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Good morning.

The mayor of Istanbul, the main rival to the President of Turkey, remains in jail and 1400 of his supporters, as well as a number of journalists, have now been imprisoned as well. The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ journalist Mark Lowen has been expelled from the country.

In too many places round the world political protestors are incarcerated. I wonder sometimes about the courage that makes them do it, giving up home, family and all they love; and what keeps them going in often long years of imprisonment. Nelson Mandela was in prison for 27 years. Aung San Suu Kyi is still under house arrest having first been detained in 1989. And what about those thousands of ordinary people who perished in Syria’s Jails? In their isolation and fear what were the sources of their lonely strength?

Just over a year ago Alexei Navalny died in one of Putin’s prisons after three years incarceration. Brought up as an atheist he became a Christian and what kept him going above all was one of the beatitudes of Jesus. ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst to see right prevail, for they shall be satisfied.’ He felt deeply fulfilled because he knew he was doing the right thing and because he believed that right would in the end prevail.

A few days ago there was a no less remarkable story. Alexander Skobov, aged 68, was jailed for 16 years in Russia over his anti-war views. In court he announced ‘Today I will be asked whether I plead guilty. Well, I am the one making the accusation here! I ask the regimes henchmen present here – do you admit your guilt in being complicit in Putin’s crimes?’

His outburst brought to mind one of the themes running through St John’s Gospel-who is being judged and by what standards? Political power, religious complicity and mob violence combined to condemn Jesus and bring about his death but as he makes clear in that Gospel, it was actually the world that was being judged by what they did to him. ‘Now is the judgement of the world’ he said. In the light of absolute Truth our flawed human judgements are exposed.

Ultimately there is a different standard of judgement when true justice will be done and seen to be done. That is of course a hope-a hope shared not just by Christians but by many others. Meanwhile those who are prepared to stand up to despots and suffer the consequences are a courageous expression of that hope.

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