How Sweet the Sound
In recent years audiences worldwide have watched a drama of forgiveness played out onstage in the musical version of Les Misérables. Now a major motion picture makes the story available to all. I used the plot as an illustration in my book What’s So Amazing About Grace? Often I’m asked, “Can a person be forgiven without first repenting?” The following incident in Jean Valjean’s life indicates the answer is Yes.
The musical follows its original source, Victor Hugo’s sprawling novel, in telling the story of Valjean, a French prisoner hounded, and ultimately transformed by forgiveness.
Jean Valjean served a nineteen-year term of hard labor for the crime of stealing bread, entering the French penal system as an impressionable young man and hardening into a tough convict. No one could beat Jean Valjean in a fistfight. No one could break his will. At last Valjean earned his release. Convicts in those days had to carry identity cards, however, and no innkeeper would let a dangerous felon spend the night. For four days he wandered the village roads, seeking shelter against the weather, until finally a kindly bishop had mercy on him.
That night Jean Valjean lay still in an over-comfortable bed until the bishop and his sister drifted off to sleep. He rose from his bed, rummaged through the cupboard for the family silver, and crept off into the darkness.
The next morning three policemen knocked on the bishop’s door, with Valjean in tow. They had caught the convict in flight, with the purloined silver in his pack, and were ready to put the scoundrel in chains for life.
The bishop responded in a way that no one, especially Jean Valjean, expected.
“So here you are!” he cried to Valjean. “I’m delighted to see you. Had you forgotten that I gave you the candlesticks as well? They’re silver like the rest, and worth a good 200 francs. Did you forget to take them?”
Jean Valjean’s eyes had widened. He was now staring at the old man with an expression no words can convey
Valjean is no thief, the bishop assured the gendarmes. “This silver was my gift to him.”
When the gendarmes withdrew, the bishop gave the candlesticks to his guest, now speechless and trembling. “Do not forget, do not ever forget,” said the bishop, “that you have promised me to use the money to make yourself an honest man.”
The power of the bishop’s act, defying every human instinct for revenge, changed Jean Valjean’s life forever. A naked encounter with forgiveness–especially since he had never repented–melted the granite defenses of his soul. He kept the candlesticks as a precious memento of grace, and dedicated himself from then on to helping others in need.
Hugo’s novel stands, in fact, as a two-edged parable of forgiveness. A detective named Javert, who knew no law but justice, stalked Jean Valjean mercilessly over the next two decades. As Valjean is transformed by forgiveness, the detective is consumed by a thirst for retribution. When Valjean saves Javert’s life–the prey showing grace to his pursuer–the detective senses his black-and-white world beginning to crumble. Unable to cope with a grace that goes against all instinct, and finding in himself no corresponding forgiveness, Javert jumps off a bridge into the Seine River.
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19 responses to “How Sweet the Sound”
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About Philip Yancey
For Yancey, reading offered a window to a different world. So, he devoured books that opened his mind, challenged his upbringing, and went against what he had been taught. A sense of betrayal engulfed him.
There are actions that humans undertake in life that we do not expect others to do, but are necessarily praiseworthy and take on the character of the heroic when we experience them: such as a soldier leaping atop a live grenade as a sacrificial act. I dare say that these actions ennoble man and arise from a spirit of goodness that goes far beyond what we should expect of moral duty or obligation. J.P. Moreland calls these “supererogatory acts” and indeed these doings send profound ripples out into life affecting others. Through the course of Valjean’s redeemed life, he has been purposed for these acts. Becoming an employer and mayor of a small town, he employs many hundreds of people. In adopting Cosette and taking her away from the vicious clutches of the Inn Keepers, he ransoms a life that would no doubt have fallen into depravity. Moreover, Valjean reveals the true character of his renewal when Javert informs him that the “real 24601” has been apprehended and will stand trial for a return to the hellish galleys.
Hello Mr Yancey,
I’m so elated to have found your website. Now it’s easier for me reach you and send you the messages I’ve been longing to tell you.I’ve read five of your books (What’s so Amazing about Grace,Disappointment with God, The Jesus I never Knew,Where is God when it hurts,Rumors of Another World) and I thank God that He used these books in setting me free in my spiritual journey and answering all the hard core questions about the Christian faith. Like you , I have also questions which needed deep thoughts and answers.And like you , I’ve been disappointed with the kind of Christianity I grew up with in my old church. I am Christian but I used to be miserable.Talk about Les Miserables (which I’ve also read over and over again).But after reading your books, it was like freedom to live again and to understand deeply the GRACE of our God.Thank you Sir and I see that there are couple of books more on your list that my mind and soul need to digest. I dream that someday I could write a book like yours that will liberate my people (Filipinos), but it’s just a dream for now. Thank you again and I want you to know that you’re one of my favorite authors who really made a difference in my life..Good day sir!
I am in China just now, after a week in Malaysia, not far from your own country. Nothing moves me more than hearing that my writing somehow leaped across an ocean and rang a bell of recognition in someone from a different culture. You encourage me to keep going. Thank you, and God bless you.
Philip
Dear Phil,
As you have taught us, grace is amazing. One ‘flavour’ of grace that has been lost in translation, can be re-discovered when we hear the echo from Exodus 34:6 to John 1:14, that is, the parallel between the Lord ‘abounding in love and faithfulness’ to ‘Jesus, full of grace and truth’. This means, simply, deeply and joyfully, that the love/hesed of the Lord, which may be said to be more about hospitality to the other than forgiveness of sins, can fill up our understanding and practice of grace. As well, the faithfulness/emet of the Lord, which has to do with consistency and constancy, with being ‘true’ to the other rather than right or wrong, can set us in the direction of being faithful rather than winning arguments. Jesus makes gracious room for us, day after day.
Blessings to you, John
The power of God’s love transforms lives.
Appreciate this illustration about grace and forgiveness and hope to see this movie. My next book to read is “What’s so Amazing about Grace?” I have a metal sign above my desk that reads, “Grace is when God gives us what we don’t deserve. Mercy is when God doesn’t give us what we deserve.” Clinging to His grace and mercy He continues to show me in my life. Thank you for your books….I feel, as I am sure many do, that I am walking alongside you wondering many of the same things that you write about….deb
We love others as God loves us first…He is the ultimate source of all kindness that we have possibly done..
Jean Valjean, a convicted criminal, valued himself so low and helpless, craving for acceptance and grace freely embraced undeserved favor that finally changed his entire life. Yet Javert, a respectable man, thinking himself as righteous and decent couldn’t understand the grace that’s given to him. It makes me realize that to be able to fully embracing God’s grace is to acknowledge our wickedness and helplessness. It’s exactly like what Paul said “..but where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more” (Rom. 5:20). Grace could never be meaningful without a person’s acknowledgement of his own vulnerability..
Ola, finalmente vou poder expressar minha gratidao para com o escritor que me ensinou a AMAR DEUS, novamente, olhando-O atraves de JESUS. Por meio de seus benditos livros “onde esta Deus quando chega a dor” e todos os outros que foram publicados no Brasil, reaprendi a encontrar o caminho da graça, e apagar minha revolta, causados pelas minhas dores. (fibromialgia, degeneraçao macular, fibrose isquemia, oses e ites diversas etc… etc… ) hoje dou graças ao ensinamento que aprendi atraves de voce, e dos jonh Donne, ghandi, paul, e todos os que fazem parte de suas citalçoes. Aprendi que nao estou pagando por algo que eu tenha feito a DEUS, e sim porque o mundo é uma escola da nossa passagem de volta para nosso verdadeiro lar lar. abraços. Creusa
Corinthians says”God has in Christ reconciled the whole world to himself.” Repentance to my mind, means that we get our eyes off our own imaginations and just accept the gift of God thankfully in our hearts and from then on let “Christ in us be the hope of glory”. It is a journey and many questions will come and plague us but Christ promised that His Spirit will lead us into all truth ultimately. And He only remains the One who said I am the truth.
The movie stunned me as a visual presentation of “God’s kindness leads you to repentance.” Beautiful.
We need to understand forgivenes
I offer this for discussion not as a statement …
We do not repent to receive forgiveness. We repent because we have been forgiven.
This story is the best scene I ever heard to describe “forgiveness”. I have read this plot many many times, and always find it so touching. It speaks to me personally, how sweet the sound it is! Thank be to God.
I’m no expert but I think the bishop’s act was a great example of “loving an enemy.” Vajean showed signs of repentance later so I see the episode as a fantastic living out of the phrase in Romans 2:4 (“. . . the kindness of God leads men to repentance . . . “). The overwhelming evidence in Scripture is that repentance and forgiveness go hand in hand. BEST book I’ve read on this is “Forgiveness” by Gary Inrig. I also don’t see in Scripture that we forgive so we feel better. Forgiveness is a beautiful gift for repentant sinners.
Touching into one’s heart not mind
The power of forgiveness is really evident in Les Mis but there is an enormous elephant in the room of your post, namely, is the gospel conditional on repentance? You seem to be suggesting that the power for change comes from being forgiven but havent taken that to its logical conclusion. It’s something that confuses a lot of people.
Thanks for your post. Forgiveness is beautiful. I teach a class on forgiveness and apology. It was interesting to watch my students as they slowly discovered that forgiving was an act of strength rather than weakness; a gift rather than deserved. Still, it can be hard. I’m thankful this film gives our culture another glimpse into an alternative way to respond to wrongdoing.
This part of the story, the incident with the silverware, made cry and praise the Lord for showing me His amazing Grace as well.