This Can Be Your Jubilee Year…
The Year of Jubilee is an Old Testament type foreshadowing the messianic age that Jesus would inaugurate with his first coming and complete with his second coming. Jesus began his ministry by preaching his inaugural sermon in his hometown of Nazareth. He read from the scroll that was given Isaiah 61:1–2, where the Servant of the LORD declares,
The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners;
to proclaim the year of the LORD’S favor.
Then Jesus said, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). Jesus ushered in the final great Year of Jubilee, the messianic age, which, at his second coming, would result in the perfect kingdom of God on a new earth (Rev 21–22).
Peter expands the earthly inheritance of land to an eternal inheritance. He writes, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you” (1 Pet 1:3–4).
In Romans 8 Paul extends the Year of Jubilee to the whole creation: “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (vv 19–21
Several of these threads come together in Jesus. His ‘Nazareth Manifesto’,43 in which he claimed that he had come to fulfil the prophecy of Isaiah 61:1–2, puts him firmly in the centre of the trajectory that began in the Jubilee legislation of Leviticus 25.44 Isaiah 61 reverberates with the images of Jubilee. The anointed one would ‘proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour’, which meant that good news would be brought to the poor, the broken-hearted would be comforted, and those held in prison would be set free. Jesus says that with his arrival that day had come.
Throughout his ministry he gave evidence to justify his claim. People were set free from a multitude of diseases, disabilities, demons, defilements, debts and sins. Mercy and forgiveness flowed freely and justice was at work for the benefit of the poor. He did not inaugurate a national restructuring of economic life. He inaugurated a greater Jubilee in which people of all nations were (and are) set free from the stronger forces that enslaved them and the deeper debts that they owed.
The Jubilee is a model of God’s relationship with his world. In it the sovereign God takes an initiative to deal with the realities of an unjust and sin-riddled society. He shows special compassion to the weak and vulnerable members of the community. He calls his people to obey his word and have faith in his providence. He also calls them to reproduce his mercy and justice in their dealings with one another. He gives us the opportunity for new beginnings in the present, while drawing out from us a hope in the future.
Jubilee speaks about:
1. our relation to the environment: the need for rest and renewal;
2. our mission in the world: the need for liberty and justice;
3. our worship in the church: the need for authenticity and charity;
4. our relations in the family: the need for compassion and support;
5. our growth in the Spirit: the need for mercy and forgiveness;
6. our faith in the Saviour: the need to trust Jesus; and
7. our hope in the future: the need to look forward to his coming again.
Moreover, our ministry of sharing should be done not only individually but also collectively. Kenneth Mathews notes that Christian communities today “are more involved than ever in providing low-or no-interest loans to the poor in Third World countries where capital for small business entrepreneurship is unavailable. By economic development in poverty-stricken communities, many social ills can be alleviated, such as disease, homelessness, [lack of] education, and the selling of family members for slave trade. There are many innovative ways that we can be involved; there is no shortage of opportunities. The only shortage is a Christian’s will to do it
