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| Yoda lights the way for the Christian journey... |
As a child in the early 1980s, I loved Star Wars. I had all three films on VHS TAPE. Yes kids, many years ago before the glory of Netflix and Hulu, we actually had to purchase copies of movies on VHS tapes that we played in magical machines called VCRs. You couldn't skip to a scene. You had to fast forward or rewind. The hours of your life spent rewinding and fast forwarding your favorite VHS tapes were hours that you never got back.
Anyway, I actually do remember seeing The Return of the Jedi in the theaters. It was the only Star Wars film that I was old enough to see in the theaters. As a worldly young man of the age of 7, I rather enjoyed the film. My younger brother was scared of Jabba the Hutt and I laughed at him for it. I found Jabba entertaining. Eating some sort of frog thing. Having some puppet creature sitting on his tail. The pig guards. What's not to like?
So, I was enjoying the film. Then it happened. Luke Skywalker finally returned to Yoda to complete his training. And Yoda died. HE. DIED. He coughed and mumbled something about another Skywalker and then coughed some more. He rolled over saying that he must "rest, rest, must rest." And then he died and disappeared from his bed.
Sure, he was over 900 years old, but I was devastated. (Much like my previously described devastation at the death of Optimus Prime.)
Looking back over Yoda's storyline, however, I begin to sense a reason why I like him so much. Yoda trained centuries worth of Jedi knights. He was wise. He was all-powerful. He had his mind blown by a flashlight. Wait, what?
Yes, okay, so the great Jedi master perhaps spent too much time in the swamp, as he fought R2D2 over a flashlight and giggled like a toddler over it's magnificence.
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| Don't mess with Yoda. You have been warned. |
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” (Yoda understood how destructive fear, anger and hatred are to faith. He must have meditated on Jesus' teaching to love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul and your strength and to love your neighbor as yourself.)
“Always pass on what you have learned.” (Yoda was very focused on discipleship.)
“[Luke:] I can’t believe it. [Yoda:] That is why you fail.” (Yoda understood that without faith it is impossible to please God.)
“You must unlearn what you have learned.” (Yoda clearly understood that your mind will be renewed through the power of Christ.)
“Truly wonderful the mind of a child is.” (Clearly Yoda understood that you have to come to Christ like a child!)
“Do or do not. There is no try.” (Yoda understood that a faith without works was dead.)
“Luke: What’s in there? Yoda: Only what you take with you.” (Yoda understood laying your burdens down and not carrying them with you in your daily walk with Christ.)
"Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not." (Yoda was a big fan of David and Goliath.)
Understood the path of faith in Christ, Yoda did.
Yoda's training of the Jedi knights parallels the active role that your faith in Christ should have in your life. In today's consumer driven church, where believers come to be fed and then see no importance in serving, Yoda's teachings could help light the way. As Yoda famously chided Luke, there isn't a "try" in following Christ. You do. Or you do not. Hot. Or cold. There is no lukewarm try. That is not to say that you will always succeed in all that you do. It is to say that you should actively seek after the Lord every day and seek first His kingdom.
Do yourself a favor and follow Yoda's faith advice. If you don't, your father will turn into an evil cyborg and he will cut off your hand and try to kill you.
The choice is yours.
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| Very definitive, Yoda is. Uncertain, he is not. |
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