THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
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Memorable Lines from Movies, Big Story in Bible
#2 THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
The Dark Side Within
On the planet Dagobah, Luke Skywalker is alone with Yoda, honing his Jedi skills. He walks into a cave, wondering what he will face there. Yoda tells him:
“The cave, strong with the dark side, it is. Feel it, you must. What is it, you bring with you? Your thoughts, you bring. Your feelings, you bring. Your history, you bring. What you take in with you, is what you will face."
The dark side is not something outside us, but something inside us. We take it with us wherever we go. Through the first three episodes of Star Wars, released 1977, 1980 and 1983, the lure of the dark side persists as the recurring theme. It is the side Darth Vader had chosen and he wants his son Luke to join him.
The enduring appeal of Star Wars is seen in its prequel, another three episodes released in 1999, 2002, and 2005, the whole saga spanning almost three decades! Hit on a raw nerve he has, George Lucas, creator of the franchise, also director or executive producer of all the episodes.
Why this fascination with the dark side? Perhaps, it strikes a chord in us because we all have a dark side which predisposes us to darkness. Unless we choose light, we are drawn to darkness. We think our problem is out there, when it is in here.
The memorable line from Yoda should remind of what we need to deal with first, whenever we walk into a challenging situation: “What you take in with you, is what you will face."
Big Story in Bible
The underlying theme of the biblical story is unflattering: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”Jeremiah 17:9 ESV
The heart was created perfect and good by God—but given the freedom to choose, it chose the dark side and we are thereafter tainted by a predisposition to darkness. In that sense, the dark side is already chosen. We now have to choose light.
“And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.” John 3:19 ESV
