Sermons ― Summer 2007
July 1, 2007 ― Galatians 5:1, 13-25
“For freedom Christ has set us free.”
Jean Valjean was imprisoned for many years after stealing a loaf of bread out of hungry desperation. Valjean was far from a hardened man the day he was convicted. But day after day, week after week, month after month, all he was told was how he was less than a man. It did not take long until he was a hardened convict. Valjean had every reason to be angry with France and the rest of the world.
Even upon his release, Jean was given a piece of paper that he had to carry around from town to town. This document was given to all prisoners upon their release. It was to be presented to innkeepers and land lords who in turn would close their doors to anyone who carried it.
Jean Valjean wandered the streets of one town for several nights seeking shelter from the weather. Finally, Valjean is invited to share the home of a Bishop and his wife.
Once the Bishop and his wife had drifted off to sleep Valjean rummaged through the cupboards looking for something, anything that he could trade for a little more money. Finally, the family silverware. This would serve for now.
Valjean did not make it far. The next morning the Bishop opened his doors to some policemen holding Valjean in custody.
Valjean’s head sulked. Busted. This was a sure ticket back to the labor farms.
What happened next could not have been even a sliver of probability in the minds of the guards, least of all Valjean. Nevertheless the Bishop without even a moments hesitation scolds Valjean. Not for offending his host, not for taking the silverware, not even for leaving without a word of thanks. The Bishop scolds Valjean for leaving the candlesticks.
“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 franks. 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.
“I’m delighted to see you. Had you forgotten that I gave you the candlesticks as well?”
This is only the beginning of the story. Jean Valjean is greatly affected by the Bishops generosity that he leaves determined to help others in need. He even becomes a mayor and adopts an orphan girl, the daughter of a prostitute.
But Javert a determined policeman knows nothing of grace. He lives by the letter of the law and spends two decades in search of Valjean. Finally the two encounter each other for the last time and the prey has the chance to leave the hunter to die. Freedom is moments away.
Instead, Valjean saves Javert's life. This throws a hitch into Javert's legalistic system and his belief that a convict is always a convict. People are what they are. There is no chance at change. Javert gives up the hunt by taking his own life. That which he has fought so hard to maintain is destroyed. There is no place for a prisoner of the law in this free world.
Victor Hugo’s novel Les Miserable is where the story I just shared with you comes from. It a novel about the freedom one can find by being forgiven and by forgiving.
I wonder if the freedom Paul talks about in Galatians 5 is the kind of freedom the Bishop displayed, that Jean Valjean found and that Javert ultimately could not accept.
We know well the words from Galatians 5:22-25. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.
These words speak clearly to me of a kind of living that I find possible only with the help of the Spirit. The help of God. For the most part, it is easy for me to love my family. It is easy for me to find joy in my activities and peace when I am on my morning walk. These things are not unusual. One could even argue that such love, joy, and peace are universal emotional experiences.
If you have ever watched the television program Dr. Phil it doesn’t take long before you find out the psychological benefit of forgiveness. Other religions teach the goal of ultimate peace. But these experiences are limited. They do not pretend to address the relationship between enemies. They do not come close to showing charity to those who by human standards do not deserve it.
So if we cannot fully exhibit the fruit of the Spirit on our own steam, then from where do these characteristics come.
There is something upside down about this whole message. I think many times we wish one of the fruits of the Spirit was ‘justice’. But that word simply isn’t there. Rather, the phrasing seems to lean more to a attitude of forgiveness. There is a wise saying, “to err is human, to forgive, divine.”
When I look back to the story I shared, the Bishop comes to mind as displaying the fruits of the Spirit. He shows kindness to Valjean by offering him a place to stay when no one else would. He shows love, peace, and generosity when he insists that Valjean take the candlesticks as well.
By contrast we encounter the desires of the flesh in Valjean after he becomes a hardened convict and before he meets the Bishop the second time. We see the same desires in Javert as he becomes obsessed with catching Valjean.
Remember Galatians 5:16-21?
16 Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. 19Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, 20idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, 21envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Now of course we don’t see all of these desires of the flesh in Valjean or Javert. However, we do find strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, among others in both hero and antihero.
At this point we might ask, how is it that Valjean, in a single instant could make such a dramatic 180. Freedom.
Galatians 5:1 says “For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.
Although Valjean was released from the labor camp as a ‘free man’ he was not at all free. He had to carry around a card which denied him access to all but the streets which got him into his predicament in the first place.
I would also venture to say that Valjean was not freed once Javert killed himself. He was definitely not free simply by changing his identity.
Valjean became a free man that day when the Bishop scolded him for leaving the candlesticks.
“I’m delighted to see you. Had you forgotten that I gave you the candlesticks as well?”
Valjean was free not because he paid his debt to society. Valjean was free not because he dedicated his life to helping those in need. Valjean was freed through the grace of an old bishop. Valjean was freed by a grace that could only come from God.
When Paul wrote these words to the Church of Galatia, he was addressing some of the tendencies of secular society and those in the church who had become slaves to the law. They had become too legalistic.
With these words Paul wished to set the church free to love each other. To love even those who seemed unworthy to be loved.
He writes in Galatians 5:13-14:
For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an oppourtunity for self indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
I think in our actions as we are enabled by the Holy Spirit to love each other, something that we cannot completely accomplish on our own, are the fruit of the Spirit.
As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:
Love is patient, love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
It is no mistake that love is listed first of the fruits of the Spirit. This is because all others are products of such love.
May you know the freedom of Christ.
May you be freed from the legalism and vices of this world and enslave yourselves to loving your neighbor.
And may the fruit of the Spirit be manifest in your actions.