New Life! - Leviticus 25:8–22 - Easter

Christ is risen! The grave is empty; death is defeated, and hope is restored. The Holy Spirit has been poured out into all the land; new life is available to all who choose to accept the living Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Our passage this morning points to new life, to new beginnings, to renewed hope. The Lord gives Israel a charge to do a massive reset for the people every 50^th year, giving the land and its workers 2 years of rest, while restoring the people and families who have experienced big set backs in their circumstances over the past 49 years.  

The Lord institutes what is called the Year of Jubilee. On the 10^th day of the 7^th month, on the Day of Atonement when the sacrifices for the forgiveness of sins are offered, trumpets were to be sounded throughout the land to announce the Year of Jubilee, connecting the Year of Jubilee to forgiveness of sin, and the restoration of the peoples’ relationship with God. The year’s celebrated by the freeing of all Jewish slaves, the forgiveness of all debt, the resting of the land and its workers, and the restoration of all property to its original family owners.

Today, the idea of a Year of Jubilee would be rejected as being socialist, Marxist, unrealistic, unfair, and unwise. There was a movement leading up to the year 2000 that built on the idea of the Year of Jubilee, advocating for the forgiveness of the debts for the poorest countries in the world. There was even a discussion of this at Calvin Seminary and one professor was strongly against even the idea of such a thing. His reasoning was that it would impact pension funds and retirement savings plans for those who have invested in the stock markets. This caused an uproar from many others who were angered that there was more concern for protecting the wealth and ease of the people of the richest nations than for those struggling in the poorest nations.

Israel is given the Year of Jubilee at the foot of Mount Sinai, long before they enter the Promised Land, reminding the people that God is the giver of the land, the owner of the land, and that this year is a reflection of all the laws given to them on how they are to live with each other as a people. We see Israel practicing at least the Sabbath rest years in 2 Chronicles 36:21 where the writer is describing the years Israel spent in exile, “The land enjoyed its sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah.” Jeremiah 34:8–9 hints at the Year of Jubilee being practiced in part at least, “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.” While Isaiah 5:8 warns the people of buying up the land of others for yourself, “Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land.”

Restoration, renewal, and resurrection have always been part of God’s plan; this is Easter! The Year of Jubilee gives us a glimpse of how the kingdom of God works. Due to the brokenness sin brings, some people and families prosper and do well, while others fall on hard times, into debt, loose their jobs or livelihood, homes, and sometimes even their freedom as they’re forced into placing themselves into slavery in order to pay their debts. Some would go into desperation mode and overwork their land and themselves first, leading to lower crop yields in the long run. The Year of Jubilee is God’s way of offering his people a new start after hard times: Jewish slaves were set free, debts forgiven, the land and its workers were given rest, and the land that had been sold or taken to cover debt was restored to its previous owners.

In this chapter, Moses refers to the Exodus 3 times, reminding the people of who God is and what he’s done for them; this is to be reflected in how they live with each other. They’re reminded that they’re God’s servants, they shall not rule over each other with harshness, and to fear the Lord. The Year of Jubilee is God’s law. The land of Canaan is God’s gift to the Israelites, and even though it was given to them, it always remains God’s land as we read in verse 23, “The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants.”

The principles we find in the Year of Jubilee are: concern for each other, providing for each other, and treating each other with respect. Jubilee provides opportunities for people to have new starts, that large gaps between rich and poor do not become institutionalized. There’s a lot of talk about our K-shaped economy right now where the rich are getting richer and the average person is falling further behind. Jubilee repairs the inequalities that creep into societies over time, and prevents the division of people into classes of nobles and others. Jubilee is about living out concrete applications of Leviticus 19:18, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” Jesus himself quotes this commandment when a lawyer asks him, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest,” and Jesus tells him, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’” Jesus teaches, it’s more blessed to give than to receive; by taking care of the blessings God has given us and sharing them, we acknowledge that they’re not our own.

We see this lived out in the early church in Acts 4, “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.” The early church lived the principles of Jubilee, different social classes recognizing each other as brothers and sisters in Jesus. Living for Jesus is always radical, and we should be challenging ourselves to embrace God’s principles more fully in our lives. Jesus lives this out in his life as John writes in 1 John 3:16–18, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” Love and generosity are key principles of Jubilee, a call for those who have been blessed with much to be generous with those who have little. The resurrection shows us how much God and Jesus love us, that it’s a never-ending love; we’re loved into eternity.

The Year of Jubilee points ahead to Jesus’ return when the full impact of Good Friday and Easter will come into play, when sin is fully washed away and defeated; when Satan and evil is completely defeated and God’s people and creation will experience forgiveness and renewal, and full restoration with God. The Year of Jubilee is given to Israel as a sign of how God’s mercy and grace bring healing, rest, and restoration to all parts of creation.

Jesus gives us glimpses in his ministry, beginning with his claim in Luke 4, “on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus brings in the Year of Jubilee, the messianic age, his return will bring in the perfect kingdom of God in a renewed earth, as John points to in Revelation 21-22.  Paul expands the Year of Jubilee to all of creation in Romans 8:19-21, “For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” By faith in Jesus, we’re brought into Jesus’ mission and called to practice the Jubilee life. Living for Jesus sends us into the world to bring the transformative love of Jesus to the whole world.