Les Miserables
Session 3 - Jean Valjean
Ezekiel 11.19-20
I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.
Introduction
If you read the introduction to this week's session you would have read about some interesting stats about young offenders. Apparently,
10% want to reform and have the necessary support
45% want to reform but don’t have that support
45% have made a career choice
My first wife worked with children with special educational needs. She asked her class of 14 years olds, “What do you want to be doing by the time you are 18?”
One child responded, in all seriousness, “I want to be in prison”.
When pressed on this he explained that prison would be the only place where he would be free. The only place where he would be safe. It would be the only place where he would have a bed to sleep in each night. It would be the only place where he could be fed each day. It would be the only place where he would be free from the gang culture that surrounded him. He was 14.
Jean Valjean’s Forgiveness
As JeanValjean leaves after being forgiven he says this…
‘When he left the bishop's dwelling Jean Valjean... had been in a state of mind unlike anything he had ever experienced before and was quite unable to account for what was taking place within him. He had sought to harden his heart against the old man's saintly act and moving words. 'You have promised me to become an honest man. I am buying your soul. I am rescuing it from the spirit of perversity and giving it to God.' The words constantly returned to him and he sought to suppress them with arrogance, which in all of us is the stronghold of evil. Obscurely he perceived that the priest's forgiveness was the most formidable assault he had ever sustained; that if he resisted it his heart would be hardened once and for all, and that if he yielded he must renounce the hatred which the acts of men had implanted in him during so many years, and to which he clung. He saw dimly that this time he must either conquer or be conquered, and that the battle was now joined, a momentous and decisive battle between the evil in himself and the goodness in that other man.’
He was forgiven and given the silver. Can we separate the two? It is of no use praying for the poor if we are not prepared to do anything practical?
Degradation - The Boat Yard
Watch the opening scene to the film until Jean Valjean leaves the boatyard.
The cup of the Lord’s wrath - Isaiah 51.22-23
The command to look down gives us a powerful image of submission. Isaiah uses it to portray the suffering and humiliation of the exiles in Babylon.
This is what your Sovereign Lord says,
your God, who defends his people:
“See, I have taken out of your hand
the cup that made you stagger;
from that cup, the goblet of my wrath,
you will never drink again.
I will put it into the hands of your tormentors,
who said to you,
‘Fall prostrate that we may walk on you.’
And you made your back like the ground,
like a street to be walked on.”
Discussion
Consider what it means to look down. How does this affect the way we value ourselves and how we are valued by others? How does Valjean see himself? Has his sentence changed him? How has the civil law dealt with him?
Paul Tells of His Conversion - Acts 26.12-18
“On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. About noon, King Agrippa, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic,[a] ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’
“Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’
“ ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
Reflection
In the Acts of the Apostles, we hear how Paul is cast down by the power of God on the road to Damascus. Although the circumstances are different, the image of being cast down and then commanded to get up and stand upon one's feet to testify to the power of God resonates with the picture of subjection.
The disarming effect of grace
The most significant moment in the story comes as the Bishop of Digne tells the gendarme who captured Valjean with the stolen silver that he had given the silver to the ex-convict. We have thought about how the act of grace is transforming and how the bishop's experience of life led him to act in such a way. But it is the effect this act of compassion has upon Valjean that is central to the story. He is perplexed and confused and cannot get it out of his head.
Watch the film from the beginning of Valjean's soliloquy, 'What Have I Done, Sweet Jesus?' until he emerges from the church.
LOVE YOUR ENEMIES - Matthew 5.38-46
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?
Discussion
How is Valjean's world challenged?
What has he known up to this point in life?
Reflection
The novel brings out the psychological drama which faces Valjean more explicitly.
He had sought to harden his heart against the old man's saintly act and moving words. 'You have promised me to become an honest man. I am buying your soul. I am rescuing it from the spirit of perversity and giving it to God."
Act of Kindness
The act of kindness is almost destructive in the way that it disturbs him. The message of the prophets frequently tells of the refusal and apparent inability of the people to listen to the Word of God. Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Isaiah often return to this theme. Here are a few relevant verses:
Ezekiel 3.7
But the people of Israel are not willing to listen to you because they are not willing to listen to me, for all the Israelites are hardened and obstinate.
Ezekiel 11.19-20
I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.
Ezekiel 18.31-32
Rid yourselves of all the offences you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, people of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live!
Jeremiah 24.7
I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.
Isaiah 43.19
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.
Do we 'harden our hearts'?
Do we need to ask God to soften our hearts?
Do we recognise the way in which Valjean feels assaulted by grace?
Jesus Predicts Peter’s Denial - John 13.31-35
When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.
“My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Discussion
It is unusual to be commanded to love someone. How can we respond to such a command?
This has parallels in the way the bishop tells Valjean he must use this silver to become an honest man. How does Valjean respond to the bishop's exhortation, and is this a sudden transformation?
Are we compelled to respond to an outpouring of grace?
Is it the gift of silver that begins to transform Valjean, or is it the fact that he is forgiven?
Battles with conscience
Although Valjean has resolved that another story must begin, he is still troubled by conscience, as we have seen by the inner turmoil he experiences when he has the chance to allow an innocent man to be wrongly identified as him. Most of us, naturally, simply do not possess the courage displayed by Valjean to give himself up.
Watch the section of the film from when Javert receives the letter from Paris informing him that Valjean is being held in Arras and that his suspicions must be wrong, until Valjean confesses in the courtroom.
Peter Denies Christ - John 18.15-18, 25-27
Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard, but Peter had to wait outside at the door. The other disciple, who was known to the high priest, came back, spoke to the servant girl on duty there and brought Peter in.
“You aren’t one of this man’s disciples too, are you?” she asked Peter.
He replied, “I am not.”
It was cold, and the servants and officials stood around a fire they had made to keep warm. Peter also was standing with them, warming himself.
Meanwhile, Simon Peter was still standing there warming himself. So they asked him, “You aren’t one of his disciples too, are you?”
He denied it, saying, “I am not.”
One of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, challenged him, “Didn’t I see you with him in the garden?” Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a rooster began to crow.
Discussion
When we are faced with hard decisions which will cause us some kind of discomfort, we are often tempted to take the easy route.
Think about a time when your conscience has really troubled you.
Did you ignore it?
Or not?
What were the consequences?
Did you grow through the experience?
Reflection
The key elements in Valjean's life are his petty theft of bread, which leads to conviction, a long imprisonment and a loss of his own self-value and identity, his encounter with the Bishop of Digne and his response to the bishop's act of mercy. Although by the time he becomes mayor he has already changed, he still faces other challenges and continues to develop. Likewise, we too continue to grow and develop through life's challenges and trials. Think of some of the choices you have made recently. What do those choices tell you about yourself, your faith, and your own heart's motivation?
Another story must begin
We have touched on visions of the future in Isaiah 58:1-12, in Revelation 21:1-5a and in the imaginings of Cosette. Valjean reflects that if there was another way to go, he had missed it twenty years before.
Did he have an option?
Do we remember times when we might have taken another path?
What stopped us?
What might 'another story' be?
Watch the section from Cosette and Valjean's departure from the Thénadiers until their arrival at the north gate in Paris.
Jesus reinstates Peter - John 21.15-19
When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”
The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”
Reflection
Jesus reinstates Peter; God's grace is available to reinstate us when we fail, too. Just as Valjean was changed through his experience with the bishop, God's transforming love and grace will affect our lives and decisions and can truly make us different people, effective for God.
Closing Prayer
Heavenly Father,
Almighty and everlasting God, we thank you for the gift of music and song, for the creative imaginations of those around us; as we reflect on and talk about Les Misérables, help our hearts to be moved by what we find.
We pray for those forced by circumstance to look down; help lift their eyes to the stars.
We pray for the gift of grace, that we may understand the generosity of sacrifice.
Help us to choose the right path and turn back from our wrong turnings. Deliver us from temptations, but when we are faced with moral dilemmas, help us to act with strength and integrity.
Amen
Next Week
Next week we are looking at Javert. If you do have the books, it might be useful to read the leader's notes to give you more of an overview of the week.