Praise the
Lord for the sweet summer season. We can take time
to read books or listen to music. Some of the best literature in the world
exalts the Lord God Almighty revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord. Some of the
best architecture in the world exalts Jesus. Some of the best music in the
world honors Christ. One of the best novels is Les Misérables,
written by Victor Hugo. The central character Jean Valjean enters the
pages as a vagabond, a newly-released prisoner in midlife, wearing threadbare
trousers and tattered jacket. Nineteen years in a French prison have left him
rough and fearless. He has walked for four days in the Alpine chill of
nineteenth-century southeastern France, only to find that no inn will take him,
no tavern will feed him. Finally he knocks on the door of a bishop's house.
Monseigneur Myriel is seventy-five years old.
Like Valjean, he has lost much. The revolution took all family valuables except
some silverware, a soup ladle, and two candlesticks. Valjean tells his story
and expects the religious man to turn him away, but the bishop is kind. He asks
the visitor to sit near a fire. "You did not need to tell me who you were," he
explains. "This is not my house—it is the house of Jesus Christ." After some
time the bishop takes the ex-convict to the table, where they dine on soup and
bread, figs, and cheese with wine, using the bishop's fine silverware.
He shows Valjean to a bedroom. In spite of the
comfort, the ex-prisoner cannot sleep. In spite of the kindness of the bishop,
he can't resist the temptation. He stuffs the silverware into his knapsack as
the priest sleeps through the robbery, and Valjean runs into the
night. He doesn't get far. Policemen catch him and march
him back to the bishop's house. Valjean knows what his capture means—prison for
the rest of his life, but then something wonderful happens. Before the officer
can explain the crime, the bishop steps forward. "Oh! Here you are! I'm so glad
to see you. I can't believe you forgot the candlesticks! They are made of pure
silver as well… Please take them with the forks and spoons I gave
you."
Valjean is utterly
stunned. The bishop dismisses the policemen and then turns and says, "Jean
Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil, but to good. I have bought
your soul from you. I take it back from evil thoughts and deeds and the Spirit
of Hell, and I give it to God." Valjean now has a choice to make. He must
either believe the priest or believe his past. Jean Valjean chooses to
believe the priest. He becomes the mayor of a small town. There he builds a
factory and gives jobs to the poor, takes pity on a dying mother, and raises her
daughter.
Grace changed
him. In a deeper sense Jesus Christ the Gracious one changed him. Let Him
change us daily. Blessed be His Name. You "have an Advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John
2:1). As our Advocate, He defends us and says on our
behalf, "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ
Jesus" (Romans
8:1).
In Christ the
Gracious One,
Brown
http://youtu.be/9pC1gnDHeeA
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