“Then Moses felt frightened. He said to himself, ‘this incident is known.’ When Pharaoh learned of the incident he took steps to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and paused in the land of Midian, where he sat down by a well.” (Exodus 2:14)
If we are to reach out to today’s young people with the word of God, we must first find where they are, and a good place to begin is with their passions. The motion picture sequence “Star Wars” third chapter, released in the theaters in May, helps not only adolescents but also all viewers to identify with Luke Skywalker battling the forces of darkness and discovering that his greatest enemy Darth Vader is really his own father. In the Bible Moses is raised in the palace of pharaoh, a foster father, from whom he is forced to flee, only to return years later exposed as leader of his own real people, the Hebrews. He is commanded by a greater Power, the almighty Lord, to lead his people from bondage in Egypt to a land promised by God. Both Moses and Luke had been raised and nurtured without their own fathers as primary role models, or at least those with whom they could readily identify. Those of us who are pastors or counselors to confused and troubled young persons often discover as a pattern their inability to bond with their fathers and to identify with them as guides, mentors and sources of inspiration.
Darth Vader and Pharaoh stand more as adversaries than mentors, much like Jack in the beanstalk fable whose father is the giant from whom he must steal the goose laying golden eggs. It is the mother and wily sister who concoct the scheme that help to keep Moses alive, albeit in an alien household. Luke too is on his own, with some help from the women in his life. Both are natural leaders, yet they cannot come of age until they confront and conquer their crafty and powerful, albeit evil adult adversaries. They cannot do it alone, but use prudent counsel from those older and more experienced. With Luke it is Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda; with Moses it is the Almighty Himself, later with his father-in-law Jethro. Transcendent powers, the energy from without that compensates for whatever is lacking in the leader, comes from some nebulous “force” in Luke’s case, and from the Holy Spirit Who is everywhere present and filling all things, specifically the mind, soul and body of Moses.
My purpose is not to equate the two stories, much less to give credence to what is essentially a comic strip fable hardly the quality of classical fiction, but to point out the fundamental yearning in contemporary culture for the transcendent. We as humans are born with a burning drive for self-discovery. We can never be content living an animal existence, nourishing ourselves on the good things of life, indulging our minds and senses with pleasures of the world and taking pleasure in such banality. That will not nourish our thirsty souls. We are obsessed with learning the answer to the Biblical question: “What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care about him: Yet You have made him a bit lower than the angels and crowned him with glory and honor.” (Psalm 8:4)
To find the answer one must question and even challenge the truths and premises of the adult world, taking the risk of losing what one has in order to find and restructure one’s values as an adult. It presupposes the courage to leave the comfortable for a journey, an exodus, or a pilgrimage into the unknown. The great difference is that the Lord God constantly led Moses. We are not blessed with assuming the same scenario prevails in today’s world. Luke is for those raised in a civilization where God is unknown or rejected, pretty much on his own. Moses knew that God has a destination in mind for him. For Luke as with Jack, survival is its own reward.