Love Fails

Anakin Skywalker fell to the Dark Side because he loved too much.

But isn’t love a good thing?

Anakin had a history of precognitive dreams that were correct. Despite those dreams, he had been unable to save his mother. In the wake of his failure, he turned to revenge and destroyed a camp of Tusken Sandraiders. He felt remorse over his actions; he knew he had gone too far.

Since then, he’s gotten married. He and Padme are expecting their first child.

The dreams come back.

The dreams tell him that Padme will die in childbirth. The woman he loves. The woman that in many ways keeps him on the Light Side.

So you’ve got a man who struggles to do the right thing. He knows that if his dream comes true – and he has every reason to think it will – his wife will die. He knows that if she dies, he may very well succumb to temptation and fall to the Dark Side.

So, to prevent that, to save the life of the woman he loves, to do the right thing, he will do anything.

Anything.

Isn’t that what a good man, a good husband, is supposed to do? Protect his wife? Rescue her?

Then Anakin learns that there are some things that the Jedi consider unnatural that might save his Padme. That he can’t learn these methods from a Jedi. That to save his wife, he will need to learn from a Sith master.

What would you do?

Love is…

Love always protects, doesn’t it? That’s what he’s trying to do!

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…but love does other things, too. Check out what it says in the Bible, a book that knows a thing or two about love. In I Corinthians 13 it says…

Love is patient.

Anakin isn’t much on patience, is he? He rushes ahead. He wants action, not more waiting! He doesn’t show a lot of patience toward the other Jedi nor to his wife.

Love is kind.

Anakin may have some little flashes of kindness, but I don’t think that’s part of who he is for the most part.

Love does not envy.
It does not boast.
It is not proud.

Um… Anakin thinks he’s the greatest Jedi that’s ever lived. He says as much to Padme.

Love is not rude. It is not self-seeking.
It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs.

Yeah. Maybe we’re starting to see here… Anakin really isn’t showing a lot of aspects of love, is he? He gets angry at Padme. I don’t know if once in Episode III he’s really interested in her at all, except as someone he wants to save from death. He’s not interested in what she does during the day or her own personal struggles.

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

Does Anakin delight in evil? No, I don’t suppose he does. He walks in reluctantly. He doesn’t enjoy it.

Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Yes. Anakin is trying to protect Padme. But he doesn’t trust her. In fact, at the end of Episode III, he Force-chokes her because he believes she’s betrayed him. He gives up hope.

In the end, Anakin’s love fails.

Based on what I see in Episode III, I have to wonder if Anakin loved Padme at all. I wonder if what he loved was the idea of being in love. I know he loves himself. After all, Anakin trusts himself more than he trusts his elder Jedi.

In the end, Anakin’s love cannot save Padme.
It can’t even save him.

Someone else’s love would have to do that. Someone whose love was always patient and kind. Someone who didn’t envy or boast. Someone who never once delighted in evil. Someone whose love persevered, even when he came to a world that hated him.

I guess it’s a good thing I don’t have to wait for Anakin to save me. I’ve got Jesus. And it’s a good thing I don’t have to depend on my love to save anyone else, either. I have Jesus’s love. He saves me, and I can trust him to save those around me, too.

Jesus’s love never fails.