In a famous scene from Victor Hugo’s novel Les Miserables, Jean Val Jean has been released from prison after serving 20 years for stealing bread to feed his starving brothers and sisters. He is a bitter man, a branded ex-con. It is impossible for him to find work and he sees no path that will allow him to succeed. Desperately looking for a place to stay, an old Catholic priest takes him in overnight and feeds him.
Waking early he looks longingly at the silver utensils that grace the table in his room. Temptation overcoming him he takes the silver and escapes into the early morning. Only a few hours later the priest hears a commotion at the door of the church. The police have captured Jean Val Jean in possession of the incriminating silver. Muttering threats they apprehend him and bring him back to the priest. Jean Val Jean tells the police that the priest gave him the silver but they are not convinced.
When the police confront the priest with Jean Val Jean and the silver they sarcastically ask, “Did you give him this silver?” The priest cheerfully replies, “Yes, I did, but he forgot to take the candlesticks.” Jean Val Jean is speechless. His loveless, cynical worldview is assaulted by love and grace. The angry unforgiving world he has carefully constructed is shattered. He is never the same.
Although this story is fictional it reminds us of something we often forget. Repentance does not flourish in the soil of anger and retribution. Rather as Paul says in Romans 2:3b “it is God’s kindness that leads to repentance.”
This is important as we walk these 40 days. While we do not desire to compromise with sin, anger and letter-of-the-law rigidity do not lend themselves to repentance and transformation. This is true for both those we mentor and for ourselves.
We see this so clearly in the story of Zaccheus in Luke 19. Zaccheus is a tax collector. He is hated by most people for both his occupation and the fact that through the years he has extorted money from many of them. Yeshua sees him high up in the sycamore tree and invites him down and proclaims, “Today I must stay at your house.” The honor that Yeshua shows Zaccheus moves him to repentance. He promises to give half of his income to the poor and to return four times the amount to those he extorted taxes from. Yeshua concludes the story by saying “Today salvation has come to this house.”
Thus as we walk these 40 days it is important to fill our thoughts and days with love, forgiveness, and kindness. By doing this we plow the fallow ground and prepare the soil for a good harvest.
Isaiah 30:15 “In repentance and rest you will be saved, In quietness and trust is your strength.”
John Conrad
BYNA Elder
