Luke Returns to Life as One with the Force

All that I have learned in my line of work is this:  Wisdom is eternal, truths are unchanging, and yet they find their eternal expression in temporal ways that can only be perceived by the limitations of mere humans.

Throughout my life, all stages, I had looked to Luke for a way to understand some family dynamics and other personal concerns as well.  But then recently, I met this grizzled old-timer on a harsh island that threw something besides salt over his shoulder.  He threw out the legacy of the past, the weight of which was crushing.  Now what do I do?!  On the heels of major family upheaval both in my own home and in that of my close family members, what do we do now?  Look to the eternal, look to what is inherently good, while participating as well as we can, acting out of profound lessons borne of anguish and effort.  How will Luke be judged in his eremitic state?  For me, as with the entire movie (and saga), I am challenged, called beyond my myopic vision, disabused of prejudice.  His actions are more highly evolved than I have even had a chance to give words to.

Luke is like a man who has previously been dead and brought back to new life; for some reason, purpose or mission.  Happy in the stink of his own isolation, he did not wish to be called out of his man-made island.  And yet the Force pulled him back in.  The eternal will, that which guides creatures into higher forms of maturity and deification, called Luke back to society.  Now, having learned to live out of the world, he was no longer of that same world; and yet he had to move within it.  But he was lacking the linchpin to his entire endeavor.  Initially, he desired to be cut off from the Force, family, friends and fame so that he could harm them no more.  And I think his initial assumption was deficient.  It is like the first day of college when we believe we are perfect students, only to be relieved of that burdensome fantasy.

He went to the island to die, and yet lived.  He went to the island to suffer exile, and found his way into eternity through his mystically guided magnanimous ascetical efforts.  It was the capstone of his education that we witnessed on that outcropping, on the salty tundra.  The Force, eternal truths, do not belong to the Jedi; eternal truths do not belong to a narrowly harnessed sect.  Rather, what is good and true are.  They be.  And we must struggle to align ourselves, to give ourselves to the eternal, in order to be relieved of our islands and become citizens of eternity, students of the eternal Truth.

Luke is a type of Lazarus.  Lazarus was a friend of Jesus Christ.  That is to say, he was a friend of God Himself.  And yet, under such a great beneficence, Lazarus died in illness.  But his death was not showing the weakness of Christ (who in other places is called both Life, Wisdom and Truth), but to show his phenomenal power and command over even life itself.  Christ goes to Lazarus’ tomb after four days and with his peaceful voice alone calls Lazarus back to life.  Lazarus hears the call of the Creator Himself and answers the call.  He sheds the grave-clothes, is restored to his sisters and community, though changed.  Where once Lazarus hosted grand feasts, now he was a serious servant of God.  In the face of so great a miracle, the current order in power, the Sadducees, wished to kill the one who was revived.

Before I go further, I don’t want to be vague, and hope that everyone is catching the connections:
The Force represents the Jesus

Luke represents Lazarus
Rey with the lightsaber represents Christ’s calling forth from the grave
The First Order represents the Sadducees

Now, the analogy of the movies diverges from my point here, but just keep reading for a minute or two if you are still so inclined.  On the timeline, we are mere days away from Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection.  So Lazarus is forced to flee.  Fearful of the would be assassins, he wishes to be the bearer of the new life that was granted to him at his first tomb.  He is not fleeing the persecutors out of selfish desire for preservation, but to bring his story to the world.  Luke goes to the ancient outpost of the Rebellion to both receive his final lesson and to share all that he had learned since coming back to life in the Force.

Christ empowered his servants to do all things he had commanded, and they set out across the world to do so.  Lazarus finds himself in Cyprus, and later is ordained by the Apostle Paul himself as the bishop there.  His eyes and heart, his noetic sense, has seen the life of the world to come, and can no longer be satisfied with the mortal coil.  Finding no more joy in the present life (because of knowing what oneness with the Almighty was like), it is said that he was stern and never laughed or smiled again after his resuscitation.  But his flock always remembered the lone time a touch of glee crossed his countenance.  Once, Lazarus saw a man steal a clay vessel, and he said aloud “Look, one earth steals another.”  His joy was no longer of this place, but of the eternal bliss and banquet awaiting the other side of the final rest.

Let us look at Luke in his solitude, on his rocky perch, and in his ultimate sacrifice, as a type of Lazarus.  He calls us beyond fleeting fame, he begs us to shed egotism and selfishness, to eschew wealth.  He calls us to be true servants of Wisdom, Truth and thereby become participants and celebrants of Life Himself.