Jesus is the Jubilee!
Sunday, December 28, 2008
It was during a summer sermon series that I first heard of the Jewish celebration called Year of the Jubilee. The pastor at the time made quick reference to Jewish law, and my interest in this radical celebration that came but once every 50 years was piqued.
How perfect that in a candle-lit sanctuary on Christmas Eve, advent wreaths FULLY aglow, my tiny taste of Jubilee was further satiated.
Here's some background on what I'll call "The Poor People's Party":
In Leviticus 25, God commanded the children of Israel to celebrate a year of jubilee for fifty years. This was to a be a time of renewal when the people could be made free of the obligations they had contracted for themselves and for their land. As long as jubilee was practiced, families in Israel did no have to worry about chronic poverty, because they all got a piece of the land.
After the Israelites had spend 80 years as slaves in Egypt, Moses led them out of bondage into the land of Canaan. When they finally made it into Canaan, each tribe and each family was given a piece of the land as a hereditary possession. Since the vast majority of the people who lived prior to the Industrial Revolution were landless, the provision that every family would have their own land to use for their own needs was a remarkably egalitarian and empowering one. It meant that the Israelites had no serf class and no noble class.
Of course, families sometimes fell on hard times and they were sometimes forced to sell all or part of their land to pay their debts. Failing that, they sometimes had to sell themselves or their children into slavery. Thankfully, the Law also provided that a kinsmen redeemer, a close relative, could pay off the debt and buy back the land or buy their family member out of slavery. Of course, not everyone had a relative who was able or willing to pay off their debts, so some people remained doomed to bondage. That is why the Law also provided for a year of jubilee.
Every 50 years, the Israelites were supposed to celebrate a year long festival called the Jubilee. As part of those festivities, all land reverted back to its original owners and all Hebrew slaves were freed. Thus, Jubilee prevented economic hardships from being hereditary. Even if a family fell on hard times, it could start over in less than 50 years. As one might expect, this was a popular holiday for the poor.
The pastor who spoke Christmas Eve also included in the mandate: setting prisoners free. So debts were to be forgiven, land returned to rightful owners, and criminals released. Can you imagine? For many folks, especially those "well to do," Jubilee must have been a major sacrifice, an upsetting season to celebrate. Which is why many didn't observe the Jubilee. It was a major undoing of systems and acceptable norms. Can you imagine: to stop expecting payment from someone whose debts to you were deep? To give back land on which you'd lived for an entire life? To release those who'd broken the law, potentially some who were dangerous, when you'd worked so hard to be faithful? To celebrate the Year of the Jubilee was to allow one's world to be rocked to the core.
How amazing that according to Jewish timetables, the year of Jesus' death and resurrection was a Jubilee Year. In fact, prior to his death Jesus stood before the synogogue of his home town and read the scrolls, proclaiming the Jubilee. He read Isaiah 61:
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. . . . (JUBILEE!)
Jesus = Jubilee= good news for the poor, or for anyone needing a major upheaval to the "expected" way of things.
Religious types may not have kept the Jubilee, but Jesus did (and does)! Today and every day, we can find freedom because the Lord has declared favor over our lives! We are forgiven, set free, released from darkness. . . our broken hearts bound!
This year seems to be my family's Jubilee. I'm eager to participate and reciprocate. This 2009, may LOVE inspire a true somersault of spirit. May I allow JESUS to challenge and undo the predictable systems, schedules, and patterns in my life.
May we all know freedom in a way that sets others free!
