Les Miserables

Spoiler alert!

In this season of giving and receiving gifts, I thought it might be interesting to explore the idea of receiving God's gifts.  What better way to explore this than to look at the powerful redemption story in Les Miserables. (Go see it. Now.)

A brief summary: Valjean is the movie’s main character, a convict whose life is radically changed by a bishop who extends mercy to him and offers him freedom.  Javert is a police officer who has tirelessly pursued Valjean after Valjean escaped his parole.  When Valjean has the opportunity to murder Javert, ending the hunt forever, Valjean instead extends Javert grace and allows him to escape.  This is the exchange:

Javert:

Yes, Valjean, you want a deal!

Shoot me now for all I care -

If you let me go, beware!

You’ll still answer to Javert!

Valjean:

You are wrong, and always have been wrong.

I’m a man no worse than any man.

You are free, and there are no conditions -

No bargains or petitions.

There’s nothing that I blame you for.

You’ve done your duty, nothing more.

Javert, however, finds this free gift of his freedom to be unbearable.  He is unable to swallow mercy in his world of the law.  Javert commits suicide, singing:

Who is this man?

What sort of devil is he?

To have caught me in a trap

And choose to let me go free?

It was his hour at last

To put a seal on my fate

Wipe out the past

And wash me clean off the slate!....

I am the law and the law is not mocked!

I’ll spit his pity right back in his face!

There is nothing on earth that we share!

It is either Valjean or Javert!

How can I allow this man

To hold dominion over me?

This desperate man that I have hunted...

He gave me my life! He gave me freedom!...

And must I now begin to doubt

Who never doubted all those years?

My heart is stone and still it trembles...

The world I have known is lost in shadow

Is he from heaven or from hell?

You can imagine that Javert’s is a powerful story to watch unravel – how complex and interesting is this character? The audience watches as he tirelessly hunts for Valjean for years; he is the villain we love to hate. Javert states himself that his heart is hard and cold – a life spent abiding perfectly and carefully by the law would naturally cause Javert’s heart to die. He becomes exactly what C.S. Lewis describes:

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.” – The Four Loves

I realized as I sobbed through this movie that I was so touched by his story because I am Javert. I am a law-abiding citizen who wants my rules and my check-lists and my black-and-white formulas because they give me a sense of assurance that I am worthy.  I cringe at the idea of mercy because mercy is messy and grey and I don’t deserve it.  I don’t want to receive God’s free gifts because that means that I have to swallow my pride and admit that I am absolutely in need of redemption. And I definitely don’t want to be needy.

Keller describes Victor Hugo’s Les Miserable in his book, The Reason for God.

“Valjean chooses to let grace have its way with him.  He gives up his deep self-pity and bitterness and begins to live a life of graciousness toward others.  He is changed at the root of his being.
The other main character in the novel is the police officer Javert, who has built his entire life on his understanding of rewards and punishments.  He relentlessly and self-righteously pursues Valjean throughout the book, even though it is wrecking his own life.  … [Valjean’s radical act of grace] is deeply troublesome to Javert.  He realizes that to appropriately respond to this gesture will require a complete change in his worldview.  Rather than make that change, he throws himself into the Seine” (184-5).

Opposingly, Keller quotes Victor Hugo to describe Valjean’s response to grace:

“To this celestial kindness [of the bishop] he opposed pride, which is the fortress of evil within us.  He was distinctly conscious that the pardon of this priest was the greatest assault and the most formidable attack which had moved him yet…. That if he yielded, he should be obliged to renounce that hatred with which the actions of other men had filled his soul through so many years, and which pleased him; that this time it was necessary to conquer or to be conquered; and that a struggle, a colossal and final struggle, had been begun between his viciousness and the goodness of that man” (184).

It is Javert’s pride that prevents him from accept Valjean’s gift. How often do I refuse God’s free gifts of love and grace because I won't lay down my pride and attitude of self-sufficiency?  How often do I isolate myself in a tower of self-righteousness to remove myself from the messiness of reality? But what does this posture leave me and Javert with? Hearts of stone with walls miles high so that nothing complex or grey (like mercy) can penetrate our world of “the law.”

Our God is a God who keeps his promises. In my last blog entry, I quoted Matthew 9:13:

“On hearing this, Jesus said, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’ ”

I desire mercy, not sacrifice.

“You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;

you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.

My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;

a broken and contrite heart

you, God, will not despise.”

Psalm 51:16-17

Head Lice

I had a very recent, very real encounter with head lice.

A couple of things about lice:

It’s not a particularly fun thing to have. Apart from the itchy scalp, costly treatment, and having to do an overhaul of your home, you are morally obligated to call everyone that you have hugged in the past week to let them know that they might have lice. And, if they do have lice, it is, in fact, because of you. You can imagine that some of these conversations are a bit uncomfortable and others downright hysterical.

Apart from the humor, I learned quite a bit about sin and about how Christ’s work on the Cross really does extend to the ugliest parts of us.

Lice, like my sin, contaminates every part of my life. My home, my work, my social life, the way I interact with others, the way I look, the way I feel, the car that I drive, the bed I sleep in, the clothes I wear, my habits, my thought patterns, my mood. Everything. But more than that, the repercussions of lice are not limited to my own scalp and self. Rather, everyone that I come into contact with is affected by my infestation.  What an interesting and graphic picture this paints of the way my sin worms its way into the lives of others and hurts them as well.

My experience with head lice was particularly ill-timed. One of my best friends from college, a friend I will refer to as Helga in order to protect her identity (I’ve always wanted to do that!), had just arrived to visit from out of town.  How miserable for her?! She had driven a considerable distance to spend the weekend with me only to sit with me during a lice treatment, examine the nits combed from my scalp, watch me awkwardly vacuum my car, and laugh as I frantically shoved bedding and pillows into the drier.  Helga insisted on staying with me, laughing (somewhat nervously) at the risk of her own infestation.  She ate bad Chinese food with me and baked an apple pie. And she did all of this with a smile, demanding that I also be cheerful and enjoy myself.

I was so shocked and undone by Helga’s grace. The truth is, if faced with that same situation, I would have much preferred to stay in my sterile, squeaky clean, lice-free bubble.  I would have bought my friend some new hair clips and peaced out faster than you could say "Rid."  But Helga did not respond that way.  Instead, she shoved her way into my louse-y scalp and bad mood.  She put her squeaky-clean hair at risk in order to love me.  In a very tangible way, Helga showed me Jesus.

So often, I expect Jesus to respond to my sin (or lice) the way that I would respond: to be completely disgusted by it.  To refuse to work into it. To look at my brokenness and to run like mad. But that just is not biblical.  Over and over, Scripture tells us that Jesus did not run from the broken, the unclean, the social outcasts, the ugly.  Far from running from them, He touched them lovingly, offering them healing and hope.

Matthew 9:10-13 reports:

“While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ On hearing this, Jesus said, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’ ”

Jesus did not come for the sterile and tidy.  He came for the busted up, the damaged goods, the messy, the lepers, and the lice-ridden.  He came to work in sinners so that He could take the weak and the ugly and turn them into something beautiful and useful to Himself. He does this so that people will see how great, compassionate, powerful, good, and loving our Father is…

“ ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” - 2 Corinthians 12:9



(Also, I highly recommend Pediatric Haircare Solutions for all of your de-lousing needs.)

Snippets

So the nature of the Fellows Program is that our schedules are pretty tightly packed! This has proved to be a huge blessing in many ways, but unfortunately this week has not afforded extra time to write a blog entry. HOWEVER, I very much wanted to be committed to a somewhat weekly posting... mostly to prove to my parents that I wouldn’t forget about the blog …. As I have done before…:).

This week, instead of writing a completely new blog entry, I am posting two snippets of a 7-page paper due Monday for our seminary course.  The assignment was to write a reflection about how our devotional readings this semester transformed our walks with the Lord. Our readings were J.I. Packer’s Knowing God, A.W. Tozer’s The Pursuit of God, and O. Hallesby’s Prayer. I also read Brother Lawrence’s The Practice of  the Presence of God to fulfill a Puritan requirement (come to find out that Brother Lawrence was not, in fact, a Puritan… oops). These books were unbelievable – particularly the Tozer. Check them out - I've provided links for the ones available online.

Anyway! Here are a couple of passages. Have a fantastic week and drink some Eggnog for me!

The Snippets:

… From these books, I have gained a more thorough understanding of who I am because of Christ’s work on the cross and God’s great love for me. Essentially, I understand that I am indeed dust, that God knows that I am dust, but that He sought me and loved me first despite my weakness.  He graciously chose me and invited me into His family. As a result, my life should be one of gratitude to my Lord and Savior.  No Christian author has a better understanding of this than Brother Lawrence in his work, The Practice of the Presence of God.  As evidenced by his letters, Lawrence clearly had a firm grasp on the truth that he was loved by God.  His life was simply a response to the love that he received. The way that Lawrence portrays this affection is through focusing all of His attention and affections on his Father.  This humble attitude is most beautifully portrayed in this passage:

“I consider myself as the most wretched of men, full of sores and corruption, and who has committed all sorts of crimes against his King; touched with a sensible regret I confess to Him all my wickedness, I ask His forgiveness, I abandon myself in His hands, that He may do what He pleases with me.  This King, full of mercy and goodness, very far from chastising me, embraces me with love, makes me eat at His table, serves me with His own hands, gives me the key of His treasures; He converses and delights Himself with me incessantly, in a thousand and a thousand ways, and treats me in all respects as His favourite.  It is thus I consider myself from time to time in His holy presence” (Lawrence 17). 

Lawrence does not expect any more from himself than to be a wicked sinner; instead, he fully understands that he is undeserving of grace or love.  However, he does not dwell on his own unworthiness.  Instead, he lays his sinful nature at God’s feet and receives the free gift of grace and love from his Father….

.... In short, this course has helped me understand God’s response to Job’s questioning.  God responds with “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand” (Job 38:4).  I had always felt a bit frustrated and undone by this passage.  In truth, I felt that Job had every right to know why God would allow such tragedy and heartache to occur in the life of such a faithful man.  However, this course has opened my eyes to understand that Job and I are not entitled to know or understand God’s ways.  Instead, we are called to receive God’s free gift of grace and lead faithful lives of humble surrender to our heavenly Father….

Works Cited

Hallesby, Ole. Prayer. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, 1994. Print.

Lawrence, Brother. The Practice of the Presence of God: The Best Rule of the Holy Life. Grand Rapids, MI: Christian Classics Ethereal Library, 1666. eBook.   <http://www.ccel.org/ccel/lawrence/practice.pdf>.

Packer, J.I. Knowing God. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1973. Print.

Tozer, A.W. The Pursuit of God: The Human Thirst for the Divine. Legacy Edition. Camp Hill,   PA: Christian Publications, Inc., 1982. Print.