Why This Jubilee?

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11

Introduction

I find it fascinating how language changes over time. I often will talk to my children about the slang of their generation, Gen Z speech. It is really strange and often I wish they would just speak English. Having said that, there are ongoing changes and certain words fall in and out of fashion. For example, when is the last time someone has come to you and said “My, you look rather crestfallen.” Most of us would understand what that means but it might not be common language today. On the opposite side is the word jubilation. Jubilation is a synonym for joy. But when is the last time someone asked you how you were doing and you replied “I am filled with jubilation”? There is nothing wrong with that word, it just is not as common as it once was. The word jubilation comes from the word jubilee. We will come back to that one.

Over the past couple of weeks we have been acknowledging that Christmas is not always a festive occasion for people. Very often people are grieving, either because of a lost loved one or other difficult circumstances. But at the same time, I do not want to give off the false impression that there is no place for joy in Christmas. I would say that Christmas points us toward joy even if some of us have a longer journey to feel the emotions that may go with that joy.

In this third Sunday of advent, we are going to focus on joy. Once again we are going to do that by looking at Isaiah and seeing how Jesus fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet. We hope to look at joy in a new way, one that seems attainable even in living in the difficult world that we do.

The Jubilee

In the Isaiah passage, one is speaking in the context of a great hope for the people. There is one who has the Spirit of the Lord upon them. This one is anointed by the Lord. The anointed one in Hebrew is called the Messiah and in Greek is called the Christ. This anointed one is called to preach the good news. This word is the same word that we get the word gospel from. A Spirit-empowered anointed one that preaches the gospel. This is beginning to look familiar.

But before we look too far ahead, we need to take a look back. The speaker talks about bringing about a release of the captives and announcing the year of the Lord’s favour. This seems to be the nature of the gospel that will be preached. This is likely drawing on images of the Jubilee. What is the Jubilee? We have already mentioned the word but it means something specific in the Bible. The Hebrew calendar was very carefully organized, often into sections of seven. We see that in the week with the seventh day being the Sabbath, a day of rest. But this pattern was carried over into the years. On the seventh year, you were to allow the ground to rest from agriculture as they observed a Sabbath year. That is amazing enough but as the old commercials used to promise: “Wait, there’s more!” After a Sabbath of Sabbaths, that is seven sets of seven years, there would be a bonus Sabbath. This would be the fiftieth year, which they celebrated as the Jubilee. One of the major parts of this Jubilee was the forgiveness of debts and freeing of slaves. Think back to a time when you had some significant debt, perhaps a mortgage, car loans, credit card debt. Then imagine that you are informed that all that debt was forgiven, that you owed absolutely nothing. How would you react? Probably with great joy. In fact this is how jubilee became a synonym for joy, in the context of this Hebrew celebration.

Going back to Isaiah, the people were carrying a heavy load. There were terrible things happening to the nation and within the nation. They were looking for God to intervene and to bring a new kind of Jubilee. Not just one that would take care of financial debts but one that would eventually unburden them from that which weighed the heaviest upon them. Could such a thing happen? Isaiah promised that it would and the people looked forward to that day with great joy, even if it was only a promise.

Jubilee Arrives

The problem with the prophecies of Isaiah is that he usually does not tell us when they will be fulfilled. Will they even be fulfilled? Fast forward a number of centuries to a synagogue in Nazareth. 

When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: 

‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
        to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
    and recovery of sight to the blind,
        to let the oppressed go free, 

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’

And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’ (Luke 4:16-21)

This is about as clear as it gets in the Bible. Jesus the Christ is the Anointed One. Jesus had received the Holy Spirit at his baptism. He proclaimed the good news, the gospel of the coming kingdom. He had arrived to proclaim release to the captives and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour. Jesus came to declare that Jubilee had arrived. Now you may say that people are still in debt and there are people enslaved and it looks like many of these things still plague us. I would say two things about this. One is that the coming of Jesus began to chip away at those things even if there is still much work to be done. But I would also say that Jesus began this work on a different level and that Jubilee has come. For example, this passage talks about recovery of sight to the blind. In Isaiah, blindness is often used as an image for the lostness of sin. Jesus is beginning on the spiritual level, even though what he does there will eventually transform everything else. Those who are bound in sin will be released. Freedom is offered. Debts are being forgiven. 

Thirty years before Jesus spoke those words in a synagogue, angels said these words to the shepherds at Jesus’ birth.

‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’ (Luke 2:10-12)

The birth of Jesus was a time of great joy, dare I say jubilation, because the Jubilee was finally appearing. 

Conclusion

Is joy possible at Christmas? It is possible, even if there are areas of our life that are difficult. Joy is not the same thing as happiness. Happiness is dependent on our circumstances. Hopefully things are going well in your life and that happiness comes easy to you. But whether or not that is the case, joy is still available to us. Joy is an option apart from whatever emotions we are experiencing in the moment. Joy is based on something much deeper.

For the Christian, joy is based on what Christ has done for us. We can have jubilation because of the Jubilee. The debt has been paid because of what Jesus did on the cross. That is a burden that we no longer have to carry.