January 24, 2006 10:13 PM
Legalism vs Grace in Les Miserables
I promised a while back to blog an article I published in Plain Truth on my favorite book, Les Miserables. Now that the End of the Spear has opened up a can of legalistic worms, I thought the timing was right. If you decide to read Les Miserables, you can click on the cover image below to find it - and other reader comments - at Amazon. This is the recommended translation.
The Gospel According to Les Miserables
There are moments when whatever the attitude of the body, the heart is on its knees.
Victor Hugo
One of the greatest tales ever told flowed from the pen of writer who didn't flinch before man's misery and sin, but found hope in God's grace and the ability of some to receive it. Victor Hugo's masterpiece Les Miserables explores vital Christian territory – despair vs. hope, condemnation vs. redemption, works vs. faith, and legalism vs. grace – not as a theological treatise or Sunday sermon, but in the form of a story.
And what a story! On its publication in 1862, Les Miserables generated such excitement that crowds collected and fights broke out as people vied for the 48,000 original copies. Poor people pooled their money to buy a copy to share. Since that day, the original 1400-page French volume has been translated many times over and reproduced in many forms.
Though Hugo's title evokes the miserable masses in early 19th century France, the characters he created and their individual struggles have the power to inspire us today. Les Miserables belongs on every Christian bookshelf – or better yet, in the hands of a father reading it to his family, then mulling over the rich themes for years to come .
The Story
Our hero is Jean Valjean, who spends 19 years in prison for the crime of stealing a loaf of bread for his sister's starving children. Prison then included backbreaking labor and a tattooed number on the chest – so that ex-convicts were forever hounded by their past.
And Valjean is hounded by more: a prison guard named Javert who has taken a special dislike to him and vows upon Valjean's release to track him extra carefully. Leaving the prison, Valjean finds little work, and when he does is cheated out of his honest wages by those who scorn him as an ex-convict. With every injustice he encounters, his heart grows more bitter, more hard.
Finally, a starving outcast, he is taken in and given bread and wine by a kindly bishop – a humble man whose character Hugo lingers over, describing how he moved out of his fine parsonage so it could serve as a hospital as well as his long donkey rides over rough terrain to minister to his scattered flock. That night, against the warnings of his housekeeper and sister, the bishop gives Valjean a warm bed to sleep in. And that night Valjean, for the first time, does something truly evil – he stashes all the fine silverware from the cupboard into his knapsack and flees.
He is caught, of course. And then the miracle happens – the miracle on which the rest of the story hinges: the bishop tells the police to let Valjean go, that he gave him the silver, and insists on giving him the silver candlesticks as well, with this privately spoken blessing:
"Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil, but to good. It is your soul I buy from you; I withdraw it from black thoughts and the spirit of perdition and I give it to God."
This unexpected mercy triggers a profound spiritual crisis in Valjean, who responds by becoming a believer. Assuming a new identity, he establishes himself in a town, invents something that breathes new life into the town's trade, and rises to become the owner of a factory and finally mayor. He uses his position and wealth to build schools, improve hospitals, give shelter to the poor.
From that one moment of grace, Valjean's life has been transformed.
But that's just the beginning of the story. The rest will test Valjean's spiritual strength as these outer manifestations of grace are stripped from him and he has to rely on faith. For, sure enough, Javert catches up with Valjean – and keeps catching up with him – even as Valjean keeps accepting, one by one, the responsibilities God has planned for him. He will meet many people, face many situations, and make many choices before he is finally taken home.
In Hugo's created world, each of these people and places are important, therefore deserving of much attention. As he himself once wrote, "Nothing is truly small. . . within that inexhaustible compass, from the sun to the worm, there is no room for disdain; each thing needs every other thing."
Les Mis is long, but never boring. I read it after the musical touched my heart and piqued my Christian curiosity. I was not disappointed – the book is deeper and more faith-filled than a stage production could ever be. Every character has a background story which adds greater dimension to the little we know about them in the play.
Hugo's breadth of vision paired with the tender detail he affords each character reminds me of our co-creator status, providing a glimpse of how God must lovingly view his own creation.
I've read Les Mis several times now, and so have my husband and children. With each reading, we find more revealed about the themes. This is a story you and your family will want to come back to again and again. Les Mis will spark many discussions about what it means to be a Christian and how we live our faith.
The Themes
"Show the reader, don't tell" – the first rule Christian writers hear from our teachers. Story is the most powerful medium for teaching people. God knew that, and so He gave us the Bible. Jesus knew that and so he taught in parables. A story can capture in just a few words what it takes theologians volumes to tell. And, with all respect for theologians, most people would rather read a story, particularly one with thematic value.
Did Hugo know where he was going with Les Miserables? Did he set out to write about the human condition and God's grace? Did he understand that a story would impact the masses with the messages dearest to his heart? Was divine inspiration involved?
Can we dismiss the idea that a story could be divinely inspired in a man like Hugo, who was certainly no pillar of righteousness? What about David? And consider: perhaps it was because he was no pillar of righteousness that Hugo could embrace the themes which add such richness to Les Mis.
Despair vs. hope, condemnation vs. redemption, works vs. faith, and legalism vs. grace – the power of Les Mis is in the tension created by characters representing opposites. My summary of the very beginning of the novel – up to the point where Valjean is living a transformed life – offers a glimpse of the theme of condemnation vs. redemption. Every saved sinner can surely relate.
But just as dramatic is the theme of legalism vs. grace, which is worked out through the characters of Valjean and Javert. Under Hugo's beneficent gaze, Javert is not an unsympathetic character, although various readers may react differently to him based on their own struggles with legalism/grace issues. Javert is a scrupulously religious and righteous man; we understand what motivates him more when we learn he himself was born in a prison to a convicted woman. He does not act out of malice, but out of duty to the Law.
But Javert's passion for the Law clouds his vision of who God is. In a telling moment late in the book, Valjean is given a gun by revolutionaries and left with instructions to kill a bound and captive Javert. Instead Valjean cuts the ropes and sets him free.
This unexpected mercy triggers a profound spiritual crisis in Javert – but there the parallel ends. In Javert's legalistic scheme of the world, there is no room for mercy and he cannot comprehend or accept it. Valjean's acceptance of grace leads to new life. Javert's rejection of grace leads to suicide.
A man could listen to seventy sermons and still not get it about legalism and grace. But could he ignore the message as Hugo delivered it?
Prayer
For all these reasons, if I had to choose one other book besides the Bible to spend the rest of my life with, I would choose Les Mis. The themes that were dear to Hugo's heart are dear to mine as well. They never grow old, but continue to inspire my family.
I recently came across this quote from Victor Hugo: There are moments when whatever the attitude of the body, the heart is on its knees.
Ah, how Hugo understood our human condition! Since reading those words, I've been revisiting Les Mis and looking at each character's actions as a prayer. I'm also looking at my own, using Valjean's as a benchmark, for surely his risk-taking and self-sacrifice illustrate an authenticity which would be very pleasing to God.
What you and your family can learn from Les Mis remains to be seen. If I can inspire a hundred readers to visit this wonderful classic in some form – and even a handful to tackle the full volume – then this particular prayer will have been worthwhile.
Posted in Books, Inspiration, Religion, Writing | Permalink
Comments
i am AMAZED you read LM to your kids...it is an ambitious personal read at best! i gave myself permission to skip (without feeling guilty) some of the French political winding roads in it. I focused on the characters and plot and, like you, will never be the same.
Posted by: floorplan | January 26, 2006 9:52 AM
Wow! You sold me...I'm going to order the book right now!
Posted by: Patricia | January 26, 2006 9:12 PM
I am a Seminary student who is enrolled in a course entitled: "Bible, Theology and Culture" at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. I will be writing my term paper on Les Mis and am so excited to do so. Any thoughts = go ahead and share them!! Blessings of Grace =
Kate
Posted by: Kate Huddelson Waxer | March 22, 2006 8:38 PM
Thanks for the great commentary! I'm preaching on grace and law to our little congregation here in Israel tomorrow, and I hope you don't mind, but I'm basing some of my intro Les Mis comments on what you wrote, it was so good.
Posted by: Geoff | January 12, 2007 1:30 PM
I'm always very moved by Les Miserables. I honestly think that if today's Christians were more like Valjean instead of Javert, I'd still be one.
Posted by: Alicia | November 2, 2008 6:11 PM
Thank you so much for writing this review. My mother informed me she had purchased the book for my teen son at his request. I must confess neither of us knew much about the book and I wasn't sure if it was clean or appropriate enough for him (despite her opinion that him being in high school makes him "old enough") so after reading your review I can let him read the book in confidence... if I don't make him let me borrow it first! If not I will definitely borrow it after!
Posted by: Diana DePriest | April 30, 2009 4:24 PM
I read Les Mis a couple of years back, and I agree with most things you say here about the book, there were a couple things that I had a slight problem with. One of them was that while it is a very Christian book, Hugo seems to take the opportunity on several occasions to be a little bit derisive of the Roman Catholic Church, whether it be the hierarchy, or the nuns, seemingly, wasting their lives in the convents. The other minor bone I had with the book was that there were just too many coincidences! (Of course, the discussions on French history, etc, tended to get somewhat long-winded as well.)
Posted by: Katja | May 13, 2009 7:59 AM
