WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.600 Thank you, Derek, and thank you all for coming tonight to think about this interesting topic. 00:00:03.600 --> 00:00:10.800 ! Am I matter or do I matter? Now, let me ask you to put your hand up if you have experimented so far 00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:18.000 ! with AI. You have tried out chat, GTP, Grok or something. Most people in the room have tried AI. 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:23.679 Interesting. I have in the last eight or nine months had a go with it. My kids were coming home from 00:00:23.679 --> 00:00:28.240 school talking about using it and I'm like, what on earth do they teach them at school these days? 00:00:28.239 --> 00:00:33.759 But if they're on it, I need to understand it as well. And I've been both amazed by what it can do 00:00:33.759 --> 00:00:41.839 and also I'm afraid by what it can do. AI is unlike other past technological revolutions. 00:00:43.039 --> 00:00:46.399 The invention of the steam engine, the invention of electricity, the invention of the internet, 00:00:46.399 --> 00:00:51.920 yet all these things have transformed the world. But there were still loads of things that it was 00:00:51.920 --> 00:00:57.119 assumed that only human beings could do. Only human beings could compose a sonnet or produce 00:00:57.119 --> 00:01:04.319 a work of art or produce music or a great work of literature. But the thing about AI is it can do 00:01:04.319 --> 00:01:10.479 all of these things and more. Often faster and sometimes better than humans can do. 00:01:11.599 --> 00:01:16.400 And so it's no longer just simply something of nightmares and science fiction movies to imagine 00:01:16.400 --> 00:01:23.120 that there is a possibility that AI machines might one day be able to replace humans. Certainly, I think, 00:01:23.120 --> 00:01:28.640 AI is going to force us to re-evaluate some of the big questions of life. Among them, the question that 00:01:28.640 --> 00:01:33.760 we are looking at together this evening, which is the belief that human beings are special. 00:01:35.840 --> 00:01:42.400 Now, one of the highest ideals in our society is the belief that human lives are precious and that we 00:01:42.400 --> 00:01:46.560 should go out of our way to help people who are in need, even if they're on the other side of the world. 00:01:46.560 --> 00:01:56.079 But the thing about that belief is it's a belief. It's not a scientific fact. You can't go to a 00:01:56.079 --> 00:02:01.280 scientific laboratory and look down a microscope and discover that as a fact in science. 00:02:02.800 --> 00:02:07.760 And so the question is, where does our belief in the sanctity, the dignity, and the equality of human 00:02:07.760 --> 00:02:14.960 life come from? If you go back in history, you'll discover that it's a notion that is by no means 00:02:14.960 --> 00:02:19.920 self-evident. It has not been widely agreed on in different human societies at different times in 00:02:19.920 --> 00:02:26.480 human history. Instead, it's been our differences that's been the most obvious thing that confronts 00:02:26.480 --> 00:02:31.760 people. Our differences of sex, our differences of skin color, our differences of mental acuity, 00:02:31.760 --> 00:02:36.400 our physical ability, all of these differences, they're the thing that's obvious that's in our faces 00:02:36.960 --> 00:02:42.640 rather than our equality, the sameness that we share. That's why when you go back in history, 00:02:42.639 --> 00:02:45.919 you go and you look at the Greeks and their great philosophers. You look at Plato. 00:02:46.399 --> 00:02:51.919 Plato describes how there are people who are born with souls of gold, souls of silver, and souls of 00:02:51.919 --> 00:02:59.039 bronze. Plato says that some people are born as kings to rule. Others are born as slaves to be tools. 00:03:01.199 --> 00:03:05.439 Aristotle comes along, ladies, you're not going to like this. Aristotle comes along, he says that women are 00:03:05.439 --> 00:03:12.560 simply deformed men. So you've got to fast forward quite a long time in human history before you get 00:03:12.560 --> 00:03:18.240 to this idea that men and women and people of all different shapes and sizes, that they are equal, 00:03:18.240 --> 00:03:22.879 they're the same. You have to look beyond two horrendous world wars and the Holocaust to the 00:03:22.879 --> 00:03:30.560 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Then 1948 announced all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and 00:03:30.560 --> 00:03:38.640 rights. Now that sounds good to our ears, but the question is how do we know that's true? 00:03:39.920 --> 00:03:44.960 If you go to the text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, you'll see it gives no justification 00:03:44.960 --> 00:03:51.039 for that. It makes this statement that it asks you to accept and believe on faith. 00:03:52.560 --> 00:03:56.800 And that puts us in a difficult situation today. That sets us up for a dilemma. 00:03:56.800 --> 00:04:04.640 We have these convictions of human dignity and human equality, but it's like a house that's been built 00:04:04.640 --> 00:04:10.800 on a foundation of sand. And now we're confronted by other rising nations in the world that don't 00:04:10.800 --> 00:04:17.360 share these same ideals with us. China, Russia, India, other places, they don't believe that all human 00:04:17.360 --> 00:04:24.400 lives are equal and free and dignity and rights. They don't believe that. Even here at home, our beliefs 00:04:24.399 --> 00:04:30.239 are beginning to erode at the book ends of life. The government are talking about decriminalizing 00:04:30.239 --> 00:04:34.799 abortion for any reason. They're talking about legislating for assisted dying and euthanasia at 00:04:34.799 --> 00:04:40.239 the other end of life, endangering the lives of the most vulnerable in human society and in human 00:04:40.239 --> 00:04:48.399 family. And so where do our beliefs in the sanctity of human life and the equality of all human lives, 00:04:48.399 --> 00:04:54.560 where do these beliefs come from? How can we justify them? Are they a fiction that we've just invented 00:04:54.560 --> 00:05:01.839 because they're convenient? Or are they facts that we have discovered as part of the fabric of reality? 00:05:03.279 --> 00:05:07.759 And those are two very different answers that come to us through two very different stories to make 00:05:07.759 --> 00:05:11.919 sense of our lives in this world. There's the one that we're going to look at first of all, which I'm 00:05:11.919 --> 00:05:17.039 going to call the secular story of human rights. And then there is another one which I call the biblical 00:05:17.040 --> 00:05:22.000 story of human rights. And today I want to just compare and contrast these two and leave it to 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:29.439 you to decide which makes more sense, which rings more true to you. So let's think first of all about 00:05:29.439 --> 00:05:36.160 the secular human rights story. Scotland is widely recognized to be the birthplace of the Enlightenment. 00:05:37.040 --> 00:05:42.800 I work on the Royal Mile, so almost every single day I walk past David Hume's statue on the Royal Mile. 00:05:42.800 --> 00:05:48.400 And as you walk past his statue, you'll see he holds two tablets in his hands. And if you look really 00:05:48.400 --> 00:05:54.079 closely at those tablets, you'll see that they are blank. You see, David Hume is one of the leaders 00:05:54.079 --> 00:06:01.040 of the Scottish Enlightenment. It was an attempt to try and recreate society and its rules, its laws, its rights, 00:06:01.759 --> 00:06:08.800 purely on the basis of human reason, rather than on the basis of religion. And so David Hume's tablets, 00:06:08.800 --> 00:06:13.120 tablets, they are blank because he says, our rights, our laws, they do not come written from the finger 00:06:13.120 --> 00:06:18.079 of God in heaven. No, they are written on earth by us and we can write what we want on those tablets. 00:06:19.319 --> 00:06:24.379 That's the belief of the Enlightenment. And the Enlightenment brings then the secular humanistic 00:06:24.379 --> 00:06:31.060 worldview. It is built on this belief that the world that we now live in is all that there is. 00:06:31.060 --> 00:06:38.780 There is nothing beyond this physical universe that we now inhabit. Human beings, we exist in the 00:06:38.780 --> 00:06:47.439 physical universe by virtue of time, chance, and natural selection. Like David Hume's tablets, 00:06:47.579 --> 00:06:54.139 that means that humanity comes into this world as a blank slate, which many people think is a 00:06:54.139 --> 00:06:59.980 wonderfully freeing thing, because then we can write on the state whatever we want. We can define life for 00:06:59.980 --> 00:07:04.160 ourselves. We can write our own script in life about how we should live and how we should behave and 00:07:04.160 --> 00:07:09.840 what we can and can't do. It's up to us. Like Francis Snatcher's song, I did it my way. That's 00:07:09.840 --> 00:07:17.500 the freedom it brings us. But at the same time, those blank tablets, that blank slate of humanity, 00:07:17.500 --> 00:07:26.800 also means that human beings have no actual inherent meaning, value, no ultimate destiny. You and I, 00:07:26.800 --> 00:07:32.000 we are just globs of carbon flowing from one meaningless existence to another. That's what 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:38.879 we become in the secular worldview. Someone who acknowledges this stark reality is the writer 00:07:38.879 --> 00:07:44.540 Noah Yuval Harari. He's written in his best-selling book, Sapiens, that human beings are an animal of 00:07:44.540 --> 00:07:50.100 no significance. He goes on and he writes, most legal systems in the world today are based on a belief 00:07:50.100 --> 00:07:56.939 in human rights. But what are human rights? Well, human rights like God in heaven are just a story 00:07:56.939 --> 00:08:04.080 that we've invented. Take a human being, cut them open, look inside. You will find the heart, the 00:08:04.080 --> 00:08:11.900 kidneys, neurons, hormones, DNA, but you won't find any rights. The only place you find rights is in the 00:08:11.899 --> 00:08:22.679 stories that we have invented and spread. Harari's not the only person who thinks this way. London 00:08:22.679 --> 00:08:27.199 School of Economics professor John Gray has written in one of his books that human beings are of no 00:08:27.199 --> 00:08:35.240 greater significance than a slime mold. It makes you feel good, doesn't it? Someone else, Princeton 00:08:35.240 --> 00:08:40.740 ethicist Peter Singer, he argues that not all human beings are worthy of dignity and respect. Peter 00:08:40.740 --> 00:08:47.060 Singer argues that actually a newborn child has less of a right to live than a rat because a rat has 00:08:47.060 --> 00:08:53.139 more self-awareness than a newborn child. Singer suggested we should be able to perform medical 00:08:53.139 --> 00:08:59.480 experiments on patients who have dementia. He also believes that we should prioritize euthanasia for 00:08:59.480 --> 00:09:03.639 the elderly because that will free up more resources for the younger. 00:09:03.639 --> 00:09:12.840 Now you, like me, may not like what these people have said, but it is very hard to fault their ruthless 00:09:12.840 --> 00:09:20.879 intellectual consistency. Their worldview says human beings ultimately mean nothing, and they're prepared 00:09:20.879 --> 00:09:27.939 to put their money where their mouth is. In a purely secular universe, human beings have no inherent value, 00:09:27.940 --> 00:09:39.140 no ultimate purpose beyond survival and reproduction. We just matter. That's it. You are your biology and nothing more. 00:09:39.139 --> 00:09:45.539 But here's the thing. People don't want to live that way. People can't live that way. 00:09:46.500 --> 00:09:52.439 That's not going to get you out of bed tomorrow morning. You need something more than that. And so 00:09:52.439 --> 00:09:57.379 alongside this, there has been a quest through the enlightenment to find an alternative basis to 00:09:57.379 --> 00:10:04.460 believe that there's something special about human beings. Two attempts, let me walk you through them here. 00:10:04.460 --> 00:10:11.100 One is to try and identify there's something in humanity, some special characteristic in humanity that means that we are 00:10:11.100 --> 00:10:16.060 special, that we are worthy of more than just being treated like a slime mold. 00:10:17.139 --> 00:10:23.400 And so often people will single out human intelligence or human ability to communicate or human ability to be 00:10:23.400 --> 00:10:29.720 creative, all these different things, and say, well, that quality that human beings have, that means that we should 00:10:29.720 --> 00:10:32.820 honor that and respect that, not just in ourselves, but in others who have that. 00:10:32.820 --> 00:10:42.180 But there's a problem with trying to base our rights, our dignity, our value in special characteristics. 00:10:43.740 --> 00:10:47.379 And it's because these special characteristics don't just divide us from the animals, 00:10:48.379 --> 00:10:52.060 but they also divide some humans from other humans. 00:10:52.059 --> 00:10:59.500 So what are you to do if the special characteristics is your intelligence, if it is intelligence that makes us worthy of rights and respect? 00:11:00.039 --> 00:11:03.619 Well, then what do you do with someone who has a mental incapacity? 00:11:04.759 --> 00:11:08.179 Or what do you do with someone who has been born with a below average IQ? 00:11:09.979 --> 00:11:12.259 Are they worthy of less rights and protections? 00:11:12.259 --> 00:11:18.860 It's funny because our intuition would be, actually, they're the ones who most need those protections. 00:11:20.519 --> 00:11:22.960 And so that's, this doesn't work. 00:11:22.960 --> 00:11:32.480 An alternative quest through the Enlightenment to try and find a basis for human rights and dignity has been instead to look for a thing called the social contract. 00:11:33.259 --> 00:11:40.500 And to say that, this imagines that in the past, human beings, they realized that life was pretty short, nasty, and brutish. 00:11:41.860 --> 00:11:48.900 Until we realized that we just live together and work together, actually, we could make a society together and live happier, longer lives. 00:11:48.899 --> 00:11:52.699 And so we have invented the social contract to live together. 00:11:53.019 --> 00:11:57.000 And in this social contract, we've agreed to give each other certain rights and respect. 00:11:58.740 --> 00:12:00.659 Now, here's the thing about the social contract. 00:12:01.779 --> 00:12:07.879 What is to prevent a future society rewriting the social contract? 00:12:09.600 --> 00:12:18.740 What if a future majority of people votes to strip the minority off their rights, to enslave them, or to exterminate them? 00:12:18.899 --> 00:12:21.259 This isn't just theory. 00:12:21.399 --> 00:12:22.819 This happened in 1930s Germany. 00:12:23.319 --> 00:12:25.100 This can happen in societies. 00:12:27.679 --> 00:12:29.840 And so, special characteristics, social contracts. 00:12:30.100 --> 00:12:38.259 None of these things actually provide us firm, strong foundation on which we can build the house of human rights and human dignity and human value and human equality. 00:12:38.340 --> 00:12:39.240 It doesn't work. 00:12:40.299 --> 00:12:45.079 This is why Notre Dame professor Alastair MacIntyre has famously declared that the Enlightenment has failed. 00:12:45.899 --> 00:12:46.919 It doesn't work. 00:12:46.919 --> 00:12:48.659 It does not. 00:12:48.779 --> 00:12:54.199 These beliefs that we have, they do not fit in a secular, godless, humanistic universe. 00:12:54.959 --> 00:12:55.860 They don't fit there. 00:12:55.939 --> 00:12:56.819 They don't work there. 00:12:58.539 --> 00:13:03.740 Instead, there is a better story that makes sense of these things, these beliefs, these intuitions that we have. 00:13:04.599 --> 00:13:06.899 I call it the biblical story of human rights. 00:13:06.979 --> 00:13:08.279 And that's what we're going to go on to look at now. 00:13:08.279 --> 00:13:18.620 Now, it's been a surprise to many people in our generation to realize that the flower of human rights comes from a seed that's found in the Bible. 00:13:18.620 --> 00:13:23.620 But you don't have to be a Christian to recognize that and admit that's true. 00:13:24.899 --> 00:13:26.779 There's a secular historian called Tom Holland. 00:13:26.899 --> 00:13:33.860 He's written in the last few years that every human being possessed an equal dignity was not remotely self-evident a truth. 00:13:33.860 --> 00:13:42.440 The origins of this principle lay not in the French Revolution, nor the Declaration of Independence, nor in the Enlightenment, but in the Bible. 00:13:42.440 --> 00:13:51.080 Even our earlier friend, Noah Yuval Harari, our atheist friend and sapiens, even he admits that these things come from the Bible. 00:13:51.180 --> 00:14:02.480 He writes, the liberal belief in the free and sacred nature of each individual is a direct legacy of the traditional Christian belief in free and eternal individual souls. 00:14:02.480 --> 00:14:13.720 These beliefs that we have about everybody being free, everyone being equal, everyone's life being worthy of value and respect, they come from the Bible. 00:14:14.500 --> 00:14:16.220 They're written on the very first page of the Bible. 00:14:17.220 --> 00:14:21.379 If you look at Genesis chapter 1, verse 27, that's where you will find the seed. 00:14:22.180 --> 00:14:26.620 There we read, so God created mankind or humankind in his own image. 00:14:26.620 --> 00:14:32.820 In the image of God, he created them, male and female, he created them. 00:14:35.419 --> 00:14:40.019 At this point, this is the pinnacle of all of God's creative work, all of his creative endeavors. 00:14:40.940 --> 00:14:43.259 God's crowning glory in all he has made. 00:14:43.519 --> 00:14:45.179 It's not the stars in the heavens above. 00:14:45.399 --> 00:14:47.220 It's not the majestic mountain peaks. 00:14:47.639 --> 00:14:48.539 No, it's you and me. 00:14:49.519 --> 00:14:51.779 Human beings, yes, made from the dust, 00:14:52.639 --> 00:14:55.080 but made in his image, in his likeness. 00:14:55.080 --> 00:14:57.680 That's where the glory is found. 00:14:59.160 --> 00:15:01.960 It's a little bit like what happens whenever you get a piece of paper, 00:15:02.220 --> 00:15:05.960 and you look at it, and you see the image of our sovereign printed on it. 00:15:06.400 --> 00:15:09.040 And suddenly, that piece of paper is no longer just a piece of paper. 00:15:09.800 --> 00:15:12.480 Suddenly, it is transformed into currency, 00:15:12.720 --> 00:15:15.940 and it has value because it bears the official image of the sovereign. 00:15:17.800 --> 00:15:21.320 In the same way, God has created us from the dust, 00:15:21.620 --> 00:15:24.840 but he has stamped us with his image and his likeness. 00:15:25.080 --> 00:15:29.400 And that's where our value, that's where our meaning, that's where our worth comes from. 00:15:30.400 --> 00:15:31.540 Yes, we're made from the matter, 00:15:31.960 --> 00:15:34.960 but we're stamped with God's image and likeness, and that's why we matter. 00:15:35.440 --> 00:15:38.400 In his sight, we're loved, we're precious, 00:15:39.120 --> 00:15:40.980 unlike anything else in all of creation. 00:15:40.980 --> 00:15:50.180 But it's not just on the first page of the Bible that you discover that human beings have dignity and worth and value, 00:15:51.180 --> 00:15:54.300 because at the very center of the Bible is the person of Jesus Christ, 00:15:54.539 --> 00:15:56.680 the Son of God, come into this world. 00:15:57.580 --> 00:16:00.460 And nothing brings greater dignity to the human race 00:16:00.460 --> 00:16:03.519 than the fact that the living God has become one of us. 00:16:03.840 --> 00:16:07.320 He stepped down into human history as one of us. 00:16:07.320 --> 00:16:10.200 It's what we're all going to be singing about and celebrating in a few weeks of Christmas. 00:16:12.140 --> 00:16:15.560 And so, Derek read to us Mark chapter 5 a little bit earlier on. 00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:18.220 And just very briefly, I want to walk you through this story 00:16:18.220 --> 00:16:19.840 to point out to you 00:16:19.840 --> 00:16:22.580 that in Jesus' eyes, we're not just matter. 00:16:22.740 --> 00:16:24.420 No, we're loved. 00:16:24.419 --> 00:16:28.919 Now, there's two people in this story. 00:16:29.799 --> 00:16:31.159 Both of them are women, interestingly. 00:16:31.559 --> 00:16:32.219 That's going to be important. 00:16:32.599 --> 00:16:33.819 One of them's a 12-year-old girl. 00:16:34.259 --> 00:16:34.779 She's dying. 00:16:36.099 --> 00:16:36.879 One's an older lady. 00:16:36.939 --> 00:16:38.019 We're not told how old she is, 00:16:38.039 --> 00:16:40.659 but we're told that she has been sick for 12 years. 00:16:42.299 --> 00:16:43.579 Now, what's important about this story 00:16:43.579 --> 00:16:45.659 is that both of these characters are women. 00:16:46.099 --> 00:16:48.419 They are in a society that is... 00:16:49.199 --> 00:16:49.980 What's the world? 00:16:50.099 --> 00:16:51.240 It's a man's world. 00:16:51.559 --> 00:16:52.539 That's the world that they're in. 00:16:52.539 --> 00:16:56.779 In first century law, they were property. 00:16:56.959 --> 00:16:58.319 The property of the men in their lives. 00:16:59.259 --> 00:16:59.919 Their fathers. 00:17:00.740 --> 00:17:01.500 In their cases. 00:17:01.719 --> 00:17:02.360 Their husbands. 00:17:04.619 --> 00:17:05.720 They're not significant. 00:17:07.279 --> 00:17:08.819 But in Jesus' eyes, they are. 00:17:09.180 --> 00:17:11.740 Jesus relates to and treats these women 00:17:11.740 --> 00:17:13.779 in a radically counter-cultural way. 00:17:14.440 --> 00:17:15.200 They matter to him. 00:17:17.039 --> 00:17:18.659 And so, first of all, this first girl, 00:17:19.139 --> 00:17:20.559 we're not told her name, this young girl. 00:17:20.559 --> 00:17:22.559 She is the daughter of Jairus. 00:17:22.639 --> 00:17:24.259 We're told his name because he's the VIP. 00:17:24.879 --> 00:17:27.019 He is one of the elites in town. 00:17:27.139 --> 00:17:28.220 He is the synagogue ruler. 00:17:28.480 --> 00:17:31.019 He is a man of prestige and status. 00:17:32.079 --> 00:17:33.579 And he is racing against the clock 00:17:33.579 --> 00:17:35.419 to get Jesus from wherever Jesus is 00:17:35.419 --> 00:17:37.700 all the way across town back to his house 00:17:37.700 --> 00:17:39.879 where his little girl is lying and she is dying. 00:17:41.159 --> 00:17:43.200 He is desperate for Jesus, the healer, 00:17:43.339 --> 00:17:44.879 to come and heal his daughter. 00:17:44.880 --> 00:17:49.840 But the thing about first century Jewish towns 00:17:49.840 --> 00:17:51.600 is that they have narrow streets. 00:17:52.040 --> 00:17:52.560 They're busy. 00:17:53.060 --> 00:17:53.940 Maybe market day. 00:17:54.260 --> 00:17:55.300 They're thronged with people. 00:17:55.740 --> 00:17:57.740 And so it's very hard to get through. 00:17:58.380 --> 00:18:00.680 They don't have the ambulance with the blue lights 00:18:00.680 --> 00:18:02.340 and the siren to make way. 00:18:04.100 --> 00:18:05.880 So they're pushing through the crowded streets 00:18:05.880 --> 00:18:08.240 and here in the crowd, we're told there's this second lady. 00:18:09.400 --> 00:18:10.640 Again, we're not told her name. 00:18:10.640 --> 00:18:13.780 She's socially ostracized. 00:18:14.500 --> 00:18:16.960 She spent 12 years on the margins of society 00:18:16.960 --> 00:18:19.360 because everyone is afraid that her sickness, 00:18:19.880 --> 00:18:22.640 her uncleanness is contagious. 00:18:23.300 --> 00:18:24.680 It will make them sick. 00:18:24.759 --> 00:18:26.259 It will make them unclean as well. 00:18:27.660 --> 00:18:29.420 And so this is a lady who has lost everything, 00:18:29.520 --> 00:18:31.420 lost her friends, her family, her community. 00:18:31.720 --> 00:18:32.480 She lives on the margins. 00:18:34.540 --> 00:18:36.560 She desperately wants to be near as well. 00:18:37.300 --> 00:18:39.080 And she has heard that Jesus has the power 00:18:39.079 --> 00:18:41.799 to do things that no one else, humanly speaking, can do. 00:18:43.259 --> 00:18:45.579 And as Jesus pushes through the crowd, 00:18:46.039 --> 00:18:47.439 he walks right past her. 00:18:48.939 --> 00:18:51.240 Just quietly, she reaches out her hand. 00:18:51.339 --> 00:18:52.000 She touches him. 00:18:52.299 --> 00:18:53.720 Just touches the hem of the throat. 00:18:54.659 --> 00:18:57.339 And we're told she was hit in that moment. 00:18:58.379 --> 00:19:00.960 12 years of being rejected. 00:19:01.659 --> 00:19:03.359 12 years, Luke's gospel tells us, 00:19:03.359 --> 00:19:05.539 seeing every doctor who couldn't help her. 00:19:06.460 --> 00:19:08.220 12 years, nothing worked. 00:19:09.079 --> 00:19:10.359 One touch of Jesus. 00:19:11.099 --> 00:19:12.899 And she is healed. 00:19:16.159 --> 00:19:18.199 And that's when Jesus stops. 00:19:19.399 --> 00:19:21.059 Jairus wants to pull him on, get him home. 00:19:21.639 --> 00:19:22.599 Jesus stops. 00:19:23.460 --> 00:19:24.699 And he says, verse 31, 00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:26.220 who touched me? 00:19:28.299 --> 00:19:30.019 And he leaves this woman nowhere to hide. 00:19:30.099 --> 00:19:32.099 He gives her no choice but to reveal herself, 00:19:32.699 --> 00:19:34.000 to identify herself. 00:19:34.559 --> 00:19:36.059 She must have been thinking to herself, 00:19:36.159 --> 00:19:37.539 I have done something wrong here. 00:19:37.539 --> 00:19:40.980 I am about to get in so much trouble. 00:19:43.500 --> 00:19:45.099 But she steps forward. 00:19:46.240 --> 00:19:47.779 She identifies herself. 00:19:47.859 --> 00:19:48.299 It was me. 00:19:48.299 --> 00:19:52.200 And then she hears these words from Jesus, 00:19:52.339 --> 00:19:54.519 words that she was not anticipating. 00:19:56.019 --> 00:19:56.960 Verse 34, 00:19:57.599 --> 00:19:57.980 daughter, 00:19:59.159 --> 00:20:01.200 your faith has healed you. 00:20:01.200 --> 00:20:07.960 See, Jesus has time to stop for this nobody. 00:20:10.019 --> 00:20:12.720 There's other things other people have got for Jesus to do, 00:20:12.779 --> 00:20:14.279 but Jesus has time to stop for her. 00:20:14.519 --> 00:20:17.080 No one has stopped for this woman and paid attention to her for 12 years. 00:20:17.480 --> 00:20:19.340 But Jesus wants to stop and pay attention to her. 00:20:19.900 --> 00:20:20.860 He wants to see her. 00:20:20.920 --> 00:20:21.779 He wants to know her. 00:20:21.779 --> 00:20:23.960 And when she's lost everything, 00:20:24.019 --> 00:20:24.399 her friends, 00:20:24.480 --> 00:20:24.960 her family, 00:20:25.500 --> 00:20:27.059 Jesus' first words out of his mouth are, 00:20:27.460 --> 00:20:27.819 daughter. 00:20:28.920 --> 00:20:30.980 Jesus wants her to know that she has a father in heaven 00:20:30.980 --> 00:20:32.099 who loves her, 00:20:32.759 --> 00:20:33.500 who is for her. 00:20:35.039 --> 00:20:37.799 And then he announces in the hearing of everyone in town 00:20:37.799 --> 00:20:38.879 who's gathered around, 00:20:40.160 --> 00:20:41.160 you're healed. 00:20:41.160 --> 00:20:45.640 So she can go back and have her friends. 00:20:45.820 --> 00:20:46.900 She can go back and have her family. 00:20:46.980 --> 00:20:48.220 She can go back and have her community. 00:20:48.680 --> 00:20:49.300 She's safe. 00:20:49.560 --> 00:20:50.140 She's clean. 00:20:50.380 --> 00:20:51.019 She's well. 00:20:53.259 --> 00:20:54.279 Jesus has utterly, 00:20:54.460 --> 00:20:56.620 radically transformed her life 00:20:56.620 --> 00:20:58.540 in just this little encounter. 00:21:01.259 --> 00:21:02.540 But all as this is happening, 00:21:02.660 --> 00:21:03.580 Jairus is standing here. 00:21:03.800 --> 00:21:04.340 He is anxious. 00:21:04.480 --> 00:21:06.220 He is desperate to get Jesus back to his house, 00:21:06.279 --> 00:21:06.840 to his little girl. 00:21:08.560 --> 00:21:09.460 The news comes, 00:21:09.720 --> 00:21:10.220 two of his, 00:21:10.220 --> 00:21:12.740 we're not told how many servants come from his house, 00:21:12.799 --> 00:21:14.220 but some people come from his house with a message, 00:21:14.339 --> 00:21:15.940 the worst possible news, 00:21:17.200 --> 00:21:18.519 every parent's worst nightmare, 00:21:20.700 --> 00:21:21.539 daughter's dead. 00:21:22.980 --> 00:21:24.880 Don't bother the rabbi anymore. 00:21:29.120 --> 00:21:31.240 But then Jesus reaches out his hand to Jairus, 00:21:31.339 --> 00:21:32.000 verse 36, 00:21:32.120 --> 00:21:32.380 and says, 00:21:32.480 --> 00:21:33.120 don't be afraid. 00:21:34.319 --> 00:21:36.339 Just believe and she will be healed. 00:21:38.380 --> 00:21:38.839 You see, 00:21:38.900 --> 00:21:39.279 all this time, 00:21:39.360 --> 00:21:40.140 Jairus has been thinking, 00:21:40.220 --> 00:21:43.160 if he can only get Jesus to the house before she dies, 00:21:44.740 --> 00:21:45.640 Jesus could save her. 00:21:47.700 --> 00:21:49.559 What Jairus is about to realize is that 00:21:49.559 --> 00:21:50.940 even after she has died, 00:21:51.799 --> 00:21:52.920 Jesus can still save her. 00:21:54.360 --> 00:21:56.360 And so Jesus sets off with Jairus and team 00:21:56.360 --> 00:21:57.759 through the crowds. 00:21:58.200 --> 00:21:58.880 Arriving at the house, 00:21:58.980 --> 00:21:59.420 they go in, 00:21:59.480 --> 00:22:00.480 they go past the mourners. 00:22:01.200 --> 00:22:03.180 They go up the stairs to our little girl's bedroom. 00:22:04.299 --> 00:22:05.259 Sees her lying on the bed. 00:22:05.259 --> 00:22:06.599 She looks like she's asleep. 00:22:07.740 --> 00:22:08.240 But no, 00:22:08.279 --> 00:22:09.519 she's sleeping the sleep of death. 00:22:11.559 --> 00:22:12.879 But then Jesus goes over to her. 00:22:12.960 --> 00:22:13.779 We read verse 41. 00:22:13.900 --> 00:22:14.779 He takes her by the hands. 00:22:14.879 --> 00:22:15.359 He says, 00:22:16.079 --> 00:22:16.799 my child, 00:22:17.099 --> 00:22:18.519 get up. 00:22:18.519 --> 00:22:21.960 I love how in the Jesus storybook Bible 00:22:21.960 --> 00:22:22.680 by Sally Jones, 00:22:22.740 --> 00:22:23.079 he says, 00:22:23.200 --> 00:22:25.480 Jesus reached down into death. 00:22:25.480 --> 00:22:30.720 And in that moment, 00:22:30.799 --> 00:22:31.380 her eyes open, 00:22:31.500 --> 00:22:32.259 she gasps for breath, 00:22:32.299 --> 00:22:33.559 her heart start beating again, 00:22:33.640 --> 00:22:36.140 and she is alive again. 00:22:37.920 --> 00:22:40.360 And then don't miss the end of verse 43. 00:22:41.440 --> 00:22:42.220 Just as earlier, 00:22:42.420 --> 00:22:44.700 he did the thing that the woman needed, 00:22:45.180 --> 00:22:45.700 telling everyone, 00:22:46.079 --> 00:22:46.539 she's clean, 00:22:46.920 --> 00:22:47.680 you can have her back. 00:22:48.680 --> 00:22:50.580 He also pays attention to this little girl's need. 00:22:50.640 --> 00:22:51.279 Give her something to eat. 00:22:51.400 --> 00:22:52.080 She's going to be hungry. 00:22:52.180 --> 00:22:52.740 She's not being well. 00:22:52.799 --> 00:22:53.560 She's not eating in days. 00:22:53.920 --> 00:22:54.660 Give her something to eat. 00:22:54.799 --> 00:22:55.200 Jesus, 00:22:55.940 --> 00:22:58.460 Jesus cares about people in all of their needs. 00:22:59.460 --> 00:22:59.880 Social, 00:23:00.100 --> 00:23:00.420 physical, 00:23:01.600 --> 00:23:02.100 everything. 00:23:03.960 --> 00:23:05.299 So this is an incredible story. 00:23:05.600 --> 00:23:08.140 This is an incredible story where Jesus makes time for 00:23:08.140 --> 00:23:11.120 and treats with incredible dignity and respect 00:23:11.120 --> 00:23:14.200 people whom other people didn't have any time for. 00:23:14.900 --> 00:23:15.160 Children. 00:23:17.680 --> 00:23:18.600 Sick, 00:23:19.259 --> 00:23:20.660 ostracized women. 00:23:22.080 --> 00:23:23.180 They matter to Jesus. 00:23:25.960 --> 00:23:29.340 And Mark tells us this story because he's actually telling us 00:23:29.340 --> 00:23:32.259 a number of stories in this section where he is revealing 00:23:32.259 --> 00:23:33.500 Jesus's power. 00:23:34.539 --> 00:23:36.539 Because sickness and death, 00:23:36.880 --> 00:23:39.920 they are two of the great enemies of the human race. 00:23:40.299 --> 00:23:41.980 Two of the things that afflict the human race, 00:23:42.100 --> 00:23:43.120 that ruin our lives. 00:23:43.880 --> 00:23:46.860 And Mark wants you to know that the greatest enemies of your life 00:23:46.860 --> 00:23:47.580 and my life, 00:23:48.440 --> 00:23:50.660 that Jesus has the power to defeat them. 00:23:51.160 --> 00:23:54.700 That Jesus has the power to save you from your greatest problem. 00:23:56.220 --> 00:23:58.140 Your greatest problem is actually not sickness. 00:23:59.000 --> 00:24:00.860 Your greatest problem is actually not death. 00:24:01.580 --> 00:24:04.380 Your greatest problem is not that you're on the margins and you're lonely. 00:24:06.980 --> 00:24:07.380 No. 00:24:07.380 --> 00:24:11.680 The greatest problem is this thing the Bible calls sin. 00:24:14.600 --> 00:24:17.080 Human beings, yes, we've been made in the image of God. 00:24:17.380 --> 00:24:20.240 We, if you like, bear something of the glory of God. 00:24:20.240 --> 00:24:25.440 The problem is human beings have not lived up to our privileges. 00:24:25.440 --> 00:24:31.860 Instead, Romans chapter 3 verse 23 tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. 00:24:32.100 --> 00:24:34.380 If this is where the glory is, all of us live down here. 00:24:34.720 --> 00:24:36.360 We live woefully short of it. 00:24:36.359 --> 00:24:41.859 We have not lived up to our God-given privileges, rights, responsibilities. 00:24:42.079 --> 00:24:44.559 Instead, we have turned our backs on God, the source of life. 00:24:45.119 --> 00:24:46.479 We have descended into sin. 00:24:46.539 --> 00:24:47.659 And that is why we get sick. 00:24:47.740 --> 00:24:48.619 That is why we die. 00:24:48.619 --> 00:24:51.119 That is the source of all of the misery of this world. 00:24:51.419 --> 00:24:53.959 That we have turned our backs on God, gone our own way. 00:24:54.500 --> 00:24:56.559 And we've made a mess of it in the process. 00:24:59.219 --> 00:25:00.779 Sinners were like cut flowers. 00:25:01.859 --> 00:25:05.519 Or, with Christmas on the horizon, we're like Christmas trees. 00:25:06.299 --> 00:25:07.479 We've been cut down. 00:25:08.019 --> 00:25:09.359 We've been brought into the house. 00:25:09.439 --> 00:25:10.539 We've been dressed up. 00:25:10.919 --> 00:25:12.259 We look nice for a time. 00:25:12.899 --> 00:25:15.059 But we're slowly fading and wilting. 00:25:15.279 --> 00:25:16.739 We're starting to lose our needles. 00:25:16.740 --> 00:25:20.440 And one day soon, they're going to take us out and throw us out in the compost. 00:25:23.200 --> 00:25:24.680 That's what it means to be human. 00:25:25.359 --> 00:25:25.920 As sinners. 00:25:26.839 --> 00:25:30.259 Romans 6, 23 tells us, the wages of sin is death. 00:25:31.599 --> 00:25:32.579 That's our true problem. 00:25:33.319 --> 00:25:33.779 Our sin. 00:25:34.279 --> 00:25:37.039 Our sin that separates us from the God who made us and loves us. 00:25:39.140 --> 00:25:40.500 But that's the reason why Jesus came. 00:25:40.500 --> 00:25:43.200 Jesus came into this world to deal with our sin. 00:25:43.519 --> 00:25:46.279 To bring us back into the Father's arms of love. 00:25:47.319 --> 00:25:52.720 And that's why at the center of Christianity, the symbol that defines what it means to be a Christian is the cross. 00:25:53.599 --> 00:25:57.640 The place where Jesus came to offer his life in our place. 00:25:58.620 --> 00:26:02.839 The place where Jesus took upon himself our sins and their consequences. 00:26:03.400 --> 00:26:05.380 All that separates us from God. 00:26:05.779 --> 00:26:07.579 He has suffered that in himself. 00:26:08.599 --> 00:26:10.759 He himself has died. 00:26:10.759 --> 00:26:16.640 Bible tells us that this was to demonstrate the love of God. 00:26:16.819 --> 00:26:17.680 Romans 5, 8. 00:26:17.680 --> 00:26:19.619 God demonstrates his love for us in this. 00:26:20.079 --> 00:26:23.819 That while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 00:26:23.819 --> 00:26:30.839 The cross of Jesus Christ shows us that in God's eyes, you and I, we are not just meaningless matter. 00:26:31.539 --> 00:26:32.619 No, we're wonderfully loved. 00:26:34.240 --> 00:26:35.679 God has become one of us. 00:26:35.899 --> 00:26:37.119 He has suffered as one of us. 00:26:37.279 --> 00:26:38.599 He has died for us. 00:26:38.599 --> 00:26:40.839 That's how much you mean to him. 00:26:43.019 --> 00:26:44.059 But Jesus didn't just state it. 00:26:44.119 --> 00:26:45.740 History records how he rose again. 00:26:46.639 --> 00:26:48.619 Demonstering that he really is who he said he is. 00:26:48.619 --> 00:26:52.459 Showing that he has the power to save us from our sins. 00:26:52.959 --> 00:26:55.359 Showing us that he has the power to transform lives. 00:26:55.399 --> 00:27:00.079 Just as surely as he transformed those girls' lives on that day in Capernaum all those years before. 00:27:00.319 --> 00:27:02.779 He has the power to change your life and my life. 00:27:03.719 --> 00:27:05.479 In fact, he has the power to change this world. 00:27:06.559 --> 00:27:12.799 Because ever since Jesus' time on the earth, he has left behind on the earth his followers, Christians, his church, 00:27:12.839 --> 00:27:15.659 to go about the work of beginning to transform the world. 00:27:16.319 --> 00:27:18.259 To make it more the way God wants it to be. 00:27:18.619 --> 00:27:27.459 There's a secular sociologist called Rodney Stark who spent his career researching how the Christian church revolutionized the world. 00:27:28.919 --> 00:27:35.719 He explores how in a society that left unwanted babies out to die, Christians adopted them and formed the first orphanages. 00:27:37.239 --> 00:27:43.799 In a society that prized the strong and despised the weak, Christians provided for the poor. 00:27:44.239 --> 00:27:47.139 They created hospitals for the sick and hospices for the dying. 00:27:48.619 --> 00:27:56.899 In a society that bought and sold human slaves, humans bought their freedom and campaigned for its abolition twice. 00:27:56.900 --> 00:28:04.680 And they did all these things because they believed that every single human individual is precious. 00:28:05.160 --> 00:28:08.560 Every human life is precious in the sight of God. 00:28:08.559 --> 00:28:15.879 So much so that God himself in the person of Jesus Christ would come from heaven and earth and die on a cross to save us. 00:28:16.220 --> 00:28:17.139 And he was back to himself. 00:28:19.299 --> 00:28:21.879 So that's the answer to our question, am I matter or do I matter? 00:28:22.419 --> 00:28:23.000 You matter. 00:28:23.679 --> 00:28:25.639 You matter in the sight of God. 00:28:25.640 --> 00:28:32.880 The question that you've got to answer tonight is does Jesus matter to you? 00:28:34.080 --> 00:28:35.720 Because you certainly matter to him.