May the 400th?
By Anthony Casperson
5-4-24

It’s the 400th blog for Brushstrokes of a Theonerd. And Star Wars Day? We all know what that means. And it’s not just that you might hear someone say, “May the fourth be with you,” today.

This very unique convergence of events means that I gotta use Star Wars for my introduction in this blog. I don’t have any other choice, right?

But the problem is that I had the title before anything else. And had to mold the shape of the blog to somehow fit it. (Which is the worst and most difficult way to write these.)

So, I sat there for much of the week—and part of the last one—contemplating what I could write about from a biblical perspective that related to Star Wars. (And that I hadn’t done before.) I even got about half a page of the way into an entirely different blog that started going off on far too long of a tangent because it made sense in my head, but required particular knowledge to be clear. Therefore, because nobody needed to hear that mess, I scrapped it. And that’s the last we’ll see of that one.

But as I thought about Star Wars Day and the “May the Force be with you” statement of the Jedi—which was adopted by the Rebel Alliance—that is the entire focus of the joke this fourth day of May, a thought did occur to me.

The whole idea behind the use of such a statement draws upon similar sayings among various religious communities. The blessing/well-wishing of people which evokes some spiritual force. It’s something that showcases a desire for good fortune in another’s endeavor. Basically, just a theological version of, “Good luck.”

This whole idea is a problem when it comes to followers of Jesus when we say things like, “May God/the Lord be with you,” or “God bless.” It’s a problem because it gives us the wrong impression of the One we worship. We come to believe that if he’s with us, then we’ll succeed in everything we do.

And when we fail, we believe that God has abandoned or forgotten about us.

The whole idea of, “May God be with you,” presupposes that he’s not always with the followers of Jesus. But the fact of the matter is that he is always with us. Through the good and the bad. The very best and the very worst. He’s there with us through his Spirit. The Third Person of the Trinity who is given to all who bow at the cross. That part of the triune God who is the seal and guarantee of our spiritual inheritance, as Ephesians 1:13-14 tells us.

Jesus promised this role of the Spirit to his Apostles—and all of us who follow in their footsteps—on the night he was betrayed. From the end of John 13 all the way through chapter 17, we witness Jesus’ words to them from the upper room to the garden of Gethsemene. Much of which encourages his followers through this promise of the Spirit—referred to as our Helper quite often.

John 14:16 tells us that this Helper sent from God will be with us forever. Literally, “into the ages.” Whatever it is that comes to pass throughout time. And verse 17 adds that he’s the Spirit of truth—faithfulness/dependability—who makes his home with us because he is in us. All of this points to the fact that the Spirit is with us in a permanent manner.

In case we continue to believe that this faithful and indwelling Person of our God isn’t with us in the times when nothing goes our way, Jesus speaks in John 15:20-27 of the world hating his followers when we act like him. But regardless of that, the Helper—the Spirit of truth/faithfulness/dependability—will bear witness to the truth. We have an ever-present character witness even when others malign our names. He’s with us when no one else is.

And all the way at the end of chapter 16, after Jesus has continually spoken about the benefit of the Spirit being with us, he still tells us that in this world we’ll have troubles. We’ll be oppressed, afflicted, injured, and hurt. But even then we can have peace. The peace embodied in the Spirit of God, and proven in Jesus’ conquering of the world on the cross.

So, enjoy this Star Wars Day and tell somebody, “May the fourth be with you.” But let’s stop equating God with some mystical Force that may or may not be with us, as its fickle whim wills. Our God is the One who’s there in every situation. The faithful and dependable God who isn’t an avatar of luck and fortune that we invoke to bring about good results for our endeavors.

Let’s be just as faithful to him in return. And maybe we should say, “May you join with God in his work on this world.”