Somehow we must be able to stand up before our most bitter opponents and say: "We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will and we will still love you...But be assured that we'll wear you down by our capacity to suffer, and one day we will win our freedom. We will not only win freedom for ourselves; we will so appeal to your heart and conscience that we will win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.
-Martin Luther King Jr.
Recently I saw the movie "Les Miserables" in the theater and I cried my eyes out the whole time. Most people cried during that movie, so my reaction was not all that unusual. At the end of the movie, I could have sat in the theater for another hour in awe and in tears. I was moved by the incredible mercy and redemption the story portrayed and how charged it was with the message of Jesus. So much pain and suffering was inflicted upon its characters, but they matched it with their capacity to suffer and shamed the powers that enslaved them. The movie reminded me of this quote by Martin Luther King Jr. and on this day that honors him and his work to bring about long-awaited mercy and justice, I wanted to unpack this portrayal and concept of grace.
"Les Mis" made me think a lot about how true change happens within a person and transformation in a whole society. In the story the main character, Jean Valjean is imprisoned and enslaved for stealing bread to save his sister's son. The antagonist, Javert, is a man of the strictest law, believing in the law's justice and that stronger sentences are required as a means of deterrence. Once a criminal, always a criminal. When Jean Valjean is released and put on parole for life, he finds himself fit for little but a life working menial jobs, panhandling, and trying to find a different place to sleep each night out of the cold. When he is discovered by a priest, the priest invites him in to eat at his table and sleep in a warm bed for the night. Thinking this man is a fool, Jean Valjean robs him and flees in the middle of the night. When he is caught by the authorities and brought to the priest for questioning, the priest in an incredible act of grace, extends mercy to Jean Valjean by telling the authorities that he gave him the silver and then tells Jean Valjean that he left the best behind and gives him the expensive silver candlesticks. The priest saves Jean Valjean from a life of enslavement and tells him that he has saved him for God.
The rest of the movie follows Jean Valjean, his life forever changed and his soul redeemed because of this great act of mercy. He goes on to become very powerful himself and uses his power to bestow the same kind of mercy he received on others, wielding it with kindness, humility, and grace. All the while, Javert seeks him for breaking parole and to the very end, cannot see him, changed as he is, as anything other than a thief. There is no mercy in Javert, he is the law and he is power. When Javert eventually finds the tables turned, powerless in the hands of Jean Valjean and is shown mercy instead of "justice," he decides that he cannot live with an act of mercy that great over his head and he commits suicide.
In one of the most heartbreaking scenes of the movie, Jean Valjean has come alongside of a group of young rebel men, refusing to give into the harsh laws of the government and corruption of those in power. Outnumbered, the young men are eventually slaughtered, including a child about 8 years old. It was absolutely shameful and this is what I'm getting to.
How do people and societies change? Through great mercy and through deep, humbling shame. The only way to show mercy to someone is if you already have power over them. If one has no power, one cannot extend mercy, the only weapon one has is the ability to suffer and to shame those with power with one's "capacity to suffer." It is a sad, harsh truth. It is unfair that the powerful can show mercy and the powerless can shame through suffering, but what other way is there? It is the way of Jesus and though I may not believe that Jesus' blood saved us from a wrathful God and the fiery furnaces of hell, I do believe in the grace he taught and died for. In his advocacy for the marginalized and capacity to suffer alongside of them, he shamed Rome in all its power and wealth and the society began to change. What we now call "Christianity" took off and what had been a powerful nation began to fall as more and more people rebelled against its practices and corruption. Jesus embodied both the power to show mercy and the capacity to endure suffering and no one can deny the impact his life had on the world, whether they believe he's the savior or not.
As I think about who I am, what the world is, and the transformation that I wish to see, mostly I reflect on this defining grace that can shame the rich and powerful and extend mercy to the powerless. I long for that shame and that mercy to overcome the world and move us all to compassion. That's the kind of play I want to write. We write about what we see and what we experience, but also what we want to see and what we want to experience.
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