One Day More

Besides the cross, Les Miserbles is quite possibly the most powerful story of redemption I have ever encountered. This weekend, I had the unforgettable opportunity to see the musical for the first time and while I am not an emotional person, during this show I could not help but tear up at the powerful picture of grace bestowed so readily upon the unworthy.

Arriving at our seats half an hour before the show, my friend and I delved into one of our usual conversations, grappling with the questions posed in the latest books we’ve read. As we discussed the writings of a controversial Christian author we verged into the topic of redemption, and the question: Would you serve Christ if there was no Heaven? First Corinthians 15 tell us that “if those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished,then we are of all people most to be pitied.” If there is no redemption at the end of this life then what have we lived it for? The sacrifices, the self-denials are all in vain. If this were it, I could not serve God as I do now. I could not look at this broken world and cope with the idea that this is all there is.

Les Miserbles is so powerful because it embodies redemption, promising deliverance from this wretched world. Desperation, dishonesty, self-righteousness, poverty, oppression, unrequited love. None of these perennial struggles are resolved in the play. But redemption abounds nonetheless through grace. Through hope in something more, in something beyond our little lives.

There are few places in literature where the Gospel shines as clearly as when the Bishop knelt down beside the fallen and guilty Valjean and declared him innocent. The Bishop hands him the silver candlesticks with the admonition to become a better man. With that one act of forgiveness grace takes root. It permeates every life that Valjean touches. What resonates with me in that scene is the depth of my own guilt. In fact, it is more powerful to me than the images evoked every Easter. Somehow when I see God in the character of Hugo’s Bishop Bienvenu, I face my own sin so much more fully.

I wish that the act of grace that restored me would, as with Valjean, be multiplied, sowed in every life that I encounter. But instead, I see myself as Cosette. Not a bad character by any means, but a truly self-absorbed one. Marius too. Both are so overcome with the passions of the day, that neither realize the great sacrifices that Valjean has made for their happiness. And then there is Epinine. The tragic story of unrequited love. And while we’d all wish to see her with a Cinderella ending, she dies empty and unloved.

I would not say that the story has a happy ending by typical standards, but for the Christian it embodies the hope that enables us to live as we do. As life is passing from him, Valjean is joined on stage by a forgiven Fantine. She is clothed in white, restored to purity. And then the duet becomes a trio as Epinone enters. This is a fulfilled Epinine. A loved Epinine. As they draw Valjean to heaven with them, in the company of those who sacrificed their lives for social justice, I realized if it were not for this ending the entire play would be futile. If it were not for this, Jean Valjean of all should be most pitied.