A STUDY IN THE BOOK OF PHILEMON-1
JUNE 14, 2015
In 1862, Victor Hugo released his magnum opus, Les Miserables. This massive book was set against the backdrop of a post revolutionary France that was still in the midst of upheaval as factions fought for power and the idea of monarchy still was uncertain. At the heart of this massive work, were concerns about power, wealth, exploitation, forgiveness and justice. It is a complicated book set against an unfamiliar (to us) backdrop with thousands of moving parts. The French title basically means “the miserable ones,” a reference to those being crushed under the weight of the monarchy.
It is an older book and because it is 1,500 pages long and because the original included multiple excurses and essays, most people, including myself, are far better acquainted with the musical version of Les Miserables which is more succinct. This beloved musical has been seen tens of millions of times and adapted several times over and turned into a movie more than once. This musical has been seen millions of times for many reasons, catchy songs, compelling history, the struggle for justice. I think one element trumps them all; it is one element that resonates in any generation or geography.
This story hinges upon forgiveness, not “hurt feelings” forgiveness but “life and death” forgiveness. Not esoteric expressions of forgiveness but tangible costly expressions of forgiveness. Early in the movie, we meet Jean Valjean. He is a miserable one. He has been a prisoner for 19 years. He stole a loaf of bread for his starving sister, a fellow miserable one, and was sentenced to five years in prison, and he accumulated the other 14 years for bad behavior. He probably ended up serving a year for each ounce that small loaf weighed. The heaviness of that has broken this man, 19 weighty years of hard labor. The law broke this man’s spirit. When we first meet Valjean, he is bedraggled, scruffy, angry looking. He is a miserable one.

Valjean is released, but the weight of his crimes follows after him. His identification is marked with a yellow stamp that means he was a prisoner, a lawbreaker. Thus he can find no work and no place to stay. Finally he stumbles into the care of a gracious bishop who gives him food and a place to stay. Valjean repays this kind act by stealing the silverware and striking out into the night. He is quickly caught with the church’s expensive wares and brought back to the bishop for confirmation of his crimes.
This relapse will surely lead to incarceration for life. He will have proven yet again to be a lawbreaker unworthy of freedom. The weight will return and he will be miserable once again. He is brought before the bishop and then this happens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCvLfypVszI
Thus the story is launched and instead of being further broken by the law and what was deserved, he was set free. Instead of going further into debt, he was made instantaneously rich. Most of the best stories in human history turn on such moments, an instance of selfsacrifice, a bold act of forgiveness, a wild act of grace. It’s what turns miserable stories around.
There is a gem in the New Testament that could easily be renamed Les Miserables. The book of Philemon is a small book about an antiquated practice and seemingly dealing with a personal business matter. This book is only a chapter long and it is the Apostle Paul writing to a man named Philemon about a runaway slave named Onesimus. You can hear that and say, “What in the world does that have to do with 2015 Silicon Valley?” It’s a private conversation about an outdated barbaric practice of slavery. That’s too old and too far removed from us.
When you dig a bit deeper, this is a complicated episode seen from three angles, and it is all about forgiveness. Not “hurt feelings forgiveness” but “life and death forgiveness.” Not
“esoteric” forgiveness but tangible “real world” forgiveness. Over the next three weeks, we will look at this short letter from three angles. Over the next three weeks, we will slide into the sandals of Philemon, Paul and Onesimus. We will look at what it means to be the one

forgiving, the one mediating forgiveness and the one being forgiven. It is all complicated and messy.
C.S. Lewis famously said, “Every one says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive, and then, to mention the subject at all is to be greeted with howls of anger." Mere Christianity, Chapter 7
Now, I’m sure for most of us forgiveness isn’t a big issue, no one here has been hurt by a spouse or burned by a business partner. No one here has been betrayed by a friend or gossiped about by a coworker. No one here as had their trust broken by a leader in the church. No one here as been infuriated by an ill conceived email. No one here has lost a contract because of a liar. No one here has watched LeBron James travel and complain in the NBA finals against the godly Warriors.
Ok…except for the last one. Those are all weighty things, and they can all lead to more than a touch of misery. So how do we move forward?
Philemon 1: 1-10
This letter starts off with a standard greeting,but a theological and practical nugget is buried in this short introduction. Before we get to that, let’s get to the heart of the matter.
Onesimus is a slave in the household of Philemon. As we move forward, I want you to block out the idea of Antebellum American slavery when you hear that term. All slavery is horrible and unacceptable in the Kingdom of God, but it is worth mentioning two things: the context of Roman slavery and also the progressive hermeneutic of the Bible.
First, the context of Roman slavery, while Roman slavery is not okay in the same way that
American slavery of the past or modern day human trafficking are not okay, it is worth explaining. Roman slavery was more like indentured servitude. You were a possession, but there was a possibility to become a freedman and then ultimately a completely free person.
Slaves were seen as living property and there were a lot of them in the Roman Empire. It is

estimated that one in five people in Rome were slaves. People were slaves because they were born into a family of slaves or they were sold into slavery because of a debt or they may have submitted to slavery as a form of upward mobility if they were utterly destitute.
A slave did receive a wage, and the accumulation of that wage could be used over time to buy one’s freedom. This was called manumission. The most common version of this was called sacral manumission when a slave would go into the temple of a god and give his money to the temple and the deity on the slave’s behalf would buy the manumission. It was quite an interesting practice, whetting the appetite of humanity for freedom purchased by a god on their behalf.
While there was a path to freedom, let’s be clear, they were still slaves, and they were often treated as such. There are countless bits of history that recall physical, sexual and verbal abuse of slaves. While it wasn’t antebellum slavery, it wasn’t good or noble.
With that in mind, it is worth addressing why Paul doesn’t completely fight against the idea of slavery. This is the same man who said, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, slave nor free when it comes to the gospel.” He knew there should be no distinction when it comes to God’s grace and that people should not be property. So too a second bit of background - the progressive hermeneutic of the gospel.
The gospel is forceful, but humanity often drags its feet. The gospel calls for love and justice, but it takes awhile for it to take root, so a progressive hermeneutic for the gospel means we are collectively being sanctified over time. As the gospel permeates societies, it gets rid of things like slavery, genocide and greed. Paul may have known that slavery was wrong, but it was the right fight at the wrong time, or Paul could have been a fish in his own bowl of Roman culture. He had always been around the idea of slavery and didn’t even consider it might be incompatible with the gospel. The short point is that we live in a fallen world with fallen people creating fallen institutions. Sometimes, the tidal wave of the gospel overturns these institutions and sometimes, it works within them until the day they are overturned.

That is still countercultural. Consider how Paul writes to Christians in other letters. In the
Ephesian letter, he tells masters to treat their slaves with kindness and gentleness. This was unheard of, but over time, this will lead Christians to understand that slavery is incompatible with Christianity. This is how movements start.
With all of that, I want you to consider Philemon. We find out from this letter that he is a
Christian. Keep in mind, this faith has been around for only 25-30 years at this point. There are a few thousand followers, so this faith is changing lives but not institutions. Philemon is probably a Gentile whose only worldview and religion has been Roman. This carpenter from Nazareth has turned his world upside down, but you have to slide into his sandals for a moment to really consider all of the moving parts.
Philemon has no problem with the system of slavery. It’s how business worked in this culture, and one of his slaves has run away. This was a problem for a lot of reasons, 1) he just lost money because he paid for Onesimus and has lost that investment. Additionally, he has lost the productivity of the job that Onesimus previously did. 2) He has lost respect.
Having slaves was a delicate eco-system because if one slave ran away, then the others might be tempted to consider running for their own freedom. 3) He has lost loyalty. This was not only a business loss but a personal loss as household slaves were often well connected to the families they served and for one to run away was a slap in the face.
With all of this in mind, Paul writes to Philemon on behalf of Onesimus. It is unclear how
Onesimus has crossed Paul’s path. Paul is in prison, and it turns out that he has converted
Onesimus to the faith. Paul probably led Philemon’s household to faith and now Onesimus has come to find Paul for help. In that process, Onesimus has also become a follower of
Jesus. So Onesimus has run away and now realizes his conundrum. How does the gospel apply here? Like Valjean, he has escaped, likely he stole something like Valjean on his way out. Now he realizes it was wrong and he is asking Paul to help.

Philemon 8-18
Paul is asking Philemon to forgive a slave who ran away and stole on his way out. Forgive a slave who has cost him money in multiple ways, a slave who has disrespected his family and a slave who has caused unrest in the household because other slaves are considering the cost/benefit of running away. You have to understand, by Roman standards, Onesimus should be beaten for stealing, beaten some more for running away and beaten again to make sure it never happens again.
Paul asks that not only should he be forgiven but allowed to return as a brother. Not only that, it seems Paul is asking for Onesimus’ manumission, to not beat or punish him, but set him free. This is an audacious request. This is not a “hurt feelings” kind of forgiveness. This is real and tangible and costly. Philemon will need to get over his personal hurt and anger and write this off as a complete financial loss. He might be a bit worried about the ripple effects for the rest of his slaves. If Philemon forgives, but not only that, if he forgives and sets Onesimus free, then all of his slaves might be heading to Paul’s doorstep.
This is “candlestick” forgiveness, like letting Valjean off for stealing the silver and then letting him have the candlesticks too. It is gratuitous. It is reckless. It is way over the top.
This person has wronged me, so not only do I let them off, I reward them for it too? How will other people respond? If I let one person off, how will they ever learn?
This is the nature of “candlestick” forgiveness, when it is dealing with real life and real cost, it is messy and doesn’t have clear lines. If you forgive a spouse who has violated your trust, then you are on the losing end. Not only that, you are letting them off the hook and since they didn’t lose their marriage, they might be more inclined to violate your trust again if the possible consequences are so low. If you forgive a business partner who has cheated you, you are on the losing end. If you are out the money and you let it pass, then you are opening yourself up to future episode of them taking advantage or cheating you again.

If you need to forgive someone today, it would be much easier to be fair. It would be much easier to keep the grudge, but I want to encourage “candlestick” forgiveness, and that is really hard. Forgiveness is hard. “Candlestick” forgiveness is harder. Let me tell you why and how you should try it. First the why.
Philemon 19-20
Paul asks on his own behalf, but what he is really doing is pointing Philemon to the cross.
You have been forgiven much and so you should forgive much. If you’re in a Life Group, I encourage you to dive deeper into Matthew 18. In it, we have that famous parable of a man who is forgiven an almost infinite amount by a king, but after being forgiven, he refuses to forgive a small debt owed to him by another. The end of the parable shows the king being furious with the forgiven man because he refused to pass along the forgiveness.
Why?
To hold a grudge is human but to forgive is divine. You have probably heard some version of this before. Not matter what has been done to you, God has forgiven you more so you should be willing to forgive. I want to take it one step further and remind you that this is for your joy. All of God’s commands and directives are for your joy and for your abundant life.
The strange counterintuitive truth is that not forgiving will make you miserable and forgiving will set you free.
In Les Miserables, it seems the miserable ones are the poor and oppressed, like Fontine, like
Cossette, like the French proletariat, but the most miserable man in this story is Javert, a police officer that represents the law. He is after Valjean because Valjean has reoffended after being set free, and he wants things to be fair and just. He is obsessed with the law, and making things right and even. He becomes absolutely obsessed with Valjean. He tracks him everywhere and eventually it drives him to the point of suicide. He is so obsessed with this crime that he can’t let it go, it eats him away on the inside. He is the les miserable.

The old maxim you have heard before is applicable here: choosing not to forgive is like swallowing poison and expecting the other person to get sick.
It may seem easier not to forgive, but let me assure you it is for your joy and your freedom, especially “candlestick” forgiveness, because that changes peoples’ lives. We live in a world that is obsessed with getting things even and making people pay, but when people encounter “candlestick” forgiveness, they don’t know how to respond. Wild, reckless,
“candlestick” forgiveness, also known as grace, is what most often draws people to God.
You can do that for someone.
Today, I want you to call someone up, forgive them and throw in some candlesticks. You can stew for hours about how they won’t learn their lesson. How they won’t change. How you will end up losing in the situation, but I want you to imitate our maker. When Jesus went to the cross, it was more than forgiveness being offered. God threw in the candlesticks too because not only did he atone for our sins, but he threw in sonship. He didn’t allow us to go from enemies back to neutral. He took enemies, forgave them and then made them sons and daughters.
How do we do this? As C.S. Lewis noted, this is hard stuff, great idea…for someone else.
Great idea if you are the one being forgiven. How do we do this? Let me take you back to verses 1 and 2. Paul addresses the letter to Philemon, but also to his wife, his pastor and the whole church they are a part of. The how is simple. You have to involve someone else. You might think Paul should simply address Philemon. This is a private business matter and
Philemon will have the chance to respond how he sees fit, but for some crazy reason, Paul brings in his wife, his pastor and his church.
This is a major key to forgiveness, community and accountability. When it comes to the church and forgiveness, nothing is really private. When other people are involved, they are usually good at showing you more than one side to a story. While it might be obvious to you how you have been offended, sometimes you can’t see your own blind spots or culpability, so bring someone else in. Tell a friend or a pastor the story and commit to a path of

forgiveness. If you need to forgive someone today, then you need to make two phone calls, one to the person involved, but two to a trusted confidant. Share the story and share the plan. They will walk with you through it and provide extra prayer and another vantage point.
Victor Hugo struggled with religion in his latter years, and you can quickly find out why. Les
Miserables was put on Index Librorum Prohibitorum (essentially a do-not-read list) by the
Catholic Church. It was placed there because Les Miserables seemed to undermine the law.
Can you fathom his surprise? He has written an elegant tome built upon the divine concept of the wild “candlestick” forgiveness and the church condemns it for undermining the law?
Sadly, many people now are going the way of Victor Hugo because they see a lot of law and too little grace from the church.
Make a phone call today. It won’t be easy, but it will be for the best. It won’t be easy, but it will bring joy. Make a phone call today, and throw some candlesticks in. People are used to getting what they deserve. They are used to even. They are used to grudges. The forgiveness will shock them and the candlesticks will blow them away.