The Man Who Walked Into His Own Trial

In the 2012 film Les Misérables, there is a moment that stops your breath. Jean Valjean, played by Hugh Jackman, has rebuilt his life from nothing. He is now a respected mayor, a factory owner, a man of standing in his community. No one knows his past. No one suspects a thing.

Then word reaches him that a stranger named Champmathieu has been arrested and mistaken for him. This bewildered, illiterate man is about to be convicted and sent to prison in Valjean's place.

Valjean could stay silent. He could let an innocent man take the punishment and keep everything he has built. Instead, he walks into that courtroom, stands before the judge, and declares, "I am Jean Valjean." In a single sentence, he surrenders his reputation, his freedom, his future — all to save a man he has never met.

It is an echo of something far greater. Two thousand years ago, the Son of God looked upon a world of strangers who could not save themselves. He did not stay silent. He did not stay safe. He stepped forward and took our place — not in a courtroom, but on a cross.

"Greater love has no one than this," Jesus said, "to lay down one's life for one's friends" (John 15:13). True sacrifice is never convenient. It always costs something precious. But that is exactly what makes it love.