Freedom

“And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve.” (Joshua 24:15)

Solo is a prequel film which tells the origin story of the galaxy’s favorite freedom fighting loner. As the film opens, we quickly realize everyone is a slave to someone else. Han and Qi’ra (his childhood love interest) were raised in an Oliver Twist style indentured servitude under the thumb of Lady Proxima. The pair are about to escape when Qi’ra is detained. Consumed with a plan to free himself from the officers looking for him, and rescue Qi’ra, Han approaches an Empire recruiter:

Recruiting Officer: What’s your name?

Han Solo: Han
Recruiting Officer: [looking for Han’s last name] And who are your people?
Han Solo: I don’t have people. I’m alone.
Recruiting Officer: Hans. . . Solo. . . Approved!

And with that, Han is now a servant of the Empire. Some years later, Han finds himself fighting against the Wookies who have been enslaved by the Empire, one of those oppressed is named Chewie. Later, a smuggler named Tobias Beckett, invites Han and Chewie into his life of crime but warns “once you’re in you’re in for good.” Beckett himself is not a free man, he serves the head of a crime syndicate named Dryden Vos. And while meeting with Vos for the first time, Solo is stunned to see Qi’ra. She too has managed to get free from Lady Proxima. But she too now serves at the pleasure of Vos. Even Vos, we learn later, serves a former Sith Lord.

As she explains how she was able to “free herself” Qi’ra offers this bit of perpetual truth; “Everyone serves someone.”

Freedom and liberation are core ingredients to Solo’s storyline. Whether it is L3-37 attempting to liberate enslaved droids, Chewie fighting to liberate enslaved Wookies, or Solo trying to liberate himself and the woman he loves, everyone is trying to get free. But no matter how hard they try, everyone still serves someone. The only freedom they have is to decide who they will serve.

So it is with you and I. Everyone serves someone. We only have been the freedom to choose who. Adam and Eve, living in freedom from so much of what oppresses us today, had to decide whether they would be servants to their own passions, or would they subject themselves to the will of their creator (Genesis 2:16-17). Israel, liberated from Egypt, had to decide which deity they would serve (Joshua 24:14-15). Jesus’s disciples were called to decide whether they would serve God or wealth (Matthew 6:24).

You and I today must also recognize this truth. We were never meant to be our own overlords. No one is autonomous, no one is totally free, no one is “solo.” Everyone serves someone. Who will you serve?

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