You'll have to forgive me. I'm a long time Star Wars fan, and, on occasion, I've written down some thoughts about the Star Wars tales and the spiritual themes within. This one was inspired by Episode III.
A tiny band of warriors emerges from their hiding places and makeshift fortifications. Assessing their losses and surveying the fallen enemies, they sally forth, moving toward the entrance of the queen’s captive fortress. Suddenly, the doorway to the palace opens. A man dressed in black gazes intently at the heroes. He removes his hood, revealing a red face rimmed with horns. The devil himself stands between our heroes and victory.
Or is this, indeed, the true face of the devil?
While Darth Maul embodied the stereotypical image of evil incarnate, we all know what happened to this evil apprentice. His pride led to a momentary lapse of focus. Next thing you know, Obi Wan Kenobi flips over his head, Force-grabs Qui Gon Jinn’s lightsaber, and cuts Darth Maul in half.
Although the fierce, well-trained Sith Lord Darth Maul slew a Jedi Master, he was merely a pawn of the true devil in the Star Wars movie. Behind him stood another, more powerful Sith Lord who wore a black cloak. Yet the face beneath that hood was not red, nor was his head covered in horns. The man known to the Old Republic as Palpatine wore a friendly smile, and a grandfatherly visage. He spoke softly, with all the tenderness and sincerity of a good neighbor looking out for your best interests.
The first of many lessons the Sith can teach us about evil is that evil wears a friendly face. This is almost common sense, that the devil would not masquerade as the red-bodied, horned figure with a pitchfork. What person with any sense of right and wrong, good and evil, would be foolish enough to listen to him?
Palpatine ascended to power during the glory days of the Jedi, who stood for selfless living and service to others. He knew better than to take on the good and noble Jedi head on. His only path was to ascend to power under the guise of good, which was why he created the crisis on Naboo.
It was Palpatine who recruited Nute Gunray and the Trade Federation to lay siege to Naboo. Appearing to the Trade Federation under the hooded Darth Sidious visage, he created a crisis on the world he, as Palpatine, represented in the Senate. A careful suggestion to Queen Amidala, and she called for the vote of no-confidence in then Chancellor Valorum, clearing the way for him to take the seat thanks to, as he put it, a "strong sympathy vote."
We are moral creatures, and no one knows this more than the devil himself. The devil knows that we are on the look out for evil, and so he comes at us with a soft voice that suggests a certain course of action leading to what we believe is a good and just cause. It began Palpatine urging Amidala to defend her people. It continued with Palpatine’s mentoring of young Jedi Anakin Skywalker.
A brash, impatient young spirit like Anakin’s proved a perfect target for Palpatine. Anakin was always in a hurry to get to the next stage in life, from Padawan to Jedi Knight to Master. He was a man of action, not thinking, often making decisions based on emotion rather than thought. Understanding this, Palpatine came at Anakin from two different angles.
The first was to build up Anakin’s ego. Constant praise of Anakin’s skill and achievements gave Anakin something he was often denied by the Jedi. While Obi Wan and others would have wanted Anakin to learn humility, the only human ever to be a pod racer drew closer to the praise emanating from Palpatine’s lips.
Palpatine often contrasted Anakin’s potential with that of the other Jedi. Thus, Anakin was denied the rank of Jedi Master, or when the assignment to hunt down General Grievous went to Obi Wan, the jealousy within him simmered, firing his desire for more power, more control.
The other approach Palpatine took was in promising Anakin that obedience to him, not the Jedi, would lead to good for him and those he loved. Haunted by dreams of Padme’s death, and the death of his mother, Anakin longed for a way to deliver his wife from death. Therefore it was with life that Palpatine tempted Anakin, promising to give him the power to preserve Padme’s life.
Place that alongside the account of the snake in Genesis. The smooth-talking serpent promised Eve that eating the forbidden fruit would give her wisdom, putting her on a par with the giver of life, God himself. And why would such a good God want to deny the ones he loved that sort of knowledge?
Flattery, jealousy of God, the promise of something good. These are the tools the devil uses to lead us down the road of sin. But once started, why do so many keep going? Once Anakin headed down the road of evil, why didn’t he stop?
The turning point of Episode III came when Anakin faced a terrible choice: let Master Jedi Mace Windu kill his mentor and friend Palpatine; or, knowing that Palpatine was the manipulative Sith Lord, destroy Master Windu so that Palpatine could help him save Padme. Impulsively, he made his choice, disabling Master Windu. His grief and guilt in that moment, were immense; but rather than face up to his crime in repentance, he chose to submit to Palpatine’s authority.
So many people, caught in a cycle of sin, find it nearly impossible to repent. The roadblock Satan puts behind them is guilt. Guilt is that sense within us that we have done wrong, and pride keeps us from wanting to acknowledge that guilt. So we sin more, and more, until it is compounded. The guilt we face grows, and becomes even more unbearable to accept. It becomes the walls to our prison, and we become enslaved to an evil master.
Palpatine wasted no time leading Anakin further down the road of evil. "Do what must be done!" He urges. The Jedi, not Anakin, are evil, and must be destroyed. Anakin’s assault on Mace Windu leads to multiple murders in the Jedi temple, where he even slaughtered the young Jedi children. With each death, Anakin became more a slave to Palpatine and evil. And pride, the voice that refuses to admit one has made the wrong choice, solidified the black heart of Darth Vader. Palpatine seals this guilty heart after Vader is placed in the black life-support suit he will wear the rest of his days. By telling Vader he murdered Padme, he lays on him a burden of guilt he could never bear to face.
Even as he sank deeper into slavery of evil, Anakin believed himself to be in the right. Not only that, he felt he could eventually topple Palpatine and, with Padme, make things right. The desire for power, a lust that can never be satiated, it another lesson the Sith illustrate about evil.
Consider the great empires of history. Hitler in Germany, Napoleon in France, Attila the Hun. The great conquerors were never satisfied ruling their own domains. They desired more, so they conquered their neighbors, spreading their influence as far as it would reach. They always sought more.
Such was the case with the Sith Lords. Readings of the expanded universe novels shows the Sith had a legacy of conquering and subduing other planets for their own evil ends. That thirst for power was not merely and external, political thing. In the Coruscant Opera House, Palpatine tells Anakin the tale of the Sith Lord Darth Plagueis, a man so powerful the only thing he feared was death… a death he met at the hands of his apprentice.
What Palpatine does not mention at the time is that he was the ambitious apprentice who slew his master. In fact the history of the Sith shows most of the dark lords perished at the hands of their apprentices. Is it any wonder that the newly named Darth Vader desires to destroy his master so that he might rule the galaxy with Padme and, later on, Luke?
Compare that legacy of bitterness with the Satan we meet in Scripture. God had made Lucifer the most beautiful of all the angels, and yet that heavenly creature was not satisfied. He, like Palpatine and Anakin, desired to destroy his master and become master of Creation himself. Failing that he was cast out, and like the Sith, left to haunt the world, turning whom he can against the Almighty in a never ceasing war against good. And yet while the war rages on, the end is already sealed.
There’s still one more lesson we can take from the Sith regarding the nature of evil. The lesson parallels the lessons of history. Just like Hitler, Napoleon, and Attila, the reign of the Sith Lord Palpatine came to an end. And just like Palpatine, the reign of Satan over creation will have its end.
Star
Wars fans have long known about the end of Palpatine, how his apprentice Darth Vader turned back to good and brought down his dark master. As Christians we have the Revelation, a promise from the Lord that evil will be destroyed and God’s people restored to his presence. No man (and no fiction writer!) knows exactly how it will happen. But the point of Revelation is not to give us a road map to the Apocalypse. It is our assurance that this world will have a triumphant ending for those who, like the Jedi, believe in love and good.
The creative mind behind Star Wars and the Sith is by no means a Christian thinker. However, just as the Lord reveals himself in the beauty of Creation, he reveals himself in the stories we tell. Palpatine and the Sith give one of the most accurate and frightening portraits of evil ever presented in the movies. And while the movies were meant primarily as entertainment, they can serve as a warning to the wise. The devil is not a horned minion in a red suit, but an angel of light spreading half-truths and promises of a better life that God can’t provide. His path is one paved with broken promises and guilt, yet no one, not even Darth Vader, is beyond redemption. The time of accounting will come, and we will all have to face up to our sins. But just as Anakin made his choice, now is our time to choose which master we will serve.
