The following piececontains some mild Les Misérables spoilers.

I wept. Two nights ago, in an Odeon cinema in Kingston town, I wept. Nothing to do with the singing or facial contortions of Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe. Rather, it was the visualisation of God’s kingdom that first captured my heart nine years ago, evoked so beautifully in Tom Hooper’s Oscar-nominated adaptation of Les Misérables, that broke me.

As other reviews and posts attest, Valjean’s tale is one of life- (and world-) changing grace – that reaches out to all, redeeming and transforming. Yet the motivations behind each of the plot lines tell of a bigger story. Fantine’s fall into poverty to pay the debt of supporting her daughter, the revolutionary students’ belief in a nation of equality even, ultimately, at the expense of their own lives, and Valjean’s rescue of Cosette, Javert and Marius all speak of the other-centred life – where there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends (John 15:13), even those unknown to us.


Of course, violent revolution is not the model by which our Prince of Peace directs his kingdom. Still, my hope remains that despite a time where the church has been said to be ‘out of touch’ and ‘not with the programme’, those who see this film may see a beauty – something of the presence of the kingdom – in lives poured out for others, where not our will is done but his, with God enlivening believers and stirring belief in the hearts of those lost and without hope. As Herbert Kretzmer’s lyrics express it: