Why Forgive Part 2

There are 3 pragmatic reasons why we should forgive...this is part 2..of the forgiveness series...

1st point was; Forgiveness alone can halt the cycle of blame and pain, breaking the chain of ungrace. The second point is, it can loosen the stranglehold of guilt in the perpetrator.

In recent years audiences worldwide have watched a drama of forgiveness played out onstage in the musical version of Les Miserables. The musical follows its original source, Victor Hugo’s sprawling novel, in telling the story of Jean Valjean, a French prisoner hounded and ultimately transformed by forgiveness.

Sentenced to a nineteen-year of hard labor for the crime of staling bread, jean Valjean gradually hardened into a tough convict. No one could beat him 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, 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 was no thief, the bishop assured the gendarnes. "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 momento 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 knows no law but justice, stalks 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 within himself no corresponding forgiveness, Javert jumps off a bridge into the Seine River.

Extracted from Philip Yancey’s "What’s so Amazing About Grace?"