Welcome to Tuesdays with Doctor G. where I am continuing a series entitled The Gospel According to Lost. This is Episode Three.
In the last episode, we heard one brother’s take on human nature. People are corrupt to the core. Sinners from birth. Children of Adam.
This week, the other brother, Jacob, provides the response to the question: what are people like—at their core?
Enter Jacob
Jacob goes next. Hold onto that name.
Jacob is the closest thing to a god figure in the mythos of Lost. Jacob brings the Lost characters to the mysterious island, almost like a test. But his influence is more indirect than sovereign.
We’ll come back to Jacob later.
Flipping the Script
Jacob flips the script immediately. He says, You know what brother? You are 100% correct! People are dastardly, and I’m going to bring twenty of them to the island to prove your point.
Over six seasons, what do we see? Every figure in the show is fractured, lost, and imperfect. They all have daddy issues. They’ve all done horrible things, even murdered people.
But here is where Jacob begins to embrace human complexity. Yes, brother, people are capable of endless good or endless bad, but this does not define who they are. Instead, they are hauntingly noble human beings.
Their humanness is not a curse.
This is a revolutionary idea for human self-conception which has been under attack by pre-modern ideologies for millennia.
Jacob continues.
In the end brother, people will rise to their noble human selves. Because that is who they are. When push comes to shove, they will sacrifice for each other, for strangers, for love or for what’s right, without being told.
And one by one, they each step into their human greatness. Same imperfect people.
Charlie sacrifices his life for the group to restore their communication. Jin does not abandon his wife in her last hour. Kate and Sawyer take responsibility for the group. Jack gives his life for everyone on the island and even the planet in the mythology of Lost.
Where You Begin with People Matters
That’s how Jacob sees people. He rejects his brother’s thesis as woefully incomplete. Too simple. Instead, he opts for our complex nobility.
You are not born depraved. You are not born worthless. You don’t need divine restoration to become whole. Your nobility is your true humanity, your humanity is your true nobility.
This is what begins to reverse the damage of the Man in Black’s perspective.
Where you begin with people matters.
See you in Episode Four: The Weave and the Butterfly Effect
Doctor G.
