Jesus on the Cross: facing our fear of death

As useful as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) can be in helping someone initialize change when it comes to problematic behavior, studies show that over time this fades. CBT is not concerned with the whys of what needs to change. It provides practical ways of dealing with the "what"- with behavior. I am not a psychologist and I am not going to provide proof of what I am going to assert in the form of empirical data derived from studies. But I think not dealing with the why may be one reason why CBT techniques tend to fade.

At risk of gross oversimplification, by contrast, psychonanalytic approaches deal almost exclusively with the why. Psychanalysis seeks to delve deeply into the psyche. Why am I writing about this? I am writing about this because the Gospel for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year B, is John 3:14-21. This passage begins with these words, placed in Jesus's mouth: "And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."

The reference to the serpent points to an episode in the Book of Numbers (21:4-9). In this passage, the Israelites are set upon by poisonous serpents. Those who were bitten died. God commanded Moses to make a bronze replica of the serpent and mount it on a pole. All those who were bitten had to do to be healed was to look at the bronze serpent. Yet, some still perished because they would not look.

The thought that prompted this post came to me in the form of a question: Why a serpent? Referring back to wrote I wrote about psychotherapy, I think it helps us to face what we fear. The Israelites clearly feared the poisonous serpents who were killing them. If bitten, they could be healed by looking at a replica of a serpent. It may also be useful to know that in the ancient world of the Middle East, the serpent was a symbol of wisdom. Comimg to my point, they were saved by facing what they feared.

Still appearing on medical insigna, the serpent on a pole remains, even in our day, a symbol of healing.

In the Gospel for this Sunday, Jesus's use of the phrase "lifted up" is a reference to his crucifixion. The Greek word used for "lifted" means simply to be heightened. It can also mean to be exalted.

This brings me to the overall point: Our greatest fear is death. As Paul notes in Romans 5:12- sin is the result of death, not vice-versa (see "Following Jesus requires ruthless trust" second, third, and fourth paragraphs). And so, when we look at Jesus hanging on the cross, we encounter our greatest fear: death.

Like the serpent raised up in what the inspired author of Saint John's Gospel calls, in Greek, the ἐρήμῳ, which literally means "the desolate," facing what we fear heals us. Being "saved" means being "salved," which means being healed. Jesus not only faced but overcame not only death but hell for us.

This is one more way of seeing how hope lies beyond optimism.