Date of Award

5-2021

Document Type

Thesis - SCU Access Only

Publisher

Santa Clara : Santa Clara University, 2021.

Degree Name

Licentiate in Sacred Theology (STL)

Director

Jean- François Racine

Abstract

I reread the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in John’s Gospel (19:1-16) to depict Jesus’ calculated attitude of resilience in the face of abuse, misinterpretation, humiliation, and ultimately, condemnation with execution by crucifixion. In a Nigerian praxis where the usual attitude to misgovernance and exploitation of the people is becoming one of tolerance and silence, the predominantly Christian population begins to read, listen and live the crucifixion of Jesus in ways that gloss over the fact that no one should suffer injustice in silence.

This study uses critical analysis and interpretation (exegesis) to strip away attitudes of neutrality to prejudice and the corrupt connivance of power brokers, whether religious or political. In other words, I encourage resistance to avoidable suffering among Nigerian Christians by analyzing John’s Crucifixion account, which exposes the collaboration and prejudices in which the Jewish religious leaders and their Roman political counterparts operated in Jesus’ trial. In his death, Jesus does not suggest that every suffering is welcome. Instead, he proclaims the value of standing with one’s conviction to truth, asserts that resilience is defiance to injustice, and therefore, an effective counter-measure to acts of prejudice, misjudgment, and maltreatment.

The leading players in Jesus’ crucifixion are some Jewish chief priests, the Sanhedrin, and the Pharisees, and the temple guards who collaborate in intriguing ways with Pilate and his Roman state agents. John’s Gospel uses symbolic language, but only to ironically declassify the entire trial account so that Jesus towers above his detractors in taking charge of the trial and outlives the span of those who crucify him. Then he demonstrates that his death glorifies God’s will rather than the pleasure of those who crucified him.

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