Padme's Blessing

At the end of Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith, Padme lies in a delivery room, her life force slipping out of her just after she has given birth to her children Luke and Leia. She went into premature labor as a result of a brutal Dark Side psychic assault at the hands of her husband, Anakin Skywalker. Padme knows that her husband participated in the emperor's campaign to eradicate the Jedi Knights from the entire Empire, going as far as entering the Jedi Temple and killing the five-year-old Jedi apprentices there. What could anyone say under such circumstances? Her husband has turned on everything she believes in and her besides.

Yet in spite of it all, she turns to Obi-Wan and whispers to him, "There is good in him
How strange and bewildering it must be for the old Jedi in Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi when he hears Padme and Anakin's son Luke Skywalker tell him, "There is good in him [Vader]. I can feel it."Although he said nothing of his opinion regarding the Dark Lord to Padme on her deathbed, Obi-Wan has no problem telling Luke that in his opinion there is no hope for Vader, that he is "more machine than man, twisted and evil."

Yet by the end of Return of the Jedi, Padme and Luke's words are proved true. Luke lays down his life rather than turn to the Dark Side. The Dark Lord sees his son dying before him and the love that Padme knew was still within her husband comes to the forefront. Thus the father lays his life down to save his son's and ends up saving himself. So once and for all, everyone knows, including Vader himself, that there is still "good in him."

Of course Vader's redemption is deeply heartwarming, especially in the light of seeing what he was like before he turned to the Dark Side, particularly as a small, precocious boy in Episode I: the Phantom Menace. However, an examination of Padme's dying words, especially their repetition by Luke, leads to some interesting questions. What, if anything, did Padme's words have to do with Vader's transformation? How could it be that Luke remembered his mother's words, spoken when he was only a few minutes old? Could the Bible hold some answers? If so, what does that say about the words we say?

Over and over again, we see in the Bible how words are the most powerful things in the world, in the universe, for that matter. From the very beginning of the Bible, or I should say, "In the beginning," we see it in the first words that come out God's mouth and their affect, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light" (Genesis 1:1-3 King James Version [KJV],emphasis added).

Most of what I have learned about the power of words came from Bible teacher Kenneth Copeland. If Christians were Jedi Knights, Brother Copeland would be a Jedi Master when it comes to words and their affect. In his audio teaching series, Jesus-the Name above Every Name, Copeland explains that, "This planet operates on words and names. It operates on names. Everything has a name. What is a name? A name is a creative confession. [...] Every time He [God] would speak a name, that name would come into existence." This happens repeatedly in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis; we see, "God said let there be" over and over again (eight times in all). And every time God said "let there be," there it was, exactly as He had said it.

Now according to the Bible, it isn't just God's words that are powerful, so are human beings' words. According to Proverbs 18:21, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof" (KJV). In other words, watch what you say because if you say it often enough, sooner or later you're going to eat the affect of those words, good or bad. Jesus offered this somber warning, "O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment" (Matthew 12:34-36 KJV). So in othe words, if you say it, it is going to happen and you will be held accountable and responsible for what you say because your words are that powerful.

Now back to Padme's last words. If, in Copeland's words, "a name is a creative confession," what was Padme speaking over her husband? She called him good. In spite of everything he had done, she insisted that "there is good in him." I would argue we see these words fulfilled in Darth Vader all throughout SW: Episode IV, Episode V, and Episode VI, by the very restraint we see in Vader that is quite absent in Emperor Palpatine. In Episode IV: a New Hope, although he tortures Princess Leia, he neither kills her nor signs her execution order. Surely the emperor would not have shown such mercy. Although Vader tested the carbonite freezing process on Han Solo in Episode V: the Empire Strikes Back, he did so to make sure that the process would not kill his son. Again, would have Emperor Palpatine shown such consideration?

We see the goodness Padme spoke over her husband in Episode VI: Return of the Jedi when the Dark Lord allows his son to get past the security field around the moon Endor. He surely must have realized that there must have been other rebels aboard the stolen cargo shuttle. He could have easily ordered the seizure of the ship, retrieved his son and dispatched the other rebels as well. However, I argue that the goodness Padme and Luke spoke over his heart just would not let him do such a thing, which leads to an interesting question. Considering how Luke is only a few minutes old when his mother speaks well of his father, how could it be that he repeats exactly what his mother says about Vader?

Well, to borrow a phrase, "consider the source." How did Luke know that Leia was his sister? In Return of the Jedi, the only thing that Master Yoda tells him about his sibling is that, "There is another Skywalker." Ben only tells him that his sister will not find it any easier to confront Vader. Sitting in the swamp on the planet Degobah, the truth appears to strike Luke like lightning when it dawns on him that Leia is indeed his long lost twin sister. To use the language of Star Wars, it appears that the Force is the source of this revelation. I respectfully suggest that just as the Force tells Luke the identity of his sister, the Force also reveals the truth about Vader to Luke, not that the Dark Lord is his father (something Luke already knows), but that Vader is not beyond redemption. His mother appears to share knowledge of this revelation as well and is not afraid to speak it aloud against all evidence to the contrary.

Now if the Force is a fictional representation of the Spirit of the Living God as described in the Bible, can we find evidence of God speaking to people in the Bible like the Force appears to do so in Star Wars? Emphatically, the answer is "yes." In Jeremiah 33:3, God tells the prophet Jeremiah, "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not" (KJV). Although neither Padme nor Luke verbally call upon the Force, their hearts seem to be open to its voice because they both are obedient to speak what they hear. So they speak, and although Padme does not live to see her words fruition, her son does.

I suggest that the Force of Star Wars is a loving Force, because it inspires such love in Luke and Padme. In that way, the Force of Star Wars is a lot like the God of the Bible. John the Revelator proclaims in I John 4:8, "God is love" (KJV). And when speaking of love, Paul says in I Corinthians 13:7 that, "Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance" (New Living Translation). The Force never appears to give up on Darth Vader. The Force speaks through his wife and his son the truth of who Vader really is and what is truly in his heart-goodness-until he knew it, believed it and acted on that truth. I believe that Jesus describes what happened to Vader best in John 8:32, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (KJV).

The transformation Vader undergoes is a work of fiction. However, there is nothing fictional about the kind of transformation that is described in the Bible. And just as Vader's transformation began with Padme's words, biblical transformation is also initiated by words. The ultimate transformation, the rebirth of the human spirit, is spoken into existence. Paul writes in Romans 10:9, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved" (KJV emphasis added). You can bless yourself, just as Padme blessed her husband.

A verbal confession of Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior will change your life from the inside out. Just as the Force redeemed the life of Darth Vader from the Dark Side, Jesus came to redeem our lives from the Dark Side of spiritual death. All it takes is a simple prayer, "Father, in the name of Jesus, I come to You. I confess that You raised Jesus from the dead. I receive You, Jesus, as my personal Lord and Savior. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. You are welcome there. Fill me with Your precious Holy Spirit and give me utterance in other tongues. I proclaim myself saved in Jesus' name. Amen."

Please feel free to contact me at my CP page if you have any questions or just want someone to talk to about your walk with God. Now if I were a Jedi, I would still be an apprentice when it comes to my knowledge of the Bible. If you wish to learn more about the Bible, I highly recommend Kenneth Copeland to you. He has an excellent website with tons of free teaching resources at www.kcm.org. Meanwhile, keep your heart open to God and His love. He is intimately concerned for you and your well being. I happen to believe He inspired the Star Wars series as a way to show how His love works wonders. I know that He wants to work wonders in your life. In closing, I offer more of God's words to Jeremiah, "'For I know the plans I have for you,' says the Lord. 'They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope,'" A New Hope, that is (Jeremiah 29:11 KJV).

Works Cited

Copeland, Kenneth. Jesus-the Name above Every Name Kenneth Copeland Ministries. 1983.

Holy Bible King James Version. Public Domain.

Holy Bible New Living Translation. Tyndale House Publishers. 1996, 2004.