Les Miserables is a story about Redemption

Victor Hugo’s 18th Century novel Les Miserables told the story of Jean Valjean, who was imprisoned for stealing bread to feed his sister’s starving child.  After having attempted escape, Valjean spent twenty years in prison for this minor offense.  In 1985,  Les Miserables was transformed into the most popular musical of all time by two Frenchmen and an Englishman.  Like the book, the musical constantly contrasts the letter of the law, which crushes and condemns, and the spirit of compassion, which risks failure in order to achieve redemption.

The drama is played out between two men Valjean, a convicted thief, and Javert, a heartless policeman.  Javert, a fanatic who, while professing a Christian faith, rejects the heart of that faith, which is the potential for the transformation of any and all men, pursues Valjean declaring, “once a thief always a thief.”  Out of prison and despondent because of his past, Valjean is taken in by a priest.  Angry and bitter, Valjean steals the only treasure which the priest possesses, a silver service left to him by his mother.  Caught, Valjean is brought back to the priest’s home and accused.

Facing a return to prison, Valjean is astonished as the priest confirms Valjean’s story that the silver was a gift.  The priest, interrupting the accusations of the police, declares, “But, my friend you left in such a hurry, you left the best behind.”  Whereupon, the priest hands his treasured silver candlesticks to Valjean.  As the policemen leave, the priest quietly sings to Valjean, “With this silver, you must become an honest man.”  In Jewish and Christian history, silver was always the symbol of redemption.

Valjean, determined to change his life, breaks his parole and flees.  Javert is obsessed with finding Valjean.  And, in one of the most beautiful songs in the musical – but one which betrays Javert’s failure to understand his own faith – Javert sings:

“There, out in the darkness, a fugitive running, fallen from grace;
"God be my witness, I never shall yield till we come face to face.
"He knows his way in the dark, but mine is the way of the Lord.
"And those who follow the path of the righteous shall have their reward.
"And if they fall as Lucifer fell, the flame, the sword!

"Stars, in your multitudes, scarce to be counted, filling the darkness, with wonder and light.
"You are the sentinels, silent and sure, keeping watch in the night.
"Your know your place in the skies.
"You hold your course and your aim.

"And each in your season returns and returns and is always the same.
"And if you fall as Lucifer fell, you fall in flame!
"And so it has been and so it is written on the doorways to "Paradise, that those who falter and those who fall must pay the price.

"Lord let me find him, that I may see him safe behind bars.
"I will never rest ‘til then.
"This I swear by the stars!”

Contrast the priest and the policeman!  The priest had a treasure, but he valued a human life above that treasure.  The priest invested his treasure in the life of another and the priest “paid the price” of redemption for another man.  The priest delighted in the potential for redemption in another man’s life.  And, as the story unfolds, that investment yields dividends in the lives of many others.  

The policeman had a treasure, which was his ideal of law and of “righteousness,” which for him was complying with his concept of right and wrong.  The policeman delighted only in others paying the price, which the policeman’s ideals demanded, if they failed to achieve his righteousness.  In the policeman’s theology, there was no redemption.  Even the stars if they fell – read that, even God if He failed to keep the policeman’s ideals – could not be redeemed, but would be condemned.

Valjean learned the lesson of redemption well, such that when given the opportunity to take Javert’s life, he showed him mercy, a product of Valjean’s own redemption, because the surest sign of a person’s having experienced redemption is the extension of mercy to others.  The one thing Javert could not survive was that which his religion had no room for – forgiveness, mercy, transformation.  With his mercy, Valjean killed Javert, as Javert was unable to live with the thought that a man, whom he hated, could love him.  Although Javert took his own life, he was really the victim of his heartless religion.

A much less noble, modern retelling of Les Miserables is found in the film, Pretty Woman, a less elegant, but poignant story of two people who become what they were not.  One was a prostitute – a streetwalker; the other was a prostitute – a corporate take-over artist.  Yet, they changed, learning compassion for others and respect for themselves.  The priest’s role was played by a hotel manager who delights in their transformation, and Javert was played by a lawyer, whose needs were met by the way the two people were before, and who therefore objected to their transformation.

Religion without redemption is simply a list of rules.  True Christianity is found in those who invest their treasures in the lives of others, rather than simply measuring others lives by their “standard of righteousness.”  Religion is always the enemy of redemption!