Returning from the wilderness under the direction of the Spirit, Jesus begins
to proclaim what His kingdom looks like. In order to articulate the vision
of the Kingdom that He proclaims, Jesus proceeds to go to the synagogue in
Nazareth and publicly reads from a text in Isaiah (61:1-2).
In order to understand the profound and radical nature of what Jesus is saying
about this Kingdom, the backdrop of jubilee should be understood. The language
of the jubilee celebration invades this passage: good news to the poor, release
to captives, recovery of sight to the blind, freedom for the oppressed. This
season was indeed "the year of the Lord's favor."
The practice of jubilee would have had profound economic and political connotations.
Described in Leviticus 25 and 27, this year, celebrated every 50 years, came
to be known as the year of the ram's horn or the year of the trumpet. With
the loud blast of the shophar (ram's horn) on the tenth day of the seventh
month, the year of jubilee began. During this year, liberty was to be proclaimed
throughout the land (Leviticus 25:10). Due to crop failure, drought, famine,
and disease, land tenants would have been unable to pay off loans made to
them at the beginning of the planting season. As a result, they would become
increasingly in debt. After several years of such disasters, the farmer would
have no option but first to "loan" his son or daughter to the one
to whom the debt was owed and eventually himself, thus becoming a debt-slave.
However, the year of jubilee would bring an end to all of that: land would
be returned, and debt-slaves would be released. Indeed, this season was good
news to the poor; it was the season of the Lord's favor--the season of grace!
As Jesus uses this familiar passage for His inaugural message of the Kingdom,
He establishes a sharp contrast with the dominant culture. In a culture where
indebtedness was the rule of life, this declaration turned everything upside
down. In a society where people owe both gods and other people, Jesus announces
a season where the status quo is overturned. In a culture where the blind
remain blind, light has come. The ram's horn has sounded; debts have been
canceled! Indeed, this is good news to those who could never pay off their
debt; it is freedom for the enslaved; it is sight to the blind.
According to Jesus, this season is no longer on the horizon; it is now (v.
21). Kingdom time has arrived! Therefore, Kingdom people know what it means
to pray, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors" (Matthew
6:12, KJV).
We live in a world of settled answers and comfortable maintenance. Because
the oppressed are too weak to overcome, they remain oppressed. Because the
poor are too impoverished to buy their way out of the gutter, they remain
poor. And because the imprisoned are too bound to unlock their chains, they
remain imprisoned. We get comfortable with the way things are and conclude
that this is the way things will always be. How are the people of God to view
this world of settled realities where debts will always be owed and grievances
will always be remembered?
Into the midst of this world of settled realities, the ram's horn sounds and
the message of the Kingdom is pronounced: "Your debts are canceled!"
In Jesus Christ, Kingdom time has arrived! The season of jubilee is not about
oppressed people becoming strong enough to overcome, nor is it about poor
people becoming rich enough to pay their debts, nor is it about prisoners
becoming capable of unlocking their chains. Instead, Kingdom time is about
people who, while they "were [still] dead in [their] trespasses and sins"
(Ephesians 2:1, KJV), oppressed, poor, blind, and imprisoned, have been declared
forgiven! God creates a community of forgiveness: people who are forgiven
and people who forgive.
We hear the good news of the Kingdom: "Your debts are canceled."
We no longer live by performing enough, achieving enough, doing enough, and
giving enough. We come to accept the reality that indeed we are living in
"Kingdom time." This is the season of the Lord's favor; it is the
season of grace.
We declare the good news of the Kingdom by canceling the debts. We no longer
live our lives waiting for others to pay up. Rather, forgiveness becomes the
fabric of our relationships in the church, the home, the school, the workplace,
and the community.
(For a full manuscript of this sermon, go to www.preachersmagazine.org.)
This sermon might most appropriately be delivered by recreating the situation
into which the message of jubilee is heard. The account could begin with describing
the loud, shrill blow of the ram's horn, and the great meaning as that sound
is heard throughout the countryside. The story could then proceed to describe
a specific situation (that certainly would have been repeated thousands of
times in ancient Israel) of a tenant farmer who also hears the shrill blow
of the horn, knowing what that sound means. A rehearsal could begin being
given of the manner in which this farmer had over time become a debt-slave.
One drought followed by another eventually led to a point of desperation in
which the farmer's teenage son was sold as a debt-slave; as the debt continued
to accumulate, the farmer himself was sold into debt-slavery. However, with
the blowing of the horn, a family reunion was on the horizon; freedom was
in sight; poverty was invaded with good news of the Lord's favor.
From this account, the sermon would then move into the anticipation of the
people for such a season of jubilee for centuries. The passage Jesus reads
had become the description of what this season would look like. But now, after
reading this familiar passage, Jesus declares: "This is now fulfilled."
The final movement of the sermon would then enter into the present. As Kingdom
people, we continue to declare that the ram's horn is blowing, that this is
the time of jubilee, and all debts are canceled. Where we have owed for what
we have done, this is the season of the Lord's favor. Where others have been
in obligation to us for what they have done, this is the season of forgiveness.
The sermon would conclude by describing what jubilee would then look like
in common situations such as the home, the workplace, and the church.
