Discussing
Star Wars: Episode V – Beginning in the Middle of Things

The narrative of The Empire Strikes Back can only move forward once Luke Skywalker is born again.

A very interesting theological perspective, Roslyn. It's subtler than the typical "flawed messiah" musings I've read on this film in the past. Your motif of public rebirth applies well not only to Luke's character (and ultimately to his father Vader's as well), but perhaps more importantly to the Jedi order.

It's telling that virtually every aspect of Luke's Force training is unconventional. He's considerably older than his father was when the Jedi council initially refused to train Anakin, yet there are no younglings to train anymore, so that requirement can no longer be enforced. He leaves Dagobah long before his training is complete, at the protest of both Yoda and Obi-Wan, yet we learn from the dying Yoda upon his return to Dagobah that "no more training do you require". It would seem that Luke's training, unlike that of previous generations of Jedi warriors, is less about weapons finesse and Force acrobatics than inner loyalty to the good of others. That's what really makes him a Jedi, which is why Yoda tells him, "When gone I am, the last of the Jedi you will be."

In a very real sense, then, Luke's own rebirth is the rebirth of an extinct order preserving peace and justice in the galaxy. And this film puts us right in the middle of that...right at the timely turning point when that rebirth begins.