Alexey Navalny...Martyr?

 Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”  Pilate asked him, “What is truth?”

John 18: 37-38 NRSVue

A martyr (Greek: μάρτυς, mártys, 'witness' stem μαρτυρ-, martyr-) is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In the martyrdom narrative of the remembering community, this refusal to comply with the presented demands results in the punishment or execution of an individual by an oppressor.     Wikipedia

Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny died suddenly in prison on Friday. He was almost certainly murdered by Vladimir Putin's evil regime after being incarcerated for crimes he didn't commit. Because he was a symbol of Russian freedom from tyranny he was a threat to Putin and there had already been an attempt to assassinate him using poison. He somehow survived and was treated in a German hospital, only to return to Russian and immediate arrest.

Did Navalny have a death wish? In the Oscar-winning documentary, Navalny, he is seen with his wife and two children in Germany, and it's obvious that he loves them and enjoys life. Did he have some sort of "martyr complex", an unhealthy commitment to sacrificing himself for the perceived needs of others? The film is poignant and I couldn't help wishing that he continue his opposition in exile.

The definiton above reminds us that our English word martyr comes from the Greek word for witness. We tend to admire those who stand up to oppressive power more after they are dead and gone, even when they have effected change in their lifetimes. Both India's Gandhi and America's MLK are examples from the 20th century. A couple of days ago the Rev, Dr. King's daughter, Bernice, reminded us that her father was the most hated man in the country right up to his death. 

Jesus' cousin, John the Baptizer, was a witness when he challenged the power of Herod Antipas, and he was imprisoned before he was killed. Both Peter, the disciple, and Paul, the apostle, were executed by the Roman regime for their involvement in what was perceived as the seditious Way of Jesus. Jesus came before Pilate to bear truth and he too was put to death, on the cross. 

Navalny would likely have scoffed at the notion of being a martyr but he did die for his cause. He will be remembered by millions as a martyr, a witness, and he should be remembered with admiration and respect. 

"The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins."

Søren Kierkegaard, 1848.