One of my favorite TV shows of the past few years is called Andor. It’s a Star Wars story of the time leading up to the events of Rogue One (which is a Star Wars story of the time leading up to the original Star Wars film, A New Hope).
Andor has three particularly powerful speeches in them.
Two of them are calls to fight. One is from a prisoner. One is from a dead woman who leaves her final message on a hologram to be played at her funeral.
The third is from the show’s string-puller, Luthen.
After the Republic fell and the Jedi were eradicated, the Empire rose. Pockets of resistance came up here and there, rebels seeking freedom from the unnatural control of the Empire.
Luthen finds a way to connect to these rebel groups, to bring about some coordination and common purpose, but perhaps most importantly, he shows each rebel group that they are not alone.
His speech involves answering the question, “What do you sacrifice?”
Here’s a clip (with a trailer to follow).
A line I find particularly evocative is, “I’m condemned to use the tools of my enemy to defeat them.”
To defeat the Empire and its injustices and power-hungry tyranny, Luthen must lose himself and become exactly like the enemy. Luthen as a result of the clip above chooses to let people die for the sake of the rebellion.
Power is not something many of us can wield particularly well. And even those who can wield power well are always a step away from being out of bounds.
I remember during orientation week at college, we played this game where we each drew these different color tokens, then traded them to get the most points in whatever the point system was. I remember I had four orange ones. At the end of the first round, those with the most points got to make the rules going forward. It only took two rounds before the people who weren’t making the rules just quit playing because it was not fun any more.
It was an interesting lesson in power.
In our world people bully and coerce and harm others with power. They lie and pressure and create systems to their advantage with power. And (as I learned with the orientation game) we do everything we can to make sure we never lose our power.
The church is not immune to this.
All this is what makes Jesus so…odd. He is the only human who has ever deserved power or would be able to wield power rightly and well and instead, He gives up His power. He allows Himself to be overpowered. And then, after losing everything including His very life, He rises from the dead and wields all authority in the heavens and on the earth.
Is it possible to correct injustice on any sort of grand scale without using the tools of the enemy? Is it possible to endure evil and hatred without being filled with evil and hatred towards your enemy?
Jesus has a lot of things to say about power. The gist of it is: lay it down. Jesus invites us into a strange paradox of humility and courage. We are called, not to be cowards, but also not to fight. We are called to humbly take the lowest place at the table, but also to love others with boldness. We are called to honor those in authority, but also to tell them the truth when they are failing and protect others who may be harmed by the authorities.
We are called to live as people who bear the image of God always remembering that God created all people, even our enemies, in His image.
I think the question I’m struggling with is: How do we bear the image of God well, when facing those who refuse to recognize that image in us or others? How do we continue to bear God’s image when others are trying to stamp it out of us? How do we not become more like Luthen? But more like Jesus?
That’s what I am curious about today.
Andy
I see this wrinkle: Jesus did use at least of one the tools of His enemy to defeat him. By His death, He has defeated death. I find it fascinating to ponder how Jesus did use these tools, not on his enemies, but on Himself.
Loved this exploration of power and humility, the way of Jesus, and the very real struggles we have.