Darth Vader, God, & Me

Just last week my son and I were playing and at some point in our time together my son asked me whether or not one of his action figures was a "good guy" or a "bad guy". I replied that he was in fact a "bad guy" and Tyler proceeded to agree vehemently with me. "Yeah, Daddy," he said, head nodding vigorously, "He's a bad guy! We don't want to be his friend". At the time, this didn't really register with me but as time has passed, I've thought back on this moment more and more.

We as people, and it seems even more so as evangelical Christians, like things black and white. The whole "red state, blue state" dictomomy did not phase us in the least. In fact, we were just bummed that there weren't more red ones. Yet, the more I ponder and think upon the issue, life just isn't that simple. We're not that easy to define.

Case in point: Darth Vader. Now, we all know Darth Vader as the dark, menacing Sith lord of the Empire. Clearly, as a rule, Vader was not a nice guy. His subordinates cringed in his presence and many ended up pulling uselessly at their collars as Vader but the Sith choke hold on them. I mean, this was a guy that was even willing to be okay with the death of his own son! Not a nice guy.

But the story doesn't end there. In fact, it's far from over. Because, the very son who Vader sought to destroy, whom he brought to the Emperor, the nastiest of the "bad guys", saw some good in him. And, Vader the "bad guy" ends up becoming Vader the "good guy". "There is good in him," Luke Skywalker confides to his sister, Leia. And in fact he is right.

Is this not the way of all humans? Are we not all an amalgamation of good and evil? This does not imply that we are in any way, shape, or form worthy of holiness. This holiness comes only through the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. Yet, as we interact with one another, are we so callous to view one another as either the "good guy" or the "bad guy"? Do we look to our Muslim, Buddhist, or even atheist neighbor and view them as the "bad guy"? I'm not talking about agreeing with these people. What I am talking about is acknowledging them as people, as Christ even, and loving and caring for them as we would like to be cared for. I am talking about offering these people the very same grace with which we have been presented, a grace that accepts people where they are at and sees in them not only the evil, the depravity, but also the divine fingerprints of the Creator upon them. Then, and only then, may we truly live out the way of Jesus.