Age of Jubilee V2

Intro

Few passages in the gospels are as important to understanding Jesus’ mission, his work of salvation, and the nature of his Kingdom, than this passage. No other figure in history, no nation or party, no manifesto or founding document has ever presented a vision for humanity and creation that is as grand and as beautiful as what Jesus proclaims to us here. For the next several minutes I want to try and magnify just how vast and amazing Jesus’ message is for our lives today. And the question I want us to bring to this text this morning is, “Are we willing to take Jesus at his word?” Are we willing to take him at his word even if it makes us uncomfortable? Even if he will disrupt our status quo? Even if we discover that he might have a very different plan for our money and our time than we do? Will we still take him at his word then?

Will we receive his good news and the transforming power it brings into our lives? Or will we harden our hearts and reject him just as his own people did?

Prayer

The Year of Jubilee

You remember the story don’t you?

For forty days Jesus was tempted in the desert by Satan. For 40 days he hungered; he endured Satan’s taunts, he relied on nothing but the Word of God alone. For he knew that even when he was weak, the Word of his Father was strong. At the command of the Word of God Jesus did battle with Satan and caused him to flee.

See him now as he emerges victorious his battle, filled with the Spirit and ready to begin his public ministry. Verse 14 is now the fourth time Luke has told us in his gospel that Jesus is filled, or anointed, with the Holy Spirit. In each instance, we are being told to dial in and learn about the work Jesus has come to do and the new Kingdom reality he is ushering in.

This story makes a sudden turn from the broad, grand ministry of Jesus to a near and personal encounter with Jesus. It is a text dripping with intimacy, as Jesus returns to his hometown of Nazareth. The town where he grew up, the people who knew him as Jesus the son of Joseph, little JJ, had received reports about powerful teaching and miracles he had been performing. Keep in mind, Jesus had no formal rabbinic training. He was a carpenter’s son, likely a form of itinerant work where he would’ve been known primarily for traveling throughout the region doing works of manual labor. This would be an obstacle for many in his ministry, particularly the religious establishment. But among his own people, it seems to have initially served as an advantage. Whatever training in the Torah Jesus had received, it would’ve been in their synagogue. Much of his instruction likely occurred around the fireside, where he would, as a boy, hear the exchange of Torah citations passed back and forth among the elders.

You can understand why the people initially responded with favor to Jesus; they had heard reports, and he exceeded their expectations. You could imagine some of the old guys in the back listening to Jesus saying, “He got that from me.”

We don’t know all the particulars of how these synagogue services were conducted. There’s no evidence, for example, of any kind of liturgical cycle for readings to be read on any kind of calendar. So as Jesus enters the synagogue to teach, he is handed the scroll of Isaiah. The scroll was selected for him, but the passage was not. It was the expectation for these readers that they would not only select a passage from the scroll but then offer a brief reflection, or sermon, on the text.

Jesus takes the scroll, and stands among his elders, his peers, among older women who had changed his diapers, and he reads from two places: Isaiah 61, and 58.

Isaiah 58:6 (CSB): Isn’t this the fast I choose:

To break the chains of wickedness,

to untie the ropes of the yoke,

to set the oppressed free,

and to tear off every yoke?

Isaiah 61:1–2 (CSB): The Spirit of the Lord God is on me,

because the Lord has anointed me

to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,

to proclaim liberty to the captives

and freedom to the prisoners;

2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,

and the day of our God’s vengeance;

to comfort all who mourn,

The only explanation he offers: “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus’ use of the word “liberty” and the phrase “the year of the Lord’s favor” go back to an old, familiar idea in Israel known as the Year of Jubilee. I want to pause here for a moment to explore the jubilee year, as it really gives added significance to our understanding of Jesus’ choice to read this passage.

I’ll be referencing a few passages that will be on the screen here. We may not read each one verse by verse, you should write them down on your phone and go read them at home.

Israel was never to forget that they had been released from Egypt and brought into life with God in the promised land. This salvation - this liberty - was to be the fundamental characteristic which would define their life together. Their entire moral code was written from this perspective. This is no more clear than in the giving of the 10 Commandments, when God proceeds his law with these words:

I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

God’s people had been released out of bondage and into his service; this new reality was to completely reshape how they lived. From top to bottom, God’s design for humanity is that we would embody his character, his salvation, in our life together. In God’s Kingdom, freed people live freely in the service of God and neighbor. Our outward reality conforms to an inward transformation. This is the fullest way for us to live in the love of our Father, and to invite others to enjoy his love as well.

To guide them toward this end, God gave his people laws, for example, concerning generosity to the poor, fair treatment of employees, compassion for the disabled and elderly, integrity in judicial matters, the protection of life, care for the environment, and equitable treatment of ethnic minorities.

We moderns love to speak eloquently of human rights; but long before we got here God decreed these things and he simply called them holiness.

My second job out of college was with a large government contractor in DC, where I worked on projects for the EPA. Our team was expected to regularly put in 12 hour days, sometimes six days per week, in addition to odd hours in the middle of the night. We were run ragged, but we stuck with it for the money, and because we thought, this is just what you do. Many of my colleagues would drink at their desk throughout the day to cope with their misery; the company didn’t care so long as the bottom line was met. At one point, one of my colleagues fell asleep at the wheel on their late-night drive home from work and got into an accident. How do you think the company responded? By adjusting our expectations? No, they got hotel rooms for employees next door so they wouldn’t even have to go home any more.

We were all miserable, but it really didn’t matter, because that is just what you do. In DC, like so many other places around the world, you exist to drive profit and meet the bottom line.

Looking back on that period of my life, you know what I can say now that I really would’ve appreciated then? Some kind of company policy, or even an enforceable law, that said “YOU CAN”T DO THAT!” You can’t treat people like animals, like a cog in the machine that you can just drive into a state of misery. People must be viewed with dignity and respect, and ought to be treated accordingly.

In so many ways, our world can be characterized by an exploitation of people for selfish ends. But this was not to be so among God’s people. As they entered experienced his salvation, the way they viewed people, they way they viewed all of creation, was to be transformed accordingly.

It should not surprise us then that perhaps the two most dominant themes in the Mosaic Law are how to worship God rightly and protect the poor. Look with me quickly at Deuteronomy 15. Such a wonderful passage.

Deuteronomy 15:1–2 (CSB): At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. 2 This is how to cancel debt: Every creditor is to cancel what he has lent his neighbor. He is not to collect anything from his neighbor or brother, because the Lord’s release of debts has been proclaimed.

Look at what this says. Every 7 years debts among God’s people were to be canceled. Every 7 years! This was a protection against unjust exploitation. They were to have a society where there would not be perpetual systemic injustices against the weak and the marginalized. Notice it doesn’t say why the person is in debt or whose fault it is. Canceled. What is that? That’s grace, beloved. Remember that.

And then God goes on and he says that the blessing he pours on his people will be contingent on the degree to which they keep this law and protect the poor. You see? God’s expectation was that his people would not just worship him in ceremony but in their commitment to taking care of the vulnerable. This is why the prophets are always condemning Israel for false worship. This is the context of Jesus’ Isaiah 58:6 citation. Isaiah is judging the people guilty because they will worship God in ceremony while exploiting the poor. That’s false worship. That’s idolatry.

So, Deut 15 is an example the many legislations in the Mosaic law to protect the poor. You with me?

At the heights of all this legislation we find one practice that was meant to fundamentally transform the people toward this end: the year of Jubilee. In Leviticus 25 we read that on every 50th year, the people were to proclaim liberty to all of the inhabitants in Israel. This would be the year of the Lord’s favor. In each of our Old Testament passages this morning, this word “liberty” simply means “release.”

Remember that too. I hope you’re taking notes.

Liberty among God’s people was to be marked by a joyful releasing of debt; both for those who may have become enslaved to pay off debt, or the returning of land to those who may have sold it to pay off debt. In other words, it was to be a total reset back to the way things were supposed to be, putting an end to cycles of injustice against the poor which would prevent God’s people from living in a state of release, a state of liberty.

Like the 10 Commandments, the Jubilee year echoes a similar pattern; twice in Leviticus 25 God reminds the people: “I brought you out of the land of Egypt, I am your God.”

A released people release others, and this produces Jubilee, great joy among the people.

Sounds great! Surely the people must have been captivated by this vision, by their liberty, and faithfully lived this out? Well, we actually have no record, biblically or otherwise, of the year of Jubilee actually taking place. Now, silence on the matter really doesn’t prove anything. But most scholars agree that even if this was practiced earlier in Israel’s history, it became neglected as Israel remained in the land. One Old Testament commentator summarized this by saying, “This neglect happened, not so much because the jubilee was economically impossible, as because it became irrelevant to the scale of societal disruption.... this practice became meaningless for families as they fell victim to acids of debt, slavery, royal intrusion and confiscation, and total dispossession.”

Translation: it was no longer practical. Jubilee was a practice which was too disruptive to the status quo. This is why, throughout the prophets, the ideals and practices of jubilee become a source of judgment for God’s people. You can read an example of this in Jeremiah 34.

Jeremiah 34:8–17 NIV

The word came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom for the slaves. Everyone was to free their Hebrew slaves, both male and female; no one was to hold a fellow Hebrew in bondage. So all the officials and people who entered into this covenant agreed that they would free their male and female slaves and no longer hold them in bondage. They agreed, and set them free. But afterward they changed their minds and took back the slaves they had freed and enslaved them again. Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I said, ‘Every seventh year each of you must free any fellow Hebrews who have sold themselves to you. After they have served you six years, you must let them go free.’ Your ancestors, however, did not listen to me or pay attention to me. Recently you repented and did what is right in my sight: Each of you proclaimed freedom to your own people. You even made a covenant before me in the house that bears my Name. But now you have turned around and profaned my name; each of you has taken back the male and female slaves you had set free to go where they wished. You have forced them to become your slaves again. “Therefore this is what the Lord says: You have not obeyed me; you have not proclaimed freedom to your own people. So I now proclaim ‘freedom’ for you, declares the Lord—‘freedom’ to fall by the sword, plague and famine. I will make you abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth.

The people became just like Egypt. Justice was no longer practical. They turned to matters of exploitation and practicality as the rule of life together.

Surely you can hear Israel’s complaints, can’t you? “So much time has passed, how will we know who is owed what? It’s too complicated!” “Can’t we all just move on? What’s in the past is in the past.” “I never collected debts from anyone, why am I responsible for this?”

Here’s a question we need to be asking ourselves: Are we guilty of judging what is right, good, true, or just based simply on what is practical? God’s design for humanity is characterized by release and jubilee; in what ways do our lives evidence greed and practicality instead? An unwillingness to live in any way that would disrupt the status quo of our own comforts? Maybe its in small ways, like in our relationships, where we tend to treat people with a “quid pro quo” mindset. Or maybe, its in bigger ways, where we think about issues of mercy and justice with a scarcity mindset, one that is based on a practicality of limited resources. Or, if we’re honest, we’ll admit that we don’t want our lives to be disrupted, we want to keep our comforts even if it means keeping others trapped in oppression.

I look at God’s heart in offering jubilee to his people, and I can’t help but think that he doesn’t want us to live based on what is practical, but what is possible. What is possible for the God of jubilee? What is possible for us when we are captured by the desires of his heart?

Though it was neglected by his people, Jubilee remained close to God’s heart. Though their sin led to the neglect of this practice, God still intended for his people to be filled by a transformative jubilee that would sink deep down into their hearts. His design for humanity did not, and has not, changed.

Glimmers of this hope came through the prophet Isaiah who spoke of a Servant who would declare the coming of an even greater jubilee, one marked not only by a releasing of debts, but by the announcement of God’s good news, of ministry to the poor and the brokenhearted, of a release to those who are bound. We actually know from other contemporary documents, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, that these qualities were attributed by the people to the coming of the Messiah; it was the hope of the people that where they had failed, the Messiah would come and restore God’s comprehensive vision for liberty, compassion, and justice.

Jesus, the Lord of Jubilee

Jesus stands in the synagogue, looking out among the people he knew intimately. He sees the faces grown weary by hard labor in the vineyards. He sees his peers who are stuck in crippling debts. He sees those consumed by anger against the Romans. He knows the pain of fathers whose sons had left to pursue a better life elsewhere. He knew of women trapped in exploitative situations. He knew whose children were deathly ill. He knew who had been victims of violence in their travels...

He’s handed the scroll of Isaiah. And of any passage he could’ve read, he chooses to read these words, combining Isaiah 61 and 58:

Luke 4:18–19 (CSB): The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me

to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me

to proclaim release to the captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to set free the oppressed,

19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

He rolls up the scroll, sits down, and says, “Today this has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Wow. The magnitude of this statement sent shockwaves through Nazareth and beyond. We can see from their response that the people knew exactly what Jesus was saying:

“The greater jubilee you have been waiting for is now here; I am the Messiah who will accomplish an even greater liberty for his people. Today all of your hopes and expectations for God to be true to these promises has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Who did Jesus mean by the poor? Was it the literal poor and oppressed, or was it the poor in spirit? A number of years ago, I was at a large Christian conference here in Indianapolis and I heard a sermon by a popular pastor on this text. In no uncertain terms did he condemn a reading of this text that meant the literal poor. He warned his audience that if we think Jesus is talking about the literal poor, we are in danger of losing the gospel and turning Christianity into a social agenda. And the crux of his argument was this: Jesus said he would set at liberty those who are oppressed. Well, we never see him setting anyone free from prison, so clearly he’s not talking about physical liberation, so he cannot then be talking about the literal poor, only the spiritually poor.

Every fiber in my being wanted to get up and shout at this man. I wanted to say, first of all, your interpretation of the captive as being ONLY prisoners in jail, and not a people who are stuck in exile, or those who are trapped in demonic oppression, is a narrow reading that you are pushing on the text to make your point on this big stage to tell us we need not be concerned for the poor and the oppressed in our society and that is wicked.

Second, have you not read the book of Acts, also written by Luke, when Jesus miraculously broke his disciples out of prison in Acts 5 and 16? Have you not read the history of God’s people over the last two centuries who have miraculously found themselves comforted and liberated in their imprisonment in their obedience to the Kingdom of God? Don’t you tell me that Jesus will not set the prisoners free.

Third, this word we have in our passage for freedom, sometimes translated release, is also Luke’s favored word for forgive. Here’s why I said you needed to be taking notes. This word Luke uses, Aphesis, is used 45 times in the Old Testament. Of those, it is used more than 20 times in Deuteronomy 15 and Leviticus 25 to refer to the release of debts. Nearly all of the rest of its usage in the Old Testament is also in reference to the release of debts. Don’t you see what Luke is doing? He is using God’s compassion for the poor as the paradigm by which we need to understand his compassion on us.

This is why Luke will do crazy things like in Luke 11, where in the Lord’s prayer, the language is to ask God to release us of our sins as we release those who are indebted to us. In other words, you cannot understand God’s compassion on you in your sin until you see his compassion on the poor. You cannot understand what it means that God will do whatever it takes to free you from your sin, including putting his Son on that cross to pay your debt, until you see that God will do whatever it takes to give justice to the poor. You cannot fathom total dependence on Jesus until you see the poor desperate for his provision. You cannot understand God’s grace for you in your sin until you understand God’s requirement that the debts of the poor be forgiven NO MATTER WHAT.

Don’t you spiritualize this. Don’t you spiritualize Jesus’ mission. Don’t you tell me he’s not talking about the literal poor. Because as soon as you do that, it is you who are in danger of losing the gospel.

Jesus is drawing richly on the language and ideas of the year of Jubilee to make this point: the Kingdom has come, and it is an Age of Jubilee. And it is only in this framework of jubilee that you can understand the subversive nature of the gospel. Jesus contradicts every power of exploitation and domination by releasing us from the power of sin and reconciling us to God, freeing us to live totally and completely for God and neighbor just as our Father intended.

If You lose jubilee, you lose God’s heart for the literal poor and oppressed, you lose the framework by which we are to understand our salvation. Period.

Can I just say, by the way, that Jubilee probably needs to become a much more regular part of our vocabulary? I think that would be good.

The Age of Jubilee

To be in Christ, then, is to be a resident of this Age of Jubilee. And just as the year of jubilee set in motion a reversal of the oppression of Egypt, the Age of Jubilee has set in motion a reversal of sin and all its effects. The Age of Jubilee is a time of restoration and re-creation as the gospel goes forward to every creature. Jesus tells us at least three things about his Kingdom, each with their own application for us to consider.

First, the jubilee age will be marked by proclamation, both of good news and this jubilee year of the Lord’s favor. The gospel will be, is being proclaimed, and the Kingdom of God is expanding as more and more people come under the care of Christ the King. This message will go out to all people, but will principally be received by the poor.

Any student of the global church can attest to this. The gospel right now is thriving in the global south, in Asia, in the middle east, in places of great poverty. And where is the soil getting rockier? In the affluent West. It is hard, Jesus said, for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God. It is. The middle and upper class in spirit are just so proud of themselves.

Let me ask you this. Why is the Western church so quick to spiritualize Jesus’ commands? As if all this talk about bread, sight, and the poor only meant physical things for a limited time, but now it only has spiritual meaning? I will tell you why. The Western church, by and large, is ashamed to see Jesus hanging out with the poor. We are. And we don’t like knowing that proximity to Jesus means following him in his proximity to the socially and economically poor. We don’t want to be disrupted. So we relativize and spiritualize his commandments to protect our comforts.

To the extent that you understand Jesus’ heart for the poor and marginalized is the extent that you’ll know the gospel is working its way deep into your heart. No one can say they’ve been forgiven much and then turn around and be stingy and proud in Spirit. This is Luke 7, right? Jesus tells the parable of the moneylender. There’s this prostitute who gives up everything for Jesus. They’re ashamed to be seen with her; they don’t understand why Jesus embraces her. What does Jesus say? Whoever has been forgiven little loves little.

Is your love growing for the poor, for those who are on the margins? Are you becoming more generous? That’s a sign of the Age of Jubilee.

Second, it is marked by transforming forgiveness leading to advocacy. Quoting Isaiah 61, Jesus said he would proclaim liberty to the captives; quoting Isaiah 58:6 it is a releasing of the oppressed.

Here’s something you need to know about Luke’s gospel. More than any of the other gospel writers, Luke is concerned with Jesus’ ministry to the poor and marginalized, to social outcasts, to women, to Gentiles. And so in Luke’s gospel what you find is not so much that people get upset Jesus makes Messianic claims for himself. They’re not upset that he proclaims a message of repentance. They’re upset that this new kingdom is a kingdom of jubilee for the poor and the oppressed. In other words, it’s not the gospel that is a stumbling block so much as that the poor are the prized recipients of the gospel.

Look at the people’s reaciton to Jesus. At first they love what he says. But then he reminds them of these stories about ministry to the Gentiles. The people wanted Jesus to judge their enemies; instead, he says, “I’m not here to judge your enemies, I’m here to bring release to them as well - and I want you to join me.” Do you see it? That’s where they switch from admiration to rage. That’s what makes them want to kill him. It’s not repentance that is the issue; it is good news for the poor.

Here’s this double meaning of release and forgiveness and work again. If you know that you are truly helpless against sin, and Jesus has released you of your sin debt, then your life will be marked by extending release and forgiveness to others. How could it not? Jubilee reshapes all of our relationships, from our marriages and friendships, to our colleagues, to how we view those who we once thought were our enemies. In fact, if the Lord’s jubilee has truly grabbed a hold of our hearts, we’ll become advocates of mercy and justice even for our enemies, with the hope that they might come to know the Lord.

Lastly, the Age of Jubilee is marked by compassion. Jesus pronounced a recovering of sight to the blind; which, once again, has a broad meaning of the spiritually blind demonstrated in compassion to the physically blind. The entire ministry of Jesus was characterized by generous deeds of compassion. In Luke 7, when the disciple of John came to Jesus to ask for a report, Jesus would confirm these things, saying:

English Standard Version Chapter 7

Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.

These words are a comfort and a challenge to us. A comfort because they remind us of the deep, abiding, compassion of our Lord. They are a challenge, because they require we ask some important questions about ourselves: Can this same compassion be seen in my own life? In the way I spend my time? The way I budget my money? The way I treat my family or my coworkers? Is my life marked by the generous compassion of jubilee, or by a practicality that doesn’t want to disrupt the status quo?

This is the Age of Jubilee. Jesus did not come just to save our souls and leave the rest of life untouched. Nor did he come as an exemplar who will fix the world but leave our own hearts relatively unchanged. No, he came for all of it. He is making all things new, and we have the privilege of being invited into it through Good news, transforming forgiveness, ministry to the poor and marginalized, compassion.

So I would ask you friends, do you know this jubilee? Do you have joy, joy, joy down in your heart? Do you see Jesus’ heart for the poor is the same heart that he has for you in your sin? Has he released you? Is jubilee on your lips, on your calendar, in your bank accounts? Do you want to see jubilee proclaimed and demonstrated in our city? Ohhhh I hope so. I know some of ya’ll are with me. Lets go then.