Are you Valjean or Javert? Click here to find out!

In honor of Throwback Thursday, here's something I wrote a few years ago right before the movie Les Miserables came out. Are you more like Valjean or Javert? Read on to find out! 

As I am sure the whole world is aware, the musical movie Les Miserables opens on Christmas Day! Oh, you didn't know that? Must just be us theatre geeks then... Regardless, this theatre geek is beyond excited! First off, Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean? Does it get better than that? Next on the excitement scale is Russell Crowe as Javert. I know he's not the singer we would picture Javert being, but he's a wonderful actor, and him playing opposite Hugh Jackman will be epic, even if the songs aren't everything we would hope them to be. So all in all, I fully expect this movie to be awesome!
 
Now, like any good theatre geek would be doing before the opening of such an anticipated movie, I've been listening and re-listening to the Les Mis soundtrack, contemplating the character's individual situations and personalities, and singing random bits of the songs throughout the day (I think my son's first words will be “I stole a loaf of bread”). And as I've done that, I've been struck by the similarities between Valjean and Javert. No, not in everything, but in the show they share one major experience: an experience of grace.


 Grace, in case anyone was wondering, is defined as “unmerited favor.” It means that someone did something nice for you that you didn't deserve. Like your parents feeding you dinner right after you mouthed off to them (if your parent's didn't feed you dinner after that, don't complain- you didn't deserve it anyway. (:) Both character's have a pivotal and defining moment during the course of the musical that shows two diametrically opposed ways to respond to the same experience of grace. 


You may be thinking, “So what?” Well, I always like to look for things to learn from theatre rather than just being merely entertained. Actually, the literal meaning of the Greek word for entertainment is “to inform with delight”. So when I look for life lessons in my entertainment, I'm really just living up to the original meaning of the word. But I digress... back to Valjean and Javert.  

I think we can learn an invaluable lesson about human nature, God, and grace from Valjean and Javert.


Valjean's experience of grace occurs near the beginning of the show. After being released on parole from the prison hard labor camps, in which he served 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread in order to save his nephew from death, Valjean learns a hard lesson- people don't give ex-convicts the same treatment as others. After doing the same work as another man, he is paid far less than he deserves and only half as much as the other man. He grows bitter that his past follows him and people treat him like “the dirt beneath their feet.”  


Enter the Bishop. He is, you guessed it, a bishop with the Roman Catholic Church. He invites Valjean to spend the night at his home and treats him with kindness and love. He gave Valjean food, wine, a warm place to spend the night, and treatment as an equal. In short, he gave Valjean everything he wanted the rest of the world to give him.


 But how does Valjean react to this treatment? In his own words, “...the old fool trusted me....when the house was still, I got up in the night. Took the silver and took my flight!” He used the Bishop's kindness against him, robbed him, and ran away- the very picture of what the rest of the world said Valjean was like and the very reason no one else would trust him. Well, what goes around comes around, and Valjean's latest crime is discovered by the police and he is rearrested for his crime. In desperation, Valjean tells the police that the Bishop gave him that silver out of “Christian goodness”. The police drag Valjean back before the Bishop to answer for his crime. 

And this is when the pivotal moment occurs. 

 Valjean fully expects the Bishop to send him packing right back to prison- but he doesn't. Instead, he does the most unexpected thing imaginable; he corroborates Valjean's story that the silver was a present! Even more amazingly, he proceeds to give Valjean a set of silver candlesticks worth a fortune to go with the silver Valjean stole.
 

And here is Valjean's experience of grace- unmerited favor. The Bishop showed Valjean unmerited favor in choosing not to condemn him for his crime and, on top of that, blessing him with something even more valuable than he took. A free gift; something Valjean definitely had not earned. In fact, what Valjean had earned was a ticket back to prison, fair and square. He broke the law, he repaid kindness with evil, he betrayed a trust. It would be perfectly fair for the Bishop to send him back to prison without a second thought. But instead he chooses to give Valjean a second chance (third, technically) and allowed him to go free, with one condition. “You must use this precious silver to become an honest man. By the witness of the martyrs, by the passion and the blood, God has raised you out of darkness. I have bought your soul for God.” And with that, the Bishop leaves Valjean to make his choice- Would he do as the Bishop asked and become an honest man, or take the gift and continue to live an unlawful life?
 

Valjean decided to honor the Bishop's request, and he used the silver to become a very honest man. In fact, he became the mayor of the town in which Javert lived. He allowed the Bishop's gift to change him and to affect his life for good. He accepted the gift he knew he could not have earned, and became a totally different kind of man. Valjean's whole life was changed by the Bishop's act of unmerited favor- by grace.
 

Javert also has an experience of grace. Ironically, it is Valjean who shows grace to Javert. Near the end of the show, Javert has snuck into the rebel's barricade as a spy and been discovered. Valjean asks that he be allowed to take care of Javert. Thinking Valjean intends to kill him, the rebels allow it. 



After years of running from Javert, it seems that Valjean will finally get his revenge, kill Javert, and reclaim his life. But instead of killing Javert, Valjean sets him free! Javert cannot seem to grasp the concept of grace. He accuses Valjean of trying to trade Javert's freedom for his own. “Once a thief, forever a thief! What you want you always steal. You would trade your life for mine, 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!” 
  

Javert cannot grasp the fact that Valjean has changed; he is no longer a thief, simply a man trying to help another man. Valjean attempts to explain to Javert what he has never been able to understand- that not everything has to be earned or traded. “ 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.”  

Valjean wanted and expected nothing from Javert in return. He knew Javert would continue to pursue him and attempt to imprison him once more. Valjean even tells Javert where he is currently living in order to show Javert he has no ulterior motive or plan to escape. Javert leaves the barricade, but struggles to accept Valjean's grace.
 

In Javert's final climatic scene, he wrestles with this experience of grace that is contradictory to everything he believes and views as important in life. Javert is characterized by law; nothing is free, favor and freedom are earned by our obedience to a set of rules. One instance of breaking the law, even set against a lifetime of keeping the law, is enough to condemn us forever. 



Valjean has just shown Javert grace, and grace and law cannot co-exist. If we live by one, we cannot live by the other. Javert himself admits this when he sings, “ 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!”  

Javert is incapable of seeing Valjean as anything but a thief, though Valjean has not lived that way for years. And actually, Javert is justified in seeing Valjean this way. Valjean did break the law and according to the law he deserves to go back to prison. But Javert fails to account for grace. Grace has the power to change a person's character, the very essence of who they are. 

This is a power the law could never have and it is not something Javert can reconcile with his worldview because from his perspective based entirely on law, it doesn't seem possible. 



Javert is now faced with much the same choice Valjean was faced with at the beginning of the show. Would he accept Valjean's free gift of grace and realize that there is a power greater than the law, one that can truly change men's hearts, or reject the concept of grace entirely?
 

Sadly, Javert's story does not end as happily as Valjean's. Javert is so accustomed to his world of rules and regulations, of rigid laws and unchangeable consequences, that he chooses to reject Valjean's grace entirely. Grace is incompatible with the way he has chosen to live his life, and he cannot accept it. “And must I now begin to doubt, who never doubted all these 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? And does he know that granting me my life today, this man has killed me, even so?” 


Not only can Javert not accept it, he decides he can't even live in a world where Valjean may no longer be the thief that Javert has deemed him to be. “I am reaching, but I fall...as I stare into the void of a world that cannot hold. I'll escape now from that world, from the world of Jean Valjean. There is nowhere I can turn, there is no way to go on!” 


And with that Javert jumps from a bridge and ends his life, effectively rejecting Valjean's gift of releasing him and saving his life. In Javert's mind, justice has been served and he is no longer indebted to Valjean.
 

We too have a choice much like Valjean and Javert's choice. God has extended to us the free gift of salvation in His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus came to earth as a human, lived a perfect life, and was killed on the cross as a payment for our sin- yours and mine. That might seem kind of gruesome, but God is just. When sin is committed, a price has to be paid. God can't simply overlook it. 



The payment that must be made is death. Romans 6:23 says “For the wages of sin is death...” Just like Valjean was required to serve his sentence as a penalty for his crime in order to fulfill justice, so a death is required as a penalty for sin to fulfill justice. 



But God is also a loving, gracious God who doesn't desire us to die and be separated from Him. And so He provided a way for the penalty of sin to be exacted in its entirety and for us to be able to live with Him eternally. That way was through a perfect, sinless man willingly dieing for us, taking our punishment so that we wouldn't have to. The rest of Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus.” 

And now the choice is ours- we can accept this free gift by placing our trust in Jesus Christ (meaning that we acknowledge our inability to earn salvation and agree with God that Jesus' death is the only thing that will enable us to have eternal life with God) or we can reject God's grace and attempt to earn His favor by living according to a set of rules.
 

Let Javert's mistake be a lesson to you; not everything can be earned or traded.  
Accept God's grace in Jesus Christ and let that grace affect your life- both now and for all eternity. As all of us theatre geeks crowd into the movie theater on Christmas Day, I pray we'll all remember that God's grace is a free gift and it is available to us at any time we choose to accept it!
“For by grace you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works, so no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9


“For He (God) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” II Corinthians 5:21


“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.” Acts 16:31

The Tension Between Running and Resting

Do you ever just get sick of people? I do!


Sometimes, between the demands of everyday practical life and the emotional demands of relationships, it just doesn't feel like we have anything left to give to anyone. These feelings  infect and affect all of our lives. And left unchecked, they tear down the people and relationships we love the most. 


But what do we do with those feelings? Do we just throw up our hands, slam our doors, and tell everyone to take a hike? Do we pretend that we're fine when we're not, and continue to run on emotional fumes? What are we supposed to do? 


 Being there to help and serve other people is a good thing, and taking time to care for yourself emotionally is a good thing. But both of them end up being bad if we take them to extremes. And it's here we find the tension between running and resting. 

My husband and I were blessed to have a night away together last week to celebrate our anniversary! We went to an awesome hotel, The Anniversary Inn, (which has a ton of amazing, themed rooms. We stayed in the "King Arthur" suite) and had a great time simply being together.

Logan in our "castle"!

And you know what I discovered? In the midst of all my practical everyday running, trying to do my best to serve him, I had lost sight of actually loving him.  I had allowed the errands, cleaning, and tasks to cause me to forget that I love this man. (Don't judge, you know you do it too. )

When Logan and I got married, I made a vow to serve him, submit to him, and help him carry out God's purpose for his life. And I was excited to make that promise because I loved him. But 3 1/2 years down the road, as the practical outworking of that vow continues, it's easy to allow dedication to a vow eclipse 

There was a sword in the room! 

dedication to a person. And when that happens, we lose the joy of the relationship. It becomes monotonous drudgery, or worse, something that causes resentment in our hearts.

But when we took time away from the practical pressures of life and just enjoyed one another, I remembered why I committed my life to this man in the first place- because I love him. I have an awesome husband who loves me more than I can ever understand (he proved it on our getaway by memorizing and reciting this Shakespeare sonnet to me :O). But it's easy to forget how much he loves me when I don't take time to allow him to remind me.

They brought breakfast to our room! 

I came back from our getaway refreshed in his love for me and ready to jump back in to practical life. And you know what? Sweeping the kitchen floor doesn't seem as much like drudgery as it did before. I've been reminded that I do it because I love my husband, and not because of obligation.

The same principle applies to our relationship with God and other people. At the beginning of our relationship with God, we're serving him and others because we love God. We can't get over what God has done for us, what He's saved us from, and what He's given us in Christ. And so we serve Him from the overflow of our hearts!

Serious face....

But a few years down the road, some of the magic of what God has done for us has been forgotten. We've gotten so caught up in the practical outworking of our salvation that we've forgotten that we love the One who gave it to us. Our service to God and others becomes monotony, or worse, a cause of resentment toward them and God.

When that happens, we need to take time away and refresh ourselves in the love God has for us. We need to remember why we started serving Him and others in the first place- because we love Him. 


Don't allow the running of life to rob you of one of God's greatest gifts: Resting in His love. Take time to allow Him to show you His love, and remember why you committed your life to Him in the first place.


Resting in love, whether it be God's love or the love of another person, is The Divine Ordinary- God showing up in the middle of our ordinary lives. Take it for the gift it is, and cherish it. 



 

Have you had a similar experience? Share it in the comments!