Jean Valjean and a Ministry of Reconciliation

One of my all-time favorite scenes in any movie or musical is this one from Les Miserables. A little backstory: Jean Valjean is an ex-convict living in pre-revolutionary France. Just released from prison, he wanders the streets because no one will take him in. Finally, a kindly old bishop feeds him and lets him sleep overnight.

Check it out:

This coming Sunday, I'll be preaching from 2 Corinthians 5:16-19:

16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. 17 So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.

The word here for "reconcile" is the same verb in Greek that is used to describe an ambassador armed with a peace treaty.

In our heavily divided nation, more than ever we need to hear words of reconciliation, of grace, of peace and of healing. 

Jesus commands his followers in Matthew 5:9 to be peacemakers in this world, a task in which we fail all too often:

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God."

The world needs peacemakers more than ever. The world needs to see a Church that is offering a viable third Way. Without God's help, our two-party system is broken.

Truly, how can Christians be peacemakers if they always choose one "side"?  You can't.  

So what to do? It begins where change always begins: in the form of a question inside the human heart and mind. 

Have you been reconciled to God? Do you have peace with God? Once you know that, like Jean Valjean, you have been ransomed back to God, that you have indeed been bought with a price, all of it driven by divine love, it changes how you view God of course, but also how you view those around you.

Once you are reconciled to God and realize how deep God's love is for you, God will transform you into a peacemaker and a reconciler for God's kingdom.  Its as dramatic a shift as when you stop viewing Jesus Christ from merely a human point of view and begin viewing Him as He is.

Psalm 23 gives us a beautiful picture of the reconciling, radical, healing and transformative love of God:

You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows. (emphasis added)

When we are reconciled to God, our cup is full. When your cup is full of God's grace, mercy and forgiveness, there is no space for anything else to occupy.

Additionally, when our cup is full, we then have grace and reconciliation to offer others.

Like Jean Valjean, when you come face to face with pure grace and love, you can never look away. Your cup is full. You are never the same when someone loves you like that, and you have a radical love and grace to offer others that you didn't have before.