The Bishop's Candlesticks

In Victor Hugo's Les Misérables — brought most powerfully to life in the 2012 film — Jean Valjean has spent nineteen years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread. Hardened by injustice, he repays the one man who showed him kindness by stealing his silver. When police drag Valjean back to the bishop's door, everyone expects condemnation.

Instead, Bishop Myriel does something that stops the room cold.

He tells the officers the silver was a gift. Then he turns to Valjean and says quietly, "You forgot the candlesticks." He presses two more silver candlesticks into the thief's hands — worth even more than what was stolen. After the police leave, the bishop leans close and speaks words that crack Valjean open: "I have bought your soul for God."

Valjean had nothing to offer. No restitution. No reformed character. His hands were literally full of stolen goods. And yet unearned, extravagant grace was pressed into those same hands anyway.

This is the scandal of the gospel. Paul tells us in Romans 5 that God demonstrated His love for us while we were still sinners — not after we cleaned up, not after we paid our debt, but in the middle of our worst moment. The Almighty did not wait for our worthiness. Like that bishop, He looked at everything we had taken, everything we had broken, and said: I am giving you back to God.

Grace is not the reward for getting your life together. It is the gift that makes getting your life together possible.