THE STORY OF JEAN VALJEAN
THE STORY OF LITTLE JIM
In Elder D. Todd Christofferson’s talk, “Redemption, April 2013 General
Conference
In President James E. Faust’s talk, “The Atonement: Our Greatest Hope”, October
2001 General Conference
While the most important aspects of redemption have to do with
repentance and forgiveness, there is a very significant temporal aspect as well.
Jesus is said to have gone about doing good (see Acts 10:38), which included
healing the sick and infirm, supplying food to hungry multitudes, and teaching a
more excellent way. “The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to
minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). So may we,
under the influence of the Holy Spirit, go about doing good in the redemptive
pattern of the Master.
This kind of redemptive work means helping people with their problems. It
means befriending the poor and the weak, alleviating suffering, righting wrongs,
defending truth, strengthening the rising generation, and achieving security and
happiness at home. Much of our redemptive work on earth is to help others grow
and achieve their just hopes and aspirations.
An example from Victor Hugo’s novel Les Misérables, though fictional,
has always touched and inspired me. Near the beginning of the story, Bishop
Bienvenu gives food and overnight shelter to the homeless Jean Valjean, who has
just been released from 19 years in prison for having stolen a loaf of bread to feed
his sister’s starving children. Hardened and embittered, Valjean rewards Bishop
Bienvenu’s kindness by stealing his silver goods. Later detained by suspicious
gendarmes, Valjean falsely claims the silver was a gift to him. When the
gendarmes drag him back to the bishop’s house, to Valjean’s great surprise,
Bishop Bienvenu confirms his story and for good effect says, “‘But! I gave you the
candlesticks also, which are silver like the rest, and would bring two hundred
francs. Why did you not take them along with your plates?’ …
“The bishop approached him, and said, in a low voice:
“‘Forget not, never forget that you have promised me to use this silver to
become an honest man.’
“Jean Valjean, who had no recollection of this promise, stood
confounded. The bishop … continued, solemnly:
“‘Jean Valjean, my brother: you belong no longer to evil, but to good. It
is your soul that I am buying for you. I withdraw it from dark thoughts and from the
spirit of perdition, and I give it to God!’”
Jean Valjean indeed became a new man, an honest man and a
benefactor to many. Throughout his life he kept the two silver candlesticks to
remind him that his life had been redeemed for God.6
Some forms of temporal redemption come by collaborative effort. It is
one of the reasons the Savior created a church. Being organized in quorums and
auxiliaries and in stakes, wards, and branches, we can not only teach and
encourage each other in the gospel, but we can also bring to bear people and
resources to deal with the exigencies of life. People acting alone or in ad hoc
groups cannot always provide means on a scale needed to address larger
challenges. As followers of Jesus Christ we are a community of Saints organized to
help redeem the needs of our fellow Saints and as many others as we can reach
across the globe.
Some years ago, President Gordon B. Hinckley told “something of a
parable” about “a one room school house in the mountains of Virginia where the
boys were so rough no teacher had been able to handle them.
“Then one day an inexperienced young teacher applied. He was told
that every teacher had received an awful beating, but the teacher accepted
the risk. The first day of school the teacher asked the boys to establish their own
rules and the penalty for breaking the rules. The class came up with 10 rules,
which were written on the blackboard. Then the teacher asked, ‘What shall we
do with one who breaks the rules?’
“‘Beat him across the back ten times without his coat on,’ came the
response.
“A day or so later, … the lunch of a big student, named Tom, was stolen.
‘The thief was located—a little hungry fellow, about ten years old.’
“As Little Jim came up to take his licking, he pleaded to keep his coat on.
‘Take your coat off,’ the teacher said. ‘You helped make the rules!’
“The boy took off the coat. He had no shirt and revealed a bony little
crippled body. As the teacher hesitated with the rod, Big Tom jumped to his feet
and volunteered to take the boy’s licking.
“‘Very well, there is a certain law that one can become a substitute for
another. Are you all agreed?’ the teacher asked.
“After five strokes across Tom’s back, the rod broke. The class was
sobbing. ‘Little Jim had reached up and caught Tom with both arms around his
neck. “Tom, I’m sorry that I stole your lunch, but I was awful hungry. Tom, I will love
you till I die for taking my licking for me! Yes, I will love you forever!”’” 8
President Hinckley then quoted Isaiah:
“Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. …
“… He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our
iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we
are healed.” 9
No man knows the full weight of what our Savior bore, but by the power
of the Holy Ghost we can know something of the supernal gift He gave us. 10 In
the words of our sacrament hymn:
We may not know, we cannot tell,
What pains he had to bear,
But we believe it was for us
He hung and suffered there. 11
A Bending Tree
In Elder Dallin H. Oak’s talk, “The Atonement and Faith” April 2008 General
Conference
Why is it necessary for us to suffer on the way to repentance for serious
transgressions? We tend to think of the results of repentance as simply cleansing
us from sin, but that is an incomplete view. A person who sins is like a tree that
bends easily in the wind. On a windy and rainy day, the tree bends so deeply
against the ground that the leaves become soiled with mud, like sin. If we focus
only on cleaning the leaves, the weakness in the tree that allowed it to bend and
soil its leaves may remain. Similarly, a person who is merely sorry to be soiled by sin
will sin again in the next high wind. The susceptibility to repetition continues until
the tree has been strengthened.
When a person has gone through the process that results in what the
scriptures call “a broken heart and a contrite spirit,” the Savior does more than
cleanse that person from sin. He gives him or her new strength. That strengthening
is essential for us to realize the purpose of the cleansing, which is to return to our
Heavenly Father. To be admitted to His presence, we must be more than clean.
We must also be changed from a morally weak person who has sinned into a
strong person with the spiritual stature to dwell in the presence of God. We must,
as the scripture says, become “a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord”
(Mosiah 3:19). This is what the scripture means in its explanation that a person who
has repented of his or her sins will forsake them (see D&C 58:43). Forsaking sins is
more than resolving not to repeat them. Forsaking involves a fundamental
change in the individual.