Truth is I have neither read nor watched Les Miserables. I’m not much one for musicals and well, I have no other excuse. As I recall part of the story is about a man who is sentenced to five years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread for his starving sister. He serves 19 years because of his persistent attempts to escape, and eventually begins the long and difficult process of becoming a better man. He is a most sympathetic character.
Sympathy is a good thing. Anyone left feeling unfazed at the prospect of a man serving five years in prison over a loaf of bread had better check for a heartbeat. That said, sympathy, like any other emotion, can lead us dangerously astray.
Enter Lisa Herbold, city councilwoman in the workers’ paradise that is Seattle. She is proposing legislation that would decriminalize what would otherwise be crimes, assault, larceny and more, if the perpetrator could be shown to suffer from mental illness, to have an addiction or to be in poverty. Not mitigate punishment. Not involve social services. Decriminalize. Which would ultimately mean, should this become law, that the mentally unbalanced, the addicted and the poor are entitled to the wealth of their neighbors.
The God of heaven and earth is full of compassion and grace. He is well aware of the reality of poverty. Sympathy is His passion. And yet He never made it open season on the mentally balanced, the free from addictions and the prospering. What He did instead was call upon His people to exhibit the same compassion He exhibits. He set up in Israel a system of gleaning. All landowners were commanded by God to practice it, allowing the poor to pick up the fragments from the fields, to harvest from the corners and thickets. There was, however, no civil penalty for failing to do so. More important still, while the landowner had this duty, no particular person had a right to glean any particular field. The landowner was the one with sole discretion on who might glean his fields. God’s system managed to provide for the desperately needy without enabling or entitling them, and without undermining the property ownership of property owners.
What though did God command of those who stole, hungry or not? Had Valjean lived in Israel would he have served five years over a loaf of bread? No. He would be required to make restitution for his theft. If he hadn’t the resources to make the restitution he would become the debt slave of his victim. He would have the opportunity to work off his debt. He would not be locked up like an animal. He would not be coddled like a baby. He would be treated like a man.
Our Lord calls us to compassion. But also to wisdom. We are to feel what He feels. We are also, however, to do what He commands. Compassion followed by following our own wisdom on how to work it out is folly and leads to destruction, making all of us the miserable downtrodden.
