After agreeing to take Obi-Wan, Luke, and the droids to Alderaan, Han meets up with the bounty hunter Greedo who tells Han that “Jabba’s put a price on your head so large every bounty hunter in the galaxy will be looking for [him].”
When Han tries to explain that even he and his ship get boarded by Imperials sometimes, Greedo responds, “You can tell that to Jabba. He may only take your ship.”
With the Falcon as Han’s prize possession, he tells Greedo that Jabba can have his ship “over my dead body.” Greedo thinks that is the idea and that he has been looking forward to Han’s death for a long time. Then Han nonchalantly tells Greedo, “I bet you have,” and then Han shoots Greedo dead.
Greedo is killed before he can fire a shot, and Han adds to his long list of kills and crimes because he owed a debt he could not repay. Han is an example of what 1 Timothy 6:10 warns about, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”
Before his confrontation with Greedo, we see Han trying to extract as much as possible from Obi-Wan and Luke, a violation of Leviticus 25:17 about not taking advantage of others.
We know Han was in debt. Proverbs 22:7 tells us that “The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.”
When we are lovers of money or are in debt, we might not become killers like Han, but we often do things that we usually would not do or condone. When in debt, we might commit “small sins” like cheating on taxes, lying about how many hours we worked (to get overtime pay), or, as the old saying goes, “rob Peter to pay Paul.”
How can we use our money to honor God?
