https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=mAqjdzjCrMo
part of the reason that the passion story is memorable and compels attention is because it’s It’s a it’s a it’s the ultimate exemplar of a certain kind of story now you might be able to produce another exemplar but and and other religious systems have But it’s the ultimate exemplar of a particular story and then the question is well What’s the story and the story is the story of unjust tragedy? right and and it’s the ultimate exemplar of ultimate of unjust suffering and unjust tragedy because The formal structure of the story is that the worst thing imaginable Happens to the best possible person Right, that’s the basic story now. I’m not I don’t care if you believe that story That isn’t that has nothing to do with what I’m saying I’m trying to I’m trying to outline for example why people have been obsessed with this story for 2,000 years In that case we can outline that completely independently of any religious claim. I’m just talking about what the story is about So it’s definitely a tragedy obviously because it involves What does it involve torture and death at the hand of the mob and the tyrant? Okay, so that’s bad and also also Emerging as a consequence of betrayal and not just betrayal but betrayal of the the closest person right the best friend and so and then that’s all pretty bad torture mob tyrant Betrayal that’s a lot of bad things But then it’s made worse by the fact that the person who’s being judged by the crowd and treated worse than a criminal In fact despised in comparison to those known to be criminal was also a person who only did what was best all the time and Everyone knew it including the people who tried to kill it so you see you can’t make something up That’s more tragic than that because what where do you go? It’s like you’re kind of out of tragedies at that point right betrayal. That’s bad. That’s bad Dante put betrayers When he wrote the inferno he put betrayers in the lowest circle of hell right next to Satan himself and Dante’s inferno is a Is a study of the layers of evil. That’s that’s a good way of thinking about so it’s an architecture of hell and You might say well, I don’t believe in hell. It’s like well. That’s just because you haven’t been there you know you’d believe it if you believe in it if you’d been there and and It also means that you just don’t understand because it’s Dante’s book in particular is the architecture of evil He was trying to understand How you rank order what’s worst and he put betrayers pretty much at the Base and I think the reason for that is if you betray yourself or if you’re betrayed by someone else It takes your faith away. You know imagine you’re married to someone you find out We’ve been married ten years you think you’re happy You think you know what happened in the past then you find out the person had sequential affairs, and you didn’t know about it It’s like well Then where are you? And the answer is well you’re lost and it’s so interesting to be lost like that because you’re not only lost in the present because Your present is not what you thought it was you’re lost in the future because you thought you were with someone and Doing something that you’re not doing and whatever you thought was gonna happen in the future isn’t gonna happen And that’s pretty bad because you lose the present and the future, but that isn’t all you lose You also lose the past that’s pretty damn strange because you think well the past already happened. It’s like Not the way you thought it did, buddy Right, and that’s pretty Destabilizing and so betrayal and then it’s worse the betrayals actually worse than that because it doesn’t just rob you of the past and the present in the future it also It also forces you to suffer For doing something that was actually good Because it’s good to trust someone if you’re naive that’s not so good but if you are courageous and you trust someone you extend out their hand and you make them a Negotiated arrangement which is essentially what a marriage is then You’re kind of inviting them to be the best day person they can possibly be and if you don’t have that trust then you can’t even Get a relationship off the ground and so then the person who’s betrayed you has used your best Impulse to do the worst possible thing to you And so that’s pretty damn rough and a lot of people with post-traumatic stress disorder have PTSD because they’ve been betrayed Often because they’ve betrayed betrayed themselves by the way because you can betray yourself and so Well, so that’s just unpacking part of that Catastrophic tragic story betrayal is only part of it of course Christ is be true Christ is put to death by the Romans in some real sense But also by his own people and so he suffers at the hands of a tyrant and the tyrant Who’s the agent of his death is also a moral relativist who asks what truth means and the crowd is offered the opportunity to allow Christ to escape from death and they choose a criminal instead and So what’s happened is that all the terrible things that could happen to you in life are stacked up in this story And and then it’s pushed to its limit And so that’s extremely interesting and that and so it’s a very very dark story and Then and so then what you think well, what do people do? What are people doing when they? When they hear that story or even more to the point what are they doing when they? Go on a pilgrimage which which you could do if you just went to a church especially Catholic Church because the Catholics do this particular And you walk the stations of the cross or you contemplate the stations of the cross what are you doing exactly? Well, you might ask yourself. What are you doing when you go see a horror movie? And that’s a really good question because it’s so preposterous that you would go see a horror movie It’s like you’re you’ll do that voluntarily You’ll line up to do it, and you’ll pay for it. Why so you can be disgusted and terrified It’s like what the hell’s wrong with you well seriously like what are you up to and answer is You’re facing what’s disgusting and terrifying and you’re doing it voluntarily That’s what you’re doing, and you have an instinct to do that and that instinct is so powerful that it’ll compel you to do that So powerfully that if you do it voluntarily it’s even entertaining right you’ll do it voluntarily you’ll pay for it and so And that’s not so Preposterous because one of the things that psychotherapists have learned in the last hundred years regardless of school Is that if you? Sit with someone and you find out what they’re afraid of and what they’re avoiding And you’re afraid of what they’re afraid of and you’re afraid of what they’re afraid of and you’re afraid of what they’re afraid of And what they’re avoiding and it’s a good combination of those two things because There’s things to be afraid of properly and there’s things to be afraid of improperly and It’s improper to be afraid of those things that you have to face in order to move uphill Right and so therapists have learned that if you get people to face what they’re afraid of and avoiding voluntarily That they get better and you might say well that’s because they get less afraid but that is actually isn’t what happens That’s not exactly what happens they get braver instead It isn’t that they get less afraid and they’re not just less afraid of what they’re now exposing themselves to If you if you treat someone who’s agoraphobic who can’t get in elevators, let’s say and you and you help them Learn to confront the elevator step by step until they can finally get in and ride it again then They start doing things all over in their life that they were afraid to do previously it generalizes So if you watch yourself move towards something that’s frightening Successfully, then you start to understand there’s more to you than you thought and And there is more to you because you’ve actually learned something when you confront this thing you’re afraid of and then You’re more likely to do the same thing in other situations That’s a good thing to know too because one of the things you might ask yourself is how do I improve my life and one answer Would be well are there things that you know you need to do that you’re avoiding and answer that’s almost invariably Yes, and then the pathway to your redemption would be well you have to start doing those things and you might say well I can’t because I’m too afraid and then a behavioral psychologist would say well Then just break the thing that you’re afraid of down into smaller Pieces and until you can find a piece that’s small enough, so you’ll do it and then start doing that and You might think well That’s a pretty little thing that I have to do to move forward and that and the proper response to that It doesn’t really matter if it’s a little thing what matters is that you confront something that you’re afraid of voluntarily That’s what matters and so then you might say well What are people doing when they go to Jerusalem to walk the Via Dolorosa and what they’re doing is They’re trying to imagine How to confront the catastrophic suffering of life voluntarily and They’re participating in this story the same way you might participate in a movie and you might think you know that’s actually pretty smart and Then you might think well. What does that story of? Unjust suffering have to do with me. I don’t mean me personally I mean each of us and the answer is well you what you don’t think you’re gonna face unjust suffering in your life You