Are you all aware of the latest Star Wars movie, “Rogue One”? It’s a prequel to the first Star Wars movie ever made, which is episode 4, entitled, “A New Hope”, based on a 9 episode storyline where episodes 4, 5 & 6 came out first, followed by episodes 1, 2 & 3, which were then followed by episode 7.
Maybe I should simplify for clarity (no spoilers).
Rogue One, which just came out this month, is a movie that explains the events that led up to the first Star Wars movie ever made. “Rogue One,” sets the stage for us to understand why “HOPE” was possible in “A New Hope”.
To summarize the plot, people in this movie make sacrifices when all hope seems lost, and from these sacrifices a new hope is born. The main character, Jyn Erso, is quoted, saying, “Rebellions are built on hope,” and their hope can be summarized as a desire for freedom from a ruthless empire, but this hope is based solely on a vision; not a promise.
In this movie, an elite band of freedom fighters disobeys orders and steals a ship to begin an incredible journey to overcome all odds against acquiring schematics believed to show a weakness in the Empire’s ultimate weapon, the Death Star.
Certain types of movies are designed to play with our inclination toward emotional and psychological tension, evoking from us a very strong fight or flight response. If you are like me, you are on the edge of your seat in such movies where, hopefully, the good guys triumph in the end – barely – by the skin of their teeth – because they did not give up. They hoped against all hope. In this type of scenario the prize seems so much sweeter as the anxiety and sacrifice to reach it was ratcheted up all the way to the level of exhaustion. That’s entertainment, and it’s awesome if it lasts only an hour or two.
And in a movie series, it seems that the struggles get more grand from one episode to the next, that they reach some sort of level of relief only to face another trial, obstacle, or seemingly hopeless situation.
For example, in Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens... It. Just. Gets. Even. Harder. The fallen empire has been reborn into an even more powerful fighting force with an even bigger weapon of mass destruction called Starkiller Base.
The Star Wars series relies on vague prophecies and huge sacrifices to inspire hope which only leads to more struggle and a need to tenaciously grasp onto a new hope, but another kind of hope is available to us.
So, the question might be, “What kind of hope do you have?
You COULD say we have a “Rogue Hope”, because though we were all born subjects of an evil empire, through the plan of God, we have been provided a Savior who is our fulfilled hope.
It doesn’t look all that good for mankind, if the kind of hope I reference is not real, because the soul that sins shall die (Ezekiel 18:20). This reality gives no human, born of the bond between man and woman, any hope whatsoever in all of history, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).
That sounds really hopeless, but Christ, OUR HOPE (1 Timothy 1:1), has already come into the world...
1 Timothy 1:15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.
He also was sacrificed and rose again...
Romans 8:34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
But, Jesus paying that price for our sins and being resurrected isn’t enough to give US lasting hope...
1 Corinthians 15:19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.
We, too, must be resurrected for that hope to have any eternal value. And so we will be...
(Don’t need to turn here) 1 Thessalonians 2:19 For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming?
Turn to...
1Co 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption.
51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—
52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
So, we are reconciled to God through Jesus Christ AND are promised eternal life. In Christ we have this hope.
Nevertheless, our lives are full of struggle, filled with circumstances that can distract us from such a great hope as forgiveness leading to eternal life.
In the Star Wars series, something called the Force is ever present in the story line, and if it’s the light side of the force, besides giving its host sharper senses, faster reflexes, and extrasensory perception, it also promotes making right decisions. Not everybody has it, but those who do, have a tendency to do great things. We can have something curiously similar sounding but much better.
Romans 5:5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which was given to us.
And it is with this Spirit that we presently have become citizens of His kingdom. Turning to Colossians 1...
Colossians 1:13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. Continuing to verse 23 & 27...
Colossians 1:23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.
Colossians 1:27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
In the movie, “Rogue One”, hope is established upon seemingly impossible odds and accomplished by people capable of failing, but that hope, if fulfilled, only prepares them for the next struggle. Christ came as God in the flesh, and through His example, sacrifice and resurrection, summarily, completely, conquered death. BACK THEN. 2000 YEARS AGO!! He’s already done it!!! Our hope, a complete hope, exists in relation to something already accomplished.
It doesn’t matter whether a figurative Death Star or Starkiller Base is even still functional in this present world with its evil emperor. He and his forces cannot take away this eternal life gifted to us by God, already made possible and promised to those who love God. What is left for us is to believe, and by the power of His Spirit, to endure in obedience.
Forgiveness is the WHAT
Resurrection is the WHEN
Obedience is the HOW & WHY (way of God)
1 John 3:1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
Mankind’s idea of hope, the standard definition, just will not cut it. As being freed from an evil empire, mankind will only overcome by viewing hope unnaturally; by viewing hope from God’s perspective; by seeing that the empire’s only real strength is in hiding or obscuring the reality of our hope in Christ Jesus who washes away all sin and offers us eternal life with the mind of God. Turn to First Peter...
1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,
5 who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
We have a Rogue Hope, a hope that cannot be conceived in the mind of man, but is revealed by God in Christ. May God’s Spirit Be With YOU, sustaining your hope, which is already fulfilled in the life of Christ Jesus.
