of them remember when Vader betrayed them, the Jedi and the younglings, years and years ago, even after all the good they all did together. Luke, on the other hand, thinks that there is hope for his father and is set on restoring Vader to the Light Side of the Force.
Luke doesn’t have any reason to think that there is any hope for Vader. His father almost killed him and his friends countless times. He even kidnapped one of Luke’s friends to lure Luke to him. Vader also chopped off Luke’s hand in their last battle. Luke, however, doesn’t have all the baggage of the past that Yoda and Obi-Wan have. It is a little easier for Luke to look beyond what has happened and hope.
At the end of the film, Luke turns out to be correct. Anakin is moved by Luke’s plight against the Emperor, and he turns on his former master, saving his son and ending the rule of the Dark Side of the Force as well as the Empire’s stronghold over the Galaxy. As he talks with Luke for the last time, he tells him to tell his sister that “you were right.” That is, that Luke was, in the end, right about Anakin, even when everyone else, including Anakin, didn’t have any hope that there was any goodness left in him.
Luke is able to accept the path of hope, love, grace, and forgiveness in large part because he doesn’t have the same baggage of the past that his mentors had. This is also the lesson we hear in our readings today.
For the past several weeks, we have heard the importance of being open and listening to God. We started this journey by seeng the Israelites struggle in the wilderness. They were unable to latch on to trust in the Lord. They couldn’t forget their past as slaves. Even though their life had been terrible, it was hard for them to accept their new circumstances, especially when things seemed difficult. They were so focused on the negative that they couldn’t even recall all the times God had helped them as they were escaping their life in chains.
The Israelites today, on the other hand, don’t remember any of that. At this point, Moses and Aaron with all the other leaders aside from Joshua are dead, and there is no one left to recall what things were like before. Unlike their ancestors, it is much easier for them, as we see, to put their trust and faith in the Lord.
We see a similar story in the Gospel according to John. For the past several weeks, we have seen many come to Jesus after the feeding of the 5,000 looking for a similar miracle, i.e. for their needs to be met. Jesus tries to get them to look, instead, for something more. He tries to get them to seek for true life, the life that God wishes to bring them all to and to restore them all to. Yet the people cannot look past what they have been taught and received in the past. They cannot let go and accept the words that Jesus has to offer them. That includes some of Jesus’ disciples as well.
The Twelve, on the other hand, can let go of the past. As Simon Peter says to Him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
It can be hard for us to look past what we have known and thought before, but if we don’t we will miss what God is trying to say to us. That is what we see time and time again in Scripture. For some, it may be impossible to move forward until the next generation, like the Israelites wandering in the wilderness. For others, like the Twelve Disciples, there is hope as long as we can realize the gift of life and grace that God is trying to offer us.
If we can take the lessons God has been giving us these past several weeks and be open and listen, we can remember those other moments where God has acted in our life, just as God was there to bring the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and just as Jesus was there to offer the gift of everlasting life. We can look past the bad and all other things we wish to cling to and hold fast to God in faith and trust all the more. If we can be open and listen, then there will be hope. That hope is life can be different and new. That hope is that Christ Jesus will come into our lives to transform them and make us new. That hope is that the past no longer matters and that all that truly does matter is our deep and abiding relationship with our Lord.