The death of Jesus and the politics of place in the Gospel of John

Roman imperial rule serves as a context for the Fourth Gospel. In this late-first century colonial milieu, the oppressive ideologies of Rome devastate the Johannine community and the rest of the inhabitants of Palestine. John's narrative of the death of Jesus both responds to empire and forms a community that seeks its liberation from Rome. To achieve this, John strips the story of the death of Jesus of any suffering and presents it as a triumph. The Gospel also constructs political spaces in a way that challenges empire and its Jerusalem allies.;The Fourth Gospel confronts and resists the current Jerusalem authorities and their Roman masters, through its portrayal of Caiaphas as a mouthpiece of God, and by its redefinition of the purpose of Jesus' death as the realization of a new community among the dispersed children of God. Similarly, at the trial of Jesus, John maintains that Jesus' death fulfills Scripture, thereby constructing Pilate's space as the space of a puppet. This too defies empire. Finally, by constructing the crucifixion space as a space of glory, John defeats Rome's greatest tool of oppression. This climax of resistance to empire invigorates the dominated people in their struggle for liberation.;John defines Jesus' followers as a truth community, an alternate community that re-orders space and creates a new world order that challenges the Roman world's disorder. Jesus' crucifixion therefore embodies a politically-charged space that critiques and resists the power of the Roman Empire, and constructs an alternate space of liberating interdependence.