Happy May the 4th be with you friends, and welcome to another episode of The Gospel According To! I found this variation on the famous quote while re-watching A New Hope a few weeks ago, and I love a good “always” quote, so just had to explore this one further. Enjoy!
Fandom: “The force will be with you. Always.” – Obi Wan Kenobi and many other great Jedi knights (originally from A New Hope, later repeated at the end of The Last Jedi)
Verses: 1 Chronicles 28:9, 20; Romans 8:15-16, Matthew 28:20
Truth: As a part of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit is a promise of God’s eternal presence with believers.
The Horizontal View: Obi Wan’s last words
In one of the iconic Star Wars scenes, Obi Wan Kenobi gives this piece of advice to Luke Skywalker just before he gives his life in the fight against the Dark Side and the armies of Darth Vader: “Remember… The force will be with you. Always.” The phrase is used to wish a person luck or good fortune as they approach a challenge or part ways, which makes it especially poignant as Obi Wan’s last words. I also found a scene from The Last Jedi in which Ray, who is in the middle of the most intense battle of her life, hears the voices of many different Jedi masters, including Luke, reassuring her and giving her the strength to win.
Here’s a site I found with the origin and all the variations of the phrase ✨
The Vertical View: Holy Spirit’s abiding presence
As has most likely been done before, the word Force is easily replaced with Lord in my brain: “The Lord will be with you always.” But this idea is one of the prevalent themes in the Bible, so it’s still worth exploring further.
Obi Wan’s send-off words remind me of the final chapters of the gospel of John, in which Jesus gives His disciples lots of encouragement and instruction on how to continue the mission of the Kingdom without His physical presence with them. One of the recurring elements of these chapters is Jesus’ words about the Holy Spirit:
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
John 14:15-21 ESV
These verses talk about the Holy Spirit’s presence with believers and the fact that He “dwells with you and will be in you.” This directly mirrors the idea of the Force being with Jedi masters and assisting them in their pursuit of justice and defense against the Dark Side. The Star Wars saga also refers to the Force as a sort of spirit that flows through the universe and can be used to the advantage of particularly skilled humans for good or evil, which isn’t true of Holy Spirit. While He does promise to be present with us, Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force to be used to our own ends. Instead, He remains true to the character of God the Father and does not bend to human will or power.
Here are a couple of articles I found on the nature and character of Holy Spirit:
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
John 3:5-8 ESV
This verse talks about the intangibility of Holy Spirit, much like the invisible Force that enables Jedis to hit their targets without fail and gives Darth Vader the ability to choke people without touching them. Unlike the Force, however, Holy Spirit works more internally than externally.
Here’s an article about the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
“And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever. … Then David said to Solomon his son, “Be strong and courageous and do it. Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed, for the LORD God, even my God, is with you. He will not leave you or forsake you, until all the work for the service of the house of the LORD is finished.”
1 Chronicles 28:9, 20 ESV
This verse from 1 Chronicles is an example of the Old Testament actions of the Holy Spirit: unlike the post-resurrection life that we have, people in Old Testament times did not have the constant presence of Holy Spirit in every person who followed God. In this passage, Solomon is given a choice: follow God faithfully and enjoy His faithful presence in return, or reject Him and be rejected in return. It’s a little hard to understand/explain, but I like to imagine it sort of like the choice that all Force-followers have to make: Light or Dark, Jedi or Sith, selfish or selfless.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:19-20 ESV
“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
John 14:15-16 ESV
This verse reminds me of the moments throughout the Star Wars saga when a Jedi knight or master speaks from beyond the grave, after they have become “one with the force” at the end of their life. While Holy Spirit isn’t the same as Jesus Himself, He does speak to us and serves as a Counselor to believers in the absence of Jesus’ physical presence with us. And in the same way that all the Jedi masters spoke to Ray in the midst of her epic battle with the Dark Side, Holy Spirit reassures us and banishes fear in the midst of the ongoing conflict we face each day as believers.
Although we don’t have a mystical Force flowing through us, giving us powers beyond belief, as believers we have the ability to connect with God in fellowship and love through Holy Spirit. He is the promise of Christ’s presence with us and the Counselor who guides us as we face the daily battle with the Dark Side (so to speak). As one Christ-follower to another, I’d like to sign off with this: “The Lord will be with you. Always.”
I hope you’ve enjoyed this post about Star Wars and the famous “The force will be with you always” quote. What have you learned about Holy Spirit? I’d love to know!
Happy fangirling!
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