Les Miserables: two different responses to grace

I recently went to the movie theatre to see Les Miserables.  I had not previously seen any production of it, as I always feared its depressing nature.  And as the movie began I was contemplating the wisdom of my choice this time.  However, as the movie progressed I came away with a very important lesson.

Though there was much to be seen and pondered, I was struck particularly by the difference between Jean Valjean and Javert.  Two men who came from similar backgrounds and were both shown grace, but who responded very differently.

When Jean Valjean was shown grace by the priest, his heart was softened and he turned to lead a new life.  A life that was marked by extending grace to others. 

Javert, on the other hand, was so hard that instead of being molded by grace, he cracked under it.  The weight was so unbearable that rather than endure change, he plunged to his death.  Was it pride that made him unable to accept being anything other than the hard man he had always been?  Was it shame?  Whatever it was, he knew not how to overcome it.

One man cried out to God and found redemption, the other sought only what was in himself and found death.

It was much the same in Jesus' day.  The Pharisees saw the same miracles that the disciples did and yet because of the hardness of their hearts, they did not believe.  Why?  Maybe because Jesus came to change the way of life and the Pharisees could not stand to lose their high position.  Rather, they chose to crucify him.  However, the grave could not hold him and so he rose again to bring eternal life for all who would believe...

⁷ So, as the Holy Spirit says:

“Today, if you hear his voice,
⁸ do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion,
during the time of testing in the wilderness,
⁹ where your ancestors tested and tried me,
though for forty years they saw what I did.
¹⁰ That is why I was angry with that generation;
I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray,
and they have not known my ways.’
¹¹ So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”^[b]

¹² See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. ¹³ But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. ¹⁴ We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. ¹⁵ As has just been said:

 

“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion.”^[c]

¹⁶ Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? ¹⁷ And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness? ¹⁸ And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? ¹⁹ So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief. (Hebrews 3:7-19)

Psalm 95

¹ Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
² Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.

³ For the Lord is the great God,
the great King above all gods.
⁴ In his hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him.
⁵ The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.

⁶ Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
⁷ for he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.

 

Today, if only you would hear his voice,
⁸ “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,^[a]
as you did that day at Massah^[b] in the wilderness,
⁹ where your ancestors tested me;
they tried me, though they had seen what I did.

¹⁰ For forty years I was angry with that generation;
I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray,
and they have not known my ways.’

¹¹ So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.’”