When the Purpose Disrupts the Plan: Star Wars Battlefront 2 and Mary (John 19:17-19)

Star Wars fever may be even higher now than its’ original inception, and I should know. I have been around for all of the ebbs and flows of this franchise and had the Star Wars bedsheets and underoos to prove it. Well… I mean, I don’t have them anymore, that would be weird. But suffice to say this generation is seeing a Star Wars renaissance that even the prequel and sequel trilogies couldn’t stop, and as gamers we have been getting some canonical Star Wars games that add to this bounty. Star Wars Battlefront 2 may have been released back in 2017, but thanks to a recent plot development in the second season of The Mandalorian a key moment from the game has thrust this title back into the limelight. Spoilers lie ahead for those who have not yet finished season 2 of The Mandalorian… and also, what are you waiting for?

In The Mandalorian season 2, Mayfield, the former Imperial soldier that turned into a mercenary, mentions “Operation: Cinder” as his personal moment of epiphany against the Empire. This is a reference to a critical military campaign that is not only lived out, but actually PLAYED through in Star Wars Battlefront 2. Our primary character in Star Wars Battlefront 2, Iden Versio, was an Imperial soldier who might appear to be a traditional evil Empire villain on the surface. She was loyal to her Emperor, proudly served the Galactic Empire, and even after the Emperor’s apparent demise at the hands of Vader she continued bravely carrying out his ruthless attacks on Rebel forces. As the primary character in the game, we get a unique view of both the Empire and the Rebellion through her eyes. But when Emperor Palpatine’s final command to execute “Operation: Cinder” puts her in a position to destroy not only her own home world, but also the Empire’s own loyal soldiers in the process, her story as well as the game’s plot takes a dramatic turn. Finding everything that she previously believed compromised, she had a tough choice to make… continue to follow “the plan”, or fulfill her true purpose?

If there is anyone in the Bible who can relate to a MASSIVE disruption from the plan to the purpose, it is Mary, the mother of Jesus. Let’s forget what we already know about this story and try to live it from this young woman’s perspective. Mary was just minding her own business when suddenly an angel dropped this massive bomb all over her previous life plans…

Luke 1:31-33 Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”

Sooo… that sounds pretty exciting, right? Casting aside all of the challenges around explaining this to her fiancé Joseph, this is pretty big news. Her Son… Her Jesus… He would be the inheritor of ALL of these accolades. He would sit on a throne that had not been filled for MANY years, and He would remain the king FOREVER. Sure, there would be some hardships to endure along the way, but as a parent of this miracle Child you would HAVE to be excited about a destiny of that magnitude, right? But the angel seemed to leave out a few details that would give any reasonable person a little bit of a pause before jumping for joy.

What details, you ask? Oh, just a few tiny little details… like how her Child would not live to the age of 40. Small, inconsequential details such as the barbaric murder of her Child in front of an angry mob demanding His crucifixion. Maybe a couple things were not mentioned during this exciting moment of promise… like how her Child would become the most polarizing figure in human history, equally famous and infamous to the level that His best friends and closest followers would also slowly be hunted down and put to death over the next several decades. You know… THOSE little details. The promise sounded AMAZING, but the way the plan came together was certainly nothing that Mary could have even processed at that point, much less understood.

So let’s fast forward to the endgame… as Christ was crucified His mother finally saw the name that she was promised written above His head that wore a crown not of gold, but of thorns…

John 19:17-19 And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified Him, and two others with Him, one on either side, and Jesus in the center. Now Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the writing was: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.

There it was… He was publicly proclaimed as the King. But certainly not in the way she would have ever imagined, wanted, or even accepted if she had a choice. The promise was fulfilled and His destiny was achieved, but this certainly did not go according to any plan that a reasonable parent would have made for their Child. But Mary did not run when the purpose seemingly diverged from the plan like so many of His followers did… she remained right there, at the foot of the cross, all the way through His final breath (John 19:25).

Mary had a front row seat to her Son, the promised King’s execution. This was not the PLAN… at least not as she had received it. The angel had left a lot of those details out. But it was the PURPOSE… His throne was no mere earthly seat of recognition, but is an ETERNAL throne that He truly will occupy for all time. The path to get there did not conform to anything a normal, rational person would have plotted out in their high school guidance counselor’s office… but it was the only way that His actual purpose could be accomplished.

Similar to our Star Wars heroine Iden Versio, her original plan of what was best for the people was dramatically shifted when she realized that the method of saving everyone was far different than what she had originally perceived. And for each of these women, their previous plans may have been interrupted by this larger purpose, but it was THROUGH this interruption that each of their destinies came to fulfillment.
Life has a funny way of coming to us with a plan that looks great in the picture, but when it is time to put it together the instruction book simply says, “Attach parts together using the included screws. If you have some left over, just put them in a Ziploc bag and hide them in your junk drawer”. Like Mary, we carry God-given dreams in our hearts for our lives that include noble and beneficial pursuits such as family, education, ministry, careers, friendships, and leaving our world a better place than what we found it… but then our purpose seems to come along like a playground bully kicking down our sand castle directly into our eyes. Like Iden, we follow our path with all of the right intentions when suddenly doors slam shut in our face, leading to shattered dreams, broken homes, damaged relationships, furloughed jobs, and half-finished pursuits.

But believe it or not, it is in THAT moment that our purpose doesn’t actually diverge from the plan… it simply diverges from OUR plan. It is in THOSE moments that our purpose is at its’ most clear and pronounced position, if we can wipe our tears away long enough to see it. Through Iden’s pain, betrayal, and confusion her purpose finally became clear and she emerged as the hero she was meant to be all along. And if we can just wipe away enough of the tears falling from Mary’s eyes at the foot of an unexpected cross, we can see that the blood dripping from her Son was the ONLY thing that would save EVERYONE who is willing to have their sins washed away, fulfilling His true purpose.

Whatever life has thrown at you right now, or whatever quagmire you have walked into of your own volition… this place you are standing in right now might not have been your plan. But that’s okay… you are in good company. Your life may have diverged from your plan, but not from HIS purpose. He knew where you would be right now, and you are still in a position to fulfill the destiny that He placed inside you. So don’t lose faith in His plan even if it where you are doesn’t sound exactly like what you thought it would be like. Iden had to lose the battle to win the war… and Mary had to lose her Son to save the world and see Him fulfill His destiny as not just the King of the Jews, but the King of all Kings.
His purpose for our lives may have disrupted our plans, but His plans are absolute and He will still fulfill those promises, even if it is not the way we originally imagined. He has not changes His mind about any of us, no matter what mistakes we have made… even if we were fighting on the side of the Empire for a little while. Paul said it best in Romans, and if anyone would know about purpose disrupting a plan, it would be him…

Romans 11:29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

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