Joy for the Miserable Ones

     I just saw the motion picture, Les Miserables, and I am compelled to write about it. It is so loaded with spiritual themes that I could spend days unpacking.

     The most obvious theme, it seems, is forgiveness and redemption. Jean Valjean served 19 years of hard labor for stealing bread (to save his family) and for repeated escape attempts. Upon his release, he is consigned to probation and must report regularly or face life imprisonment as a repeat offender. Moreover, he must carry around papers documenting that he is a "danger to society." Nobody will hire him. Nobody will help him. Nobody will give him a second chance.

     JeanValjean eventually shreds his papers and goes into hiding, only to re-emerge nine years later as a successful businessman, in fact mayor of a small town! His past, though, personified in officer Javert, never lets him rest. Once Javert becomes aware that Jean Valjean is indeed still alive, he commits his life to bringing Jean Valjean to "justice."

    When I think about this theme, I think about Paul's words in Second Corinthians 5:17: "If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation. The old has gone; the new has come." I think about how hard it is for us to allow others (and ourselves) to live into this reality.

     Jean Valjean paid his debt to society, and then some, and yet the world would not let his "sin" go. It followed him like a ghost, robbing him of a normal life and, in fact, robbing society of his gifts for leadership! 

     We do the same thing today in the ways we label ex-convicts, for sure. A friend of mine who is involved with prison ministry puts it like this. We have all done something worthy of imprisonment at some time in our life. The only difference with ex-cons is that they were caught!

    This argument breaks down after a point, but I get the idea. We are all sinners! "There is no one righteous. No, not one!" (Romans 3:10) 

     I am not talking about abandoning our justice system, nor am I making a judgment on its merits and deficiencies. What I am talking about is the attitudes we have toward those who have been released from "prison," whether that is the physical place with iron bars and concrete or the invisible prisons in which we have all served time.

    And sometimes, it is we who refuse to forgive ourselves for crimes/sins of the past. At some point, it is time to let it go and embrace the new creation that we are in Jesus Christ.