I want to tell you a story. It's a wide-ranging, galaxy-spanning tale that feels both fresh, but eerily familiar. It's a tale of ordinary human beings doing extraordinary things through love, kindness, shared sacrifice, and compassion, but all for the sake of purpose. It has heroes and villains, and despite its setting, it could accurately be described as a war fought on both a temporal and heavenly plane.

Through the decades of the Star Wars canon, the stories have been filled with redemption and human fallibility amongst something greater, in a manner most movies wouldn't even attempt. Despite its missteps, many from the original creator, the rebirth two years ago brought critical and audience acclaim. Its 2016 side story made big money as well, despite being entirely inessential to a larger understanding of the main plot.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi arrives this weekend amidst intense hype and expectation, and I am happy to report the excitement is well-founded. This is a great film, one I absolutely loved, and one where the biblical and theological foundations underlying the space combat and western elements are impossible to deny. In fact, I would go so far as to say that those who walk in as unbelievers might even feel a tinge of the "Force" before they exit the theater. God willing, that's exactly what will happen.

It's impossible to review the movie in any detail without giving something away, so instead of talking about virtually any specific regarding The Last Jedi, I'm going to speak more about The Force Awakens to inform upon what's to come. First, if you liked Episode VII, it's unfathomable you wouldn't subsequently enjoy this movie. Whereas that film was almost a direct retelling of A New Hope for the younger generation, many will compare the 2017 installment to The Empire Strikes Back. The similarities are certainly there to be found, even down to the strength of the antagonists, but that's not germane to Star Wars.

In a trilogy scenario, the second film is always going to be where things are at their bleakest. The cliffhanger or "To Be Continued" set-up sequence needs to have a distinct tone of unease behind it, and to do it, usually the light has to suffer at the expense of the dark. It's what leads to the ultimate David vs. Goliath moment in any number of fictional properties throughout time. The Empire Strikes Back gave away its penultimate status even within its own title. While The Last Jedi isn't a straight forward "number two" movie in that mode, the struggle is most definitely real.

As I watched The Force Awakens again yesterday morning as a refresher beforehand, the sheer level of biblical and religious imagery harmonized in my direction as if it were literally angels singing from above. Even the cloaks and the beards are screaming at you watching this thing, and it's awesome. In the beginning was the Force, something that runs between the margins and the extremes of life. It surrounds us all, and in fact, when unlocked, it reveals itself in those who believe, and also protects them.

It can be corrupted, but only for a time. Evil prospers and even thrives, but there's a balance to be found and a time of reckoning. While not all control the Force, it exists in all of them. Other than Jesus, his disciples, and a select other few, no one performed miracles on Earth.

But when necessary and appropriate, they did.

Over and over, the mistakes characters make in these movies come when men and women act outside the confines of the Force. When they assume they have the right answer, understand things, and rely on their own understanding, they fail spectacularly. When guided by the Force, which we can extrapolate to mean the Holy Spirit, anything is possible. Faith can move mountains.

Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) is the perfect example of the possibility of a Prodigal Son, whether realized or not. Recall the conversation between this First Order leader and his famous father, Han Solo. He tells his dad, "It's too late," in reference to turning away from the Dark Side. "No it isn't. Come home." The lasting message of Star Wars might well be found more in the redemption story than those always existing on the side of light. The central memory from Return of the Jedi, at least for me, was Darth Vader's realization of his own insignificance outside of the love and care he could show to those in his life, and the final transfer of power away from oneself.

This was a man, presented as a monster, corrupted through his desire for power and the manipulation of malevolence within him, who basically walked through fire, was burned, but in the end was not set ablaze. His scenes known for dark shades and deep reds, but the final image was of the old Anakin Skywalker standing next to the prophetic figures of Obi Wan Kenobi and Yoda. Without Vader's transformation, Jedi doesn't have nearly the same effect.

Vader's shift proved that in the Star Wars universe, it's never too late. That's also the message of Christianity, where salvation is attained through faith, not good works. After so much misery, he found inner peace and contentment through an act of sacrifice that cost him his life. His penalty for sin was death, but as we see him with his two former adversaries and frenemies, we witness a semblance of the essence of grace. We also see the pull of the temporary delights of the world eventually falling in the face of eternal purpose.

We first saw the initial selfishness of characters like Han Solo or Finn geared to grab for the temptations and safeguards of the world, but once those individuals began listening to their hearts and not their heads, the degree of sacrifice and willingness even to die for the cause became apparent. There is no greater gift than to give one's life for others, and throughout The Last Jedi, key contributors are asked internal questions that put them in eminent and fatal danger.

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