What Christians can learn from Hollywood: Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Star Wars is approaching it's 40th anniversary on the 25th of May 2017 and has so far spawned 8 live action movies, cartoons, and a formerly canon expanded universe now known as Star Wars. It's a big franchise, but is there something that Christians can learn from said franchise? Yes. Specifically I want to focus on the Force Awakens, an amazing movie if you want to check it out.

There will be spoilers for the Force Awakens in this article so I say check it out first before coming back to this video.

Reconciliation and Restitution

One of the interesting things I noted when I went to see the Force Awakens again (and possibly in a facebook post that looked familiar), what one of the things that caught my attention, was that of reconciliation.

To reiterate a point I made in the previous paper on Doctor Strange, There is something here to take from the film, that restitution has to be made, whether it's criminal, civil or other ways, some compensation or a lot has to be made, even if it's being punished for a crime accordingly or restoring a relationship. Sometimes however, it may not be possible to restore a broken relationship between two people or several, it may be too late, but it's worth giving a try.

See David Pawson's talk on Philemon, specifically the section on restitution: 27:29-30:45: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj6VvtIQBIU

Some of the characters are running away from their past, Specifically Han, Finn and Luke:

• Han running from his family that has been torn apart by his son, Ben Solo aka Kylo Ren turning to the dark side of the Force, with he and Leia separating from each other with Han going back to his old way of smuggling, the only life he knew outside of family. He is a bitter man running away from his past. Maz Kanata, a friend of Han tells him that he must go back to Leia. Han is confronted with this and has to rebuild his family, with the road to possible reconciliation with Leia as well as Leia trying to convince Han that there is good in in Kylo Ren. Han is given the courage to bring the family back.

• Finn is running away from the First Order. He was born and bred to be a stormtrooper, While it was commendable he was getting away from the First Order, he had to deal with his past by overcoming his cowardice and begin an active fight against the First Order. He was a flawed man, he lied to Rey, a scavenger about where he came from and claimed he was a resistance fighter, He rescued Poe Dameron, a resistance pilot for his own reasons rather than because it was right the right thing to do (though he confessed the truth to both Poe and Rey). He has fight the First Order in order for his past to truly be dealt with and brought to a firm conclusion.

• Luke Skywalker functions more as a plot device rather than a character, but he went into exile when Kylo Ren destroyed the Jedi and fell to the dark side. The ending of the Force Awakens can be interpreted in a number of way but just his brief encounter with Rey at the end can tie into this putting the past right. Is Rey trying to say while holding the lightsaber out "Come with me, we can restore the galaxy together" or "we need your help to put things right", to which Luke is saying "You're right, I must". No dialogue is spoken but that goes to show how good the ending scene is, nothing needs to be said.

The characters know they shouldn't run away from their problems, but must deal with them. It's a common thread found in many films, including Disney films, be it The Lion King and Aladdin.

The unbelieving world understands much better than too many Christians that you must try to make restitution, it is a common thread not only in the films I mentioned, but many programs point this out.

If anything, television does bear witness that man knows right from wrong but chooses to suppress it. 

Lord Willing if there is anything else we can take from Star Wars, I'll write on it.

Answering Judaism.