The Mandalorians — these elite armored warriors, ruthless soldiers of fortune, and ancient rivals of the Jedi Knights have captured the imaginations of Star Wars fans for decades, ever since the mysterious bounty hunter Boba Fett appeared on the big screen in The Empire Strikes Back.
Enter Din Djarin, the protagonist of the wildly popular live-action series The Mandalorian. Djarin’s personal hero’s journey is a microcosm of the perennial tension within Mandalorian culture at large — the question of what exactly does it mean to be a Mandalorian? Din’s own answers to this question, demonstrated by the choices he makes, reveal surprising connections to the heart of the gospel of Christ.
Din was orphaned during the Clone Wars and raised by the Children of the Watch, a Mandalorian faction who focus on survival by secrecy, discipline, and a radically strict interpretation of the Mandalorian Creed. The Watch live communally in underground “coverts” and never remove their helmets in front of others. Din “swore the Creed” upon coming of age and began operating as a bounty hunter in the Outer Rim Territories.
But Din’s life is radically upended when he is hired to retrieve a mysterious “Asset” which turns out to be a small alien child named Grogu, who belongs to the same enigmatic species as Yoda. Grogu cannot speak but is strongly attuned to the Force. Djarin’s fateful encounter with this child sets him on a path that challenges his preconceived notions about the best way to be Mandalorian. He ultimately comes to love Grogu as a son and would do anything to protect him.
In the episode “The Believer,” Din is on the trail of the Imperial warlord Moff Gideon, who has abducted Grogu for his own evil purposes. At an imperial outpost, Din’s is compelled to remove his helmet in front of others in order to access a computer terminal and confirm the location of Gideon’s star cruiser.
The decision to do this is wrenching for Din, but Grogu’s life is on the line. By the Mandalorian Creed, Din is bound to act in place of Grogu’s father until he can safely return the Force-sensitive child to the Jedi. Like any loving father would, Din Djarin places the life and well-being of his foster son above other considerations, even the external observances of the Creed.
Din Djarin’s heroic acts of selfless love for the sake of another have striking parallels to perhaps the most famous parable in Sacred Scripture — The Good Samaritan. When asked by a scholar of the Law of Moses, “Who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29) Jesus answers:
“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper saying, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbor to the man who fell among robbers?” He said, “The one who showed mercy on him.” And Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” (Luke 10:30-37)
Din Djarin, like the Samaritan, makes personal sacrifices to save an innocent life. He sets aside the traditions of the Watch for a noble and life-affirming purpose — to save a child under his care. But this unwavering commitment to compassionate justice and goodness cost him dearly.
In The Book of Boba Fett episode entitled “Return of the Mandalorian,” Din rejoins the Children of the Watch after rescuing Grogu and leaving the child in the care of Luke Skywalker. But when the Armorer, leader of the covert, asks Din the ritual question “Have you ever removed your helmet?” Din does the honorable thing and tells the truth. He is summarily expelled from the covert as an “apostate” with the cold rebuff “You are a Mandalorian no more.”
The unbending legalism of the Children of the Watch brings to mind the Pharisees as portrayed in the gospel narratives. The Pharisees were teachers of the Torah and believed that salvation entailed a strict adherence to the Law of Moses and the many regulations that had been added to it over the centuries. The Pharisees wielded great authority, and those who crossed them could be expelled from the synagogue.
Jesus often disputed with the Pharisees, exposing their cold-hearted hypocrisy. On one occasion, Jesus enters a synagogue to teach on the sabbath and encounters a man disabled with a withered hand:
And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the sabbath, so that they might find some accusation against him. But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” And he rose and stood there. And Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful on the sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” And he looked around on them all, and said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did so, and his hand was restored. But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus. (Luke 6:7-11)
Blinded by their pride, their envy, and their rigid understanding of the Torah, the Pharisees could not understand that Jesus placed doing good and saving life at the heart of the Law. The Pharisees had wrongly prioritized superficial displays of piety and the scrupulous observance of religious traditions above the lives and well-being of the people who came to Jesus to be cured.
Remember that in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, the two men who passed by the innocent victim were Jewish clergy, those who were most outwardly observant of the Law of Moses. But by abandoning the grievously wounded man to his fate, they were violating the heart of God’s law, which is love because “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” (1 John 4:16)
Din Djarin, like the Good Samaritan, is a hero because of his dedication to compassion and self-sacrificial love. All Christians are called to imitate the Samaritan because the Samaritan is ultimately a figure of Christ, who made the ultimate sacrifice to rescue us from eternal death and bind up the wounds inflicted on us by sin. We are called to love the way Christ loved, without counting the cost.
Although not found in any of the traditional Christian professions of faith, like the Nicene Creed, the heart of the Christian life is summarized in the gospels as: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27) — This is the law of love. This is the greatest commandment. This is the Way.
Thomas J. Salerno
Thomas Salerno is a Catholic author, freelance writer, and podcaster born and raised on Long Island, New York. Among his many passions are dinosaurs, Tolkien's Middle-earth, Star Wars, and superheroes. His writing has been featured in numerous publications including Word on Fire, Aleteia, Amendo, Busted Halo, Catholic World Report, Empty Tomb Project, and Missio Dei. Thomas is the creator and host of the Perilous Realms Podcast and is a contributor to the StarQuest Production Network (SQPN), where he serves as co-host on the Secrets of Movies and TV Shows and the Secrets of Middle-Earth podcasts. Thomas has a bachelor of arts in anthropology from Stony Brook University. You can follow his work on his Substack newsletter thomasjsalerno.substack.com or @Salerno_Thomas on Twitter.