Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father. There, now you're all caught up. But there is more than that, of course. Many of us came late to the story, we came already know that fact, and so the big reveal wasn't much of a surprise. In fact, it wasn't a surprise at all. But it's still fun to think about the way the story gets there, and although you know how it turns out, our friend Luke doesn't. As I say, it's fun to join him on the journey, isn't it?
Darth Vader himself reveals the fact to Luke during their duel at Bespin. He asks Luke what Obi-Wan told him about his father. Luke reveals that Obi-Wan told him that Vader killed his father. That's when Vader says 'I am your Father.' The big reveal, the big moment. Due to movie magic, Luke did get the chance to follow up with the now-deceased Obi-Wan later, and Obi-Wan gives the cop-out answer that the dark side of the force betrayed and murdered the person of Anakin Skywalker, and that after his conversion to the dark side of the force, Anakin ceased to exist. This culminates with the line from Obi-Wan 'what I told you was true....from a certain point of view.'
In other words, you would have to have Obi-Wan's unique perspective to understand the position that he takes. Fair enough. But perspective counts for an awful lot. Any and all Police officers that I have spoken to have recounted similar tales, stories of pulling people over, and having them immediately ask for a break, talk about how they're not the real criminals, that sort of thing. And they'll do so without fail, essentially believing that from the perspective of the speeder, they deserve a break. But if you have children playing, if you have other motorists around whose lives may be put in danger from racecar Johnny, then you're going to be happy that Mr. Leadfoot was pulled over. It's all about perspective.
Now the notion of things being 'from a certain point of view' becomes extremely important when you consider the reality of what the scriptures say, and how they speak to people. I want you to think very carefully about St. Paul, who was, at the time that I'm referring to, Saul of Tarsus. And Saul of Tarsus was, as the reading from Sunday tells us, breathing out murderous threats against the followers of the way. Why was he doing that? Well, we have to work backwards a little bit. We know that Saul approved of the murder of Stephen, and he would have done so because of what Stephen was preaching. What was it that Stephen was preaching? Stephen's testimony bothered the Jews who were there to the point of wanting him dead, precisely because Stephen brought forward a Christological reading of the Old Testament. Stephen recounts all the things that the Hebrews of the time would have thought were extremely important, the stories that informed their culture, and largely determined their place in the world, and Stephen tells them in no uncertain terms what all those stories are all about. All those stories are not about us, they are about Christ. The promise that Stephen keeps on talking about, that promise is the promise that is realized in the death and resurrection of Christ. And what the people didn't want to hear was that they were in no small part responsible for that death. They killed all sorts of prophets before, and now they had killed the Lord of life, with seemingly no remorse whatsoever. Stephen culminates by saying that he can see Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and at that, the crowd stones him to death. Why is Saul of Tarsus happy about that? Because he is comfortable with and in himself.
The testimony that Stephen gives is that of righteousness perpetually existing outside the human race, and working on it. Over and over again in his speech, Stephen tells the people that God acts, and people respond. He tells them that God decides, and his people react, whether for good or for ill. God speaks to Abraham, Abraham follows his lead to the promised land. God speaks through the prophets, the people of Israel kill the prophets who announce the coming of the righteous one. This happens because of the heavy implication from these passages, and from the entire scriptures that there is, in fact, a righteous one - and it isn't you.
Paul tells you why it bothered him, and why it bothered him enough to kill. He tells you this in the book of Philippians, where he talks about those who have confidence in the flesh, which he had in spades. "Circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church. As to righteousness under the law, blameless...For [Christ's] sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ.' In order to be blessed by faith in Christ Jesus, Saul had to leave his entire life behind because it was based on his own righteousness as concerns the law. But the law condemns, it doesn't save.
What the law does, and does very well, though, is to convince you that it saves. That is, the law will deceive you into believing that you are keeping it, and that you are able to keep it fully. And this is where things get dicey. Most people then, as well as most people now, believe that they are keeping the law, which is why the words of the scriptures, the words of Christ, are so offensive to them. That is, they want to continue to believe that they are good. And what Christ does, what Stephen was trying to get people to see, was that they weren't anywhere near as good as they had led themselves to believe that they were. This is relatively uncomfortable to hear, it's unpleasant, but it has the unfortunate side effect of being true. And that's the real trouble with it. The belief that Saul had, that he was righteous and blameless under the law, it was comforting, it lets you believe that you're a good person, but unfortunately, it is full of holes, and that's what Saul discovered on the road to Damascus.
Now here's where things get truly and genuinely fascinating. Think of this, if you will - Saul, knocked off his horse on the road to Damascus, hearing a voice telling Saul that Jesus of Nazareth, the one whom Saul has been persecuting, is intimately interested in him. And when Paul gets up, and gets to town, scales fall from his eyes. This is great stuff, because we're not talking only about physical blindness, you know. We're talking about spiritual blindness too. Perhaps even more so. The scales that fall from Paul's eyes are spiritual scales, where he all of a sudden understands, he realizes why Christ lived and died in the first place, and why he shed his blood. Paul understood that, as Stephen had told him, that Jesus came to redeem sinners, and the scales that fell from Paul's eyes were those that obstructed him from seeing that he was one of those sinners. Once you understand that you are a sinner, then you will understand why Christ's message is so important. The law doesn't offer you salvation, it only offers condemnation. Paul understood at that moment that the words he had resisted when Stephen had spoken them, were the only words that could offer salvation.
But the words themselves hadn't changed. Only Paul's perspective had. When Stephen spoke, those words were harsh on Paul's ears, telling him that Paul's people had spurned and killed the prophets. But when the scales fell from Paul's eyes, he understood the forgiveness that Christ offered was through his blood. Identical words, different reaction, perspective changed. And this is what leads to the curious conundrum of our reading that we had from Revelation from Sunday. This reading talks about the one who is worthy to open the scroll and break the seals, and this one, the righteous one, is either the Lion of Judah, or the Lamb of God. Which is it? Well, it's both. It's both because they are the same person, truly and genuinely. For Jesus is both the Lion and the Lamb, it just depends on your position next to him. He doesn't change, but we perceive him differently based on where we are in comparison to where he wants us to be. He can bring Peter to tears when Peter is denying him, but will also embrace Peter and bring him back to the fellowship of the Apostles when Peter repents. He can demolish the evil, and restore the repentant. This is what the work of Christ is all about, and our reaction to him tells us a lot more about us than it does about him. His words don't change, so when people hate him, as Saul did, it is because they fell as though they have to believe that they themselves, through their effort, are righteous. But when people love him, preach about him and declare him, as Paul did, it is because they know that their sins are covered.
It truly depends on the point of view, because the words themselves don't change.
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