SUNDAY, MAY 4 2025 - STAR WARS BIBLICAL CONNECTIONS
May 4, 2025
Deborah Laforet
“Star Wars Biblical Connections”
Let us pray. May the words from my lips and the meditations of my heart be guided by
your Spirit and be words of wisdom for this day. Amen.
Among my family and friends, May the 4th is a day to celebrate, and not just because it’s
my birthday. May the 4th is often called, International Star Wars Day, and the first recorded
reference of the phrase being used was on May 4, 1979, the day after Margaret Thatcher was
elected as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Her political party, the Conservatives, placed a
congratulatory advertisement in the Evening News saying "May the Fourth Be with You,
Maggie,” playing on the Star Wars phrase, “May the Force be with you.” May is a big month for
Star Wars fans as George Lucas, the creator, was born on May 14 and the original Star Wars
movie premiered on May 25, 1977. So, today we celebrate.
I have read that George Lucas had two very large influences in the writing of this very
popular science fiction series. First, Joseph Campbell, who is regarded as the leading expert on
myth and comparative religion, wrote about the hero’s journey, which is a narrative in which the
hero sets out, has transformative adventures, and returns home. Think about Odysseus in
Homer’s Odyssey, Frodo from the Lord of the Rings, Spiderman, or in Disney movies like,
“Finding Nemo,” “Mulan,” “The Lion King,” and “Moana,” and contemporary characters like
Harry Potter, or Barbie from the Barbie Movie - all protagonists, who left home, were changed
by their adventures, and then returned home changed people, which is essentially the story we
also find in Star Wars with Luke Skywalker. Luke left his planet of Tatooine a very naive young
person, who, through his adventures on other planets with characters like Han Solo, Princess
Leia, Chewbacca, and his nemesis, Darth Vader, learned how to use the force and ultimately
became this wise Jedi.
The second major influence in this film was the Bible. I read that George Lucas had the
bible on his writing table as he wrote the story of Star Wars. I was amazed at the number of
connections I found between the stories of the bible, specifically the stories of Saul and David,
and the characters and themes in Star Wars. I’m not going to get into them all because they may
not mean anything to, but I will highlight a couple.
First, before Lucas settled on, “A Long Long Time Ago, In a Galaxy Far Far Away” the
original opening to Star Wars was, “... And in the time of greatest despair there shall come a
saviour, and he shall be known as: THE SON OF THE SUNS.” This might sound familiar to
you, especially if you enjoy Handel’s Messiah. Jesus is often called, King of Kings, and Lord of
Lords, and is called the Son of God or Son of Man.
Go home and do a google search and you’ll be amazed at the many connections. I’ll
share another. You might think the way Yoda speaks is very unique, but the way his sentences
are formed are how Hebrew would sound if translated word for word. Hebrew, particularly in 1
the Bible, is often written verb first, then either the direct object followed by the subject, or vice
versa. On Luke’s Jedi training, Yoda says to him: “Judge (verb) me (object) by my size, do you
(subject)? Hmmm?”
Now, I’m going to connect the story of Star Wars directly to a story in our bibles with
which you maybe you aren’t as familiar. Many of us have heard of the story of David and
Goliath, where David, as a small child, uses a sling shot to kill a mighty soldier called Goliath.
Think of this story when you’re watching Luke Skywalker hit the bullseye when defeating the
massive Death Star. (Here’s a clip.)
We can find this story of David and Goliath in the book of Samuel, a book named after
the prophet Samuel. Samuel, led by God, chose Saul as the first king of Israel. Eventually
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/southern-and-jewish/yodas-yiddishkeit-jewish-he-seems- 1
hmmm/
though Saul made some big mistakes. So God had Samuel choose a new person to be king, and
that person was David. When Saul found out, he was upset, of course. He tried in many
different ways to get rid of David, but David always got away. In our Star Wars story, we have
Obi Wan Kenobi, who first chose Anakin Skywalker to train to become Jedi. Eventually though
Anakin made some pretty big mistakes, including turning to the dark side and becoming the
villain we know as Darth Vader. Obi Wan then found a new person to train as a Jedi, Luke
Skywalker. Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker would face each other in battle multiple times.
The connections here (show slide) between Samuel and Obi Wan Kenobi, Anakin and
Saul, and Luke and David are pretty amazing. Now, it might be that people are finding
connections because they want to find them, but I’ve always been fascinated by the story of Saul
and David, one who was favoured by God and then lost that favour, and the one who became the
favourite and ultimately became the model king for the Hebrew people. We often hear stories
about King David, as there are direct connections between King David and Jesus, but we don’t
often dig into the whole story of David and the conflict he had with Saul.
I’ll end with one more connection. (Show image) Remind you of anyone? It kind of
makes one think of the Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars, the ultimate bad guy. This picture
though is not the emperor but of the witch of Endor. In one of our stories of Saul, he goes
against God’s law of using magic and goes to see this witch. He disguises himself and, because
God was not answering his prayers, asked the witch to consult the spirit of the prophet Samuel,
who had just died. The Spirit of Samuel comes to Saul and scolds him for summoning him and
tells him that God will be most unhappy and that Saul would die the very next day in war.
The witch of Endor...To you Star Wars fans, is Endor a familiar word for you? In Return
of the Jedi, the third movie, out in 1983, we are introduced to Ewoks who lived on the planet
Endor. Maybe George Lucas really did have a copy of the bible on the writing table.
All these connections are pretty cool, and on this day, that people often celebrate as
International Star Wars Day, it’s fun to make connections between Star Wars and the Bible. One
of my many jobs is to make the bible and the stories from thousands of years ago relevant to our
lives today. It’s amazing how stories of humanity written thousands of years ago can still be
used to make major motion pictures today. Maybe the stories and themes from the bible aren’t as
antiquated and out of date as we might think. Maybe they still have a lot to say to us.
Many of the themes from our bible express the joy and challenges that we still face today.
This story of Saul and David is about a ruler who goes out of favour and the young upstart who
is ready to take his place. This story is about a man who goes out of favour and how he reacts to
reality. It’s about a young man, with the odds stacked against him, fighting a powerful ruler, and
how he eventually wins the day. These stories used in the Bible and in Star Wars directly
connect to every day stories, which is why the bible and Star Wars are still so prevalent and
relevant to many people today.
The bible, especially the stories in the Hebrew Scriptures, display people who are at their
best and their worst. People who make mistakes, people who misuse their power, gender
violence, slavery and sexual exploitation, sibling rivalry, deceit, greed, and people who
overcome adversity, who finally have a long awaited child, family reunions, forgiveness,
triumph, love and joy. It’s all there.
So don’t dismiss the ancient stories. They have a lot to teach us, and I’m sure we’ll still
have blockbuster hits based on some of these biblical stories. The themes are pervasive and
come and go out of pop culture all the time.
So, on this Star Wars Day, may the force be with you, may the fourth be with you, and
may God: the Creator, Christ, and Spirit be with you. Amen.
Revelation 5:11-14
(Introduce yourself. - Do not move or tap microphone.)
Today begins a series of passages from the book of Revelation. Deborah won’t be delving into
this passage today but reminds us that, like Star Wars, people were creating stories even two
thousand years ago that spoke of monsters, and good verses evil, and truth and justice prevailing
and conquering over all. Today, I am reading from the fifth chapter of Revelations, verses 11 to
14.
Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living
creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands,
12 singing with full voice,
“Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honour and glory and blessing!”
13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all
that is in them, singing,
“To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honour and glory and might
forever and ever!”
14 And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” And the elders fell down and worshiped.
May the Spirit guide our understanding of this sacred scripture.