Many years ago when I lived in the Los Angeles area, I had
the privilege of seeing a live performance of Les Misérables, or as
translated in English The Miserables. Last night Bruce and I went to see the latest re-creation of this
powerful story written by Victor Hugo. We were alone in the theatre without the
distraction of other people and so I was absorbed in the movie. This is a story that has been told over and over for
151 years. Why has it lasted so long? I believe that the answer to this
question is because it speaks to the plight of human suffering at its core. The
audience is drawn into the deep well of suffering displayed in all of the
characters in this tragedy. It is through their lives that we connect with our
own lives and our own suffering. The story unfolds during the French Revolution
when the poor and oppressed rise up to fight for a more just and equitable
society. We see a man, Jean Valjean, who has been beaten down by life. He is poor and hungry and
so he is reduced to stealing bread to feed his family. He ends up paying dearly
for his desperation. He spends nineteen years at hard labor imprisoned for his
crime.
When he is finally released from prison he finds refuge in a
church. The Bishop who takes him in sees
his brokenness and shows him love and compassion (when I was hungry you fed
me). And how does Jean Valjean respond to this love? He steals silverware from
the church. When he is captured and brought back to Bishop Myriel, the bishop
shows the grace of God to him and lies to the police saying that these stolen
items are actually gifts. And then in an act of deep mercy he gives Jean
Valjean the silver candlesticks that he forgot to steal. The bishop gives
everything to this lost and broken man and challenges him to find his soul. Jean
Valjean looks up to the heavens and cries out to God, “Who am I” he asks, “Who
am I?” He spends the rest of his
life seeking the answer (seek and
you shall find). His response to receiving love and grace from the bishop is to
pour out his life for others. He dedicates his life to seeing the plight of
others and showing love and compassion to them.
When Jean Valjean is confronted with a woman (Fantine) who
has prostituted herself and is about to be arrested, he is shocked to discover
that he played a part in her present condition. He is cut to the quick. He
sees her and responds with love and
compassion by caring for her until her death and then raising the daughter that
she left behind. (When I was a stranger you invited me in; when I was naked you
clothed me). This man chose to live his life through the eyes of grace and
mercy because of the grace and mercy that he had experienced.
There was another man in this story who chose a different
path to pursue. His name is Javert. He was Jean Valjean’s captor while he was
in prison. He was a man of the law. In his own mind and heart he believed in
his cause to bring a man to justice. Jean Valjean was a man on the run
throughout the story for falling back into his old thieving ways one more time before his final repentance from this way of life. Javert was
not concerned with redemption or transformation for Jean Valjean, rather he was
a man of principle and the law ruled his life. Javert was determined to chase
Jean Valjean down to the end of his days.
At one point in the story these two men come face to face and Jean Valjean
has the chance to kill Javert never to be haunted by him again. Instead, he
chooses mercy. He does not see Javert as an evil man or his enemy. He knows
that this man is living by his conviction and doing what he believes is right.
Sadly, Javert, unable to understand grace and mercy, plunges to his death in
despair.
The movie version portrayed each of these characters in
there own anguish, looking up to God and searching for their own souls. Each of
them looking up to the heavens and asking in there own way:
Who am I?
And
God, who are you and where are you?
Where was God in this story? God is everywhere. God lives in
us and through us. The
transformation of Jean Valjean’s life is at the heart of what we all hope for.
I know how deeply I need the grace and mercy of God and of people to fall upon
me and so I pray that I will see others with eyes of love and compassion rather
than with eyes of judgment and condemnation.
Where is God in your story?
For I was
hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you
gave Me something to drink; I was a
stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me;
I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did
we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something
to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and
clothe You? When did we see You
sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say
to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even
the least of them, you did it to Me.
Matthew 25:35-40
