October 10, 2026
Saturday, October 10
I can think of no better way to end this series on forgiveness than by talking about Les Misérables. The musical took the world by storm decades ago, and then was adapted into a movie in 2012. The story begins with a convict being paroled from prison. He quickly finds that he can’t get work because of his record. One night, desperate for food and shelter, he is taken in by a priest. The clergyman feeds him lavishly and puts him up for the night in a nice room. But after everyone is in bed, the convict steals some fancy silverware and runs away. The police catch him and bring him back to priest’s home. But the priest tells the policemen that the convict is his friend. He explains that he had sent the silver with his “friend” to be polished. Then he says, “You forgot the candlesticks,” and hands those over as well. The police leave the scene, with the convict standing stunned before this priest. The clergyman then says, “Never forget, with this silver, I have bought your soul for God.”
We started this week with the comedic story of two Nazis wondering, “Are we the baddies?” In Les Misérables, the priest’s act of grace changes the convict’s life. It turns him from a villain to the hero of the story. To me, it’s one of the best pictures of the Gospel ever presented on stage or film. Frankly, I find it more powerful than any “faith-based” movie I’ve ever seen.
A few years ago, I decided to read the book that the musical is based on. It’s massive, and I quickly noticed a difference from the movie: The priest, not the convict, is the main character of the first fourteen chapters of the book. You learn his entire history, including his radical conversion to Christianity, and the radical way he chooses to follow Christ. When he is named a Bishop, he moves out of the palatial Bishop’s residence so it can be used as a hospital. He lives on ten percent of his salary so he can give the rest away. When he hears that a village priest in his parish won’t pray with a condemned criminal, he shows up and prays with him before the man is hanged. Other priests despise him, but the people call him Bishop Bienvenue—“Pastor Welcome.” We learn all of this before we ever even meet the convict.
As I was reading, I began to wonder about the faith of Victor Hugo, the author. Surely he must have been a devout Christian to depict a clergyman in such a heroic way. But when I read about Hugo, I learned that he was an anti-clericalist. He hated the organized church. He created Pastor Welcome as a way of saying, “This is how Christians would live if they believed the things they claim.”
Sometimes unbelievers seem to know more about what Jesus taught than the people who sit in church pews every Sunday. Even non-Christians like Victor Hugo know that the mark of a true Christ-follower is forgiveness. If the marker was religious devotion or adherence to a moral code, we could never outdo Orthodox Jews or Wahhabi Muslims. Think about it: Jesus came to free us from our lives of sin, but He also made it possible for us to be reconciled with one another. How did He do that? By taking the initiative. By saying, “You’re the bad guys, and I’m the good guy. But I am going to take responsibility for your badness, so you can have the rewards for my goodness. I will be treated like a criminal so you can be treated like a son.”
So we come to Him like that convict in the story. He has bought our souls for God with His blood. Let’s celebrate His grace today with a hymn that’s rarely sung anymore: Come Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy.
Senior Pastor
First Baptist Conroe
More from Pastor Jeff at his website: jeffbergerwriting.com
