Unraveling the Gospel According to Les Miserables
**Disclaimer: This is purely in response to the latest movie musical and NOT Victor Hugo's actual book.**
So many people, including my students, have been commenting on how amazing the new “Les Miserables” movie is. I wasn’t going to see it in theaters, but when I found out how many of my student watched it, I decided to get my “intellectual fix” by watching it. Between being very distracted by the fact that Russell Crowe and Hugh Jackman do not have the voices for the songs, I was planning a Biblical worldview lesson in my head. In the end, I realized my “Film, Culture, and Theology”-wanna-be-Dr.-Toews-lesson would fall on very, very deaf 6th grade ears, I decided to abandon it and just write about it.
My college friends told me countless times, “For crying out loud! Can’t you just shut up and enjoy a movie for the sake of it being a movie?” Actually, I can’t. As kids, we were not allowed to “amuse ourselves to death”, to borrow the title of Neil Postman’s book. We had to think when we watched movies. The Bible also talks about making every thought captive to the word of God, and therefore, even while being “entertained”, we should be viewing everything through the lens of God’s Word. Let’s not be “amused”—in other words, not musing—but let’s muse on what we choose for our entertainment.
Ok, long-winded introduction over. First of all, “Les Miserables” is a book written by Victor Hugo, and it is set mostly in Paris in the 1800s. The story begins in 1813 and ends with the Paris Uprising of 1832. . I have not read the 1,500 page book (English version) because French literature is really not my thing. I am familiar with the abridged versions of the story. Hugo shows a lot of what life was like in Paris and the whole story revolves a lot around law versus grace. To sum up the main plot, Les Miserables is about a man named Jean Valjean who was arrested for stealing a loaf of bread. He was imprisoned for 19 years and he broke his parole. A bishop, Myriel, welcomed him in when all of society closed their doors in his face. Jean Valjean stole silver from the bishop, but when the police brought him back, the man told them that he had given Jean Valjean the silver and, on top of that, Valjean had “forgotten” to take the candlesticks. When the police left, the priest told Valjean, Forget not, never forget that you have promised me to use this silver to become an honest man.... Jean Valjean, my brother: you belong no longer to evil, but to good. It is your soul that I am buying for you. I withdraw it from dark thoughts and from the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God!
Valjean does turn his life around and becomes a mayor. His parole officer, Javert, comes back into his life and once he realizes that Valjean is who he is, he spends the rest of his life chasing down Valjean. Throughout the rest of the story, Valjean does lots of great things such as saving the life of a prostitute’s daughter and adopting her, sparing Javert’s life, and rescuing the lover of his adopted daughter when he was wounded in the revolution. Javert, an officer of the law, cannot understand grace and forgiveness and in the end, takes his own life.At the end of the story, Valjean dies an old man, and at peace with himself and God because he had showed love and forgiveness to others.
As far as a movie goes, the new “Les Miserables” is decent. The live singing really adds to the emotion of the songs. I know most of the songs, but I didn’t really understand them until I watched them sung and acted. There are some parts that are not at all decent, but the movie is not making light of sin. It gives us a raw picture of humanity steeped in sin. Fantine is forced into prostitution and sings a heart-wrenching song:
I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I'm living
So different now from what it seemed
Now life has killed the dream I dreamed.
The life of sin is definitely not portrayed as desirable. Those engaged in it may try to be happy, but underneath it, they are miserable and hopeless.
What about the themes in “Les Miserables”? It is a story about grace, love and forgiveness in stark contrast to the law. That part is true. But what kind of grace, love and forgiveness does it speak of? It’s certainly not the kind of grace, love and forgiveness found in the Gospel of Christ. Oh yes, it bears resemblances. But it is not a story of salvation and true redemption.
First of all, forgiveness plays a very important part in the story. However, the forgiveness displayed is only a human forgiveness. It is the forgiveness of the Bishop that motivated Valjean to forgive others. The story does not actually touch the truest example of love and forgiveness. It is all on a human level. Oh yes, there are stories of human forgiveness in the Bible, but it wasn’t motivated by human forgiveness alone. David spared King Saul’s life, but he did it because he had been forgiven much, not by a mere man, but by the Lord of all creation. When the love of Christ constrains us, we can forgive and love in a way that an unredeemed man could never do. What the movie did get right was that Javert clung to the law and could not understand grace. Through the law, no man is justified. Sadly, though, Javert chose to end his life rather than let go of his precious law.
How can I now allow this man
To hold dominion over me?
his desperate man whom I have hunted
He gave me my life, he gave me freedom.
I should have perished by his hand!
It was his right.
It was my right to die as well
Instead I live, but live in hell!
I have heard many rave about how this is such a wonderful story of redemption. Was Valjean really redeemed? At the very end of the movie, Cosette and Marius go to Valjean right before he dies. Cosette’s mother shows up again as a “ghost” and sings to Valjean, assuring him that he is accepted because he showed forgiveness to other people. Then comes the classic line that everyone is splashing all over Facebook: “To love another person is to see the face of God.” This analogy comes from the final song in the musical. The verse goes,
Take my hand
And lead me to salvation
Take my love
For love is everlasting
And remember
The truth that once was spoken
To love another person
Is to see the face of God.
God does show love and forgiveness – to all who would trust in Him. Those who do know Him seek to imitate God’s love by showing grace and forgiveness to other humans. Now, I realize it’s an analogy, but I am reminded of Matthew 5:8 which says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Allow me to go off on a bit of a tangent. This verse doesn’t say we’ll see God by loving another person. Those who see God are those who have tasted of HIS forgiveness and HIS mercy. It does not say we will see God because of something we have done that is good to others. Salvation is not through “paying it forward.” Valjean does a lot of things that are morally right. However, those things did not and will never save him. You can love other people, you can join as many charities as is possible, you can save human lives, but if you think that those things are good enough to save yourself, then you will see the face of God, but when you do, you will be calling on the rocks and the mountains to fall on you, because His face will be the face of the just Judge of all the earth. If you want to see the face of the God of love, it cannot come through any amount of good we try to do to earn salvation.
But yes, works are also important, but we are not saved by them. As someone has said, “We are saved my faith alone, but not the faith that is alone.” Because we have been saved, we demonstrate our love, obedience and devotion to Christ in loving and forgiving others. The movie reminds us of important things, but if we just take it for the surface level, we might miss the fact that the movie is not presenting the true gospel of grace and forgiveness.
Take me to the cross to seek glory from its infamy;
Strip me of every pleasing pretense of righteousness by my own doings…
O unite me to Thyself with inseparable bonds,
that nothing may ever draw me back from Thee, my Lord, my Savior. Valley of Vision
For those already bored to tears, you can stop reading here because I’m done with my main critique of the gospel as portrayed in this movie, but I also have some things to say about one more theme that comes out: courage and love.
“Les Miserables” is a story about love (both human, but for this discussion, love for country) and courage. But what motivated that love? What kind of “courage” is displayed?
The story is set at a period in French history when the oppressed lower class wanted freedom from the injustice dealt upon them by the monarchy. Many young men, including a very young boy, get caught up in the spirit of the rebellion, desiring to return France to a republic, and choose to die rather than surrender to the soldiers. Their courage and valor are sung with full orchestral music in the song, “Do You Hear the People Sing?” In the very end, Valjean joins all those who had died fighting and the song is sung again as the finale. It is made to look like the people did what was right by trying to fight against the injustice shown to their people.
For the wretched of the earth there is a flame that never dies.
Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.
They will live again in freedom in the garden of the Lord.
They will walk behind the ploughshare; they will put away the sword.
The chain will be broken and all men will have their reward.
Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing?
Say, do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring when tomorrow comes!
However, between the two songs, Marius sings about “empty chairs and empty tables” as he weeps over the deaths of so many young men. The song expresses questions such as, “What was the point of all this if what they got in the end were empty chairs and empty tables, never to be filled again?” If not for Valjean rescuing him, he would have been dead too. The June Rebellion did not end well for them at all and all their efforts only resulted in more bloodshed and no progress made.
God institutes governments. He tells us to respect those in authority over us. There are ways to protest and show our disapproval. Joining in a rebellion might seem to be a “quick fix” to try to solve all society’s problems in one night, but what does it give you in the end? There are wars, and defending your families and homeland are just causes. However, in the movie, those in the revolution were made just before God because they stood for what was “right” and therefore, they went to heaven with all the other honest people. I’m not going to go into politics or gun control debates, but I was reminded about true courage in society. When Jesus was crucified, the nation despised Him. To be identified with Jesus took a lot of courage. J.C. Ryle in his commentary on Mark writes this,
We may well believe that it required no small courage to do this. To visit a grave in the dim twilight of an eastern day-break, would try most women, under any circumstances. But to visit the grave of one who had been put to death as a common malefactor, and to rise early to show honor to one whom their nation had despised, this was a mighty boldness indeed. Yet these are the kind of acts which show the difference between weak faith and strong faith,-- between weak feeling and strong feelings towards Christ. These holy women had tasted of our Lord’s pardoning mercies. Their hearts were full of gratitude to Him for light, and hope, and comfort, and peace. They were willing to risk all consequences in testifying their affection to their Savior. So true art he words of Canticles: “Love is strong as death,-- many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.” (Cant. viii. 6,7) p. 354
That is real “revolution.” They chose to risk their lives, not by facing a bunch of soldiers with bayonets, but rather, in showing devotion to their Master. That is true love and courage and it is all motivated by forgiveness and grace that only God can show to mankin
