Richard's Wager

Of the many mysterious things that happen on the island of Lost, the existence of Richard Alpert remains clouded in mystery.  During flashbacks in history, Richard has been seen as living on the island for hundreds of years, but never aging.  Earlier this week, some of these clouds were removed via a conversation between Richard and Jack Shepherd.

After a genocide at the temple in which all the followers of Jacob were slaughtered, (including the "high priest" Togan), things start to become a little real for Richard.  A man who seems to have been granted immortality is facing, for the first time in years, mortality.  This is too much for Richard to handle, so he decides that he wants to die.  He entices Jack to light a stick of dynamite to perform the task.  Jack, not knowing the depth of the Richard's circumstances, naturally asks, "Why do you want to die?"  Read carefully as I outline Richard's response: "I devoted my life, longer than you can possibly imagine, in service of a man who told me everything happened for a reason.  He said he had a plan, a plan that I was a part of and when the time was right he would share it with me.  Now, that man's gone, so why do I want to die?  Because I just found out my entire life had no purpose" (paraphrased, emphasis mine).

Jack lights the stick of dynamite, but instead of running away in fear of death himself, he instead sits nearby and mentions that he just had an encounter with Jacob himself.  According to Jack, "Jacob wanted me to know that he has been watching me all of these years.  I am here for a reason."  As the dynamite continues to surge, Richard asks, "What if you are wrong?"  Jack responds, "What if I'm not?"

There are three things that I would like to outline from the span of this conversation.  First, the purposelessness that Richard felt after years of service to someone who he thought had abandoned him.  I imagine that this is the way the disciples must have felt when Jesus died.  At one point, Richard was so upset that he actually accused Jacob of being a liar.  In essence, he denied him as being the man that he had hoped he would be.  The Gospels portray Peter as denying Jesus after His death (Matt. 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, John 18).

Second, I am reminded of the pity that our lives would be if Christ is not real.  Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 15:19: "If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied."  This is the way that Richard felt after Jacob died.

The third and final idea (that I would like to share) from the conversation was what most philosophers call Pascal's Wager.  This is seen when Richard asked Jack, "What if you are wrong?" and Jack replies, "What if I am right?"  "Pascal's Wager assumes that logical reasoning by itself cannot decide for or against the existence of God.  Since reason cannot decide for sure, and since the question is of such importance that we must decide somehow, then we must "wager" if we cannot prove.  So we are asked: Where are you going to place your bet?  If you place it with God, you lose nothing, even if it turns out that God does not exist.  But if you place it against God, and you are wrong and God does exist, you lose everything" (Handbook of Christian Apologetics, Kreeft and Tacelli, 28).

To these three points I will conclude with this: First, it would be devastating to discover that everything you gave your life for was a sham.  Paul is clear about this in 1 Corinthians 15:19.  That is, you would lose something, which is at least your physical temporal existence, and everything that comes with it.  Richard not only devoted his life to Jacob, but felt purpose in that devotion.  He was waiting for the purpose to be manifested, but that was lost once Jacob died--at least in Richard's mind.

Second, Pascal's wager, while initially enticing, is a sad way to love a God who sent His only son to die for our sins.  I doubt that Pascal was being foolish when he developed the wager.  Instead, he perhaps was suggesting that "If there is a God of infinite goodness, and He justly deserves my allegiance and faith, I risk doing the greatest injustice by not acknowledging Him.  The wager should not coerce belief." (ibid.) 

Thankfully, when Christ died He rose again.  All hope may have seemed lost in the devotion given to Him at the point of His death, but three days later all of that changed.  As Paul has written, death has no victory and it has no sting (1 Cor. 15:55).  Our entire purpose must be founded in the life and work of Jesus Christ.  For it is "in Him [that] we live and move and exist" (Acts 17:28).  Like Jack learned, God knows us and is watching us whether we know, or want to believe, it or not.  God does in fact have a purpose.  He always does (Jer. 29:11).