People don’t really eat much in that galaxy far, far away. The Ewoks had a feast, at which our heroes were supposed to be the main course. Other than some blue milk, though, there aren’t a lot of meals in the Star Wars universe.
Maundy Thursday is all about a meal, really the meal. On Thursday of Holy Week we remember the Last Supper and the depth of meaning contained in that evening. Jesus not only instituted communion, but he also washed his disciples’ feet, told them about the Holy Spirit and passionately prayed over his closest friends.
There is so much to unpack from Maundy Thursday; the entirety of Holy Week could be spent simply looking at Jesus’ last meal with his disciples. However, in this post we’re going to look at Anakin and Obi-Wan’s relationship.
The relationship between Master Kenobi and his Padawan acts as the foundation for the prequel trilogy. We see their relationship develop from their first meeting on Tatooine to its eventual splintering on Mustafar. The prequels give us a deeper look into their relationship, that there was more to Darth Vader and Obi-Wan than what we saw at the end of A New Hope. These weren’t just adversaries, but they had also been friends, practically brothers.
The depth of relationship between Anakin and Obi-Wan is what Jesus would have experienced with his disciples. We read the Bible so much and we know the stories so well, that sometimes we can forget that real people were involved. The disciples really were 12 men who left everything they knew in order to follow Jesus. Jesus wasn’t just some holy man or wise guru, but he was a friend who traveled with his disciples for three years. If we work alongside a group of people for three years, then we get to know them pretty well. Now imagine if you were also traveling together, sharing every meal and sleeping under the same roof with that same group; you would be extremely close.
That’s what Jesus had with his disciples and that’s the depth of relationship at the Last Supper. The Last Supper wasn’t just some common get together, but it was a meal shared among best friends full of meaning and significance.
The prequels gave us a better sense of Anakin and Obi-Wan’s friendship; they humanized that demon in black. As we reflect on Maundy Thursday, we need to remember that the Last Supper was populated by real people, friends who had spent years together. The men at that table weren’t just subjects for a Da Vinci painting, but they were flesh and blood, feeling the weight of the moment. And as we think about the depth of relationship that Jesus had with his disciples, we can be encouraged because that’s the type of relationship he wants with each of us.
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