This Good Friday I want to share with you something God’s been teaching me since the very beginning of my time on the race. Something God’s been directing us all to since the very beginning of creation that has brought me immense joy and freedom as I’ve learned about it. To do so I need to give some Bible background – so please stay with me! So lets start at the beginning where Abba spoke, Jesus acted, and the Holy Spirit empowered all things to be created and established. In Genesis 1, Yahweh creates the earth, the heavens, the sea and land, plants, the sun and moon, animals, and Adam and Eve. It was a busy week, and in Genesis 2 God rested – in His immense kindness to us He set a precedent of rest and enjoyment of all the good He has created. I love Sabbath a lot and its a practice I’ve been cultivating for a few years – if you’ve never tried it I’d highly recommend trying to spend an entire day of rest in God (not lazy rest like the world does – maybe I’ll write another blog on what I’ve learned about how to Sabbath soon). Anyways, God sets this blessing of Sabbath at the very beginning and as He calls His chosen people, Israel, He also mandates that they must obey and keep the Sabbath holy (set apart). As He gives them laws to set them apart from all other nations, the Sabbath becomes a major part of Jewish life. Each week they are to rest from all work and be with God, but He continues setting apart special “sabbaths” in different forms. In Leviticus 25 God creates a Sabbath year – every seventh year the people are to take an entire year of rest for the land and for themselves. It requires a lot of trust in Gods provision, but in a willing and trustful heart it would be a beautiful year of re-centering on God and simply receiving His blessing. The last of these Sabbath practices is the year of Jubilee – this is what I would love to share with you about in this blog.
In Leviticus 25, after God creates the Sabbath year, He establishes a year of rest and restoration more beautiful and full than this year. The year of Jubilee would take place after the seventh Sabbath year – so in the 49th year (7 times 7) Israel had a normal Sabbath year, but the fiftieth year became the year of Jubilee. In this year Israel entered into an extended period of rest and trust in God, and they also had a few more things that were to take place. Jubilee not only brought rest, it brought freedom and liberty to the people. All debts were to be forgiven and forgotten. All Jews who had sold themselves into slavery to pay for debts were to be set free. Any land that had been sold over the years was to be returned to the family who had originally inherited it when the nation of Israel entered their land. God knew that as humans we would make choices that left us in different forms of captivity and that we would find ourselves in situations we were never intended to live in. So this year, which is also referred to as the year of the Lord’s favor, functioned as a full reset and refresh for God’s people. It was such a beautiful gift.
To proclaim the year of Jubilee the Priests were instructed to blow a horn at the end of the day of atonement in the 50th year. The day of atonement took place 10 days into each new year and was dedicated to atoning for the sins of Israel. This was the only day the high priest entered the innermost sanctuary where God’s presence dwelt. The priest had to enter with blood and sacrifices to satisfy the payment required for our sin. The wrath of God can be hard to swallow and understand, but we have to remember our God is a just God. His heart loves justice and mercy and peace, but humankind made a decision in the garden that broke our ability to stand in His holiness. The Old Testament gives many stories and proclamations of God’s wrath, but if you read it you will find it also gives a way out of the punishments we have always deserved for our sin. Each time the people stumble and struggle God provides the next step of His way out, and eventually we reach today. Good Friday – the ultimate way out. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
In Isaiah 61 the prophet foretells the Lords completion of His plans since the fall of creation. The prophecies of Isaiah point to Jesus and the restoration of all things through Him, but chapter 61 is my favorite (I also love 60 & 62 – give them a read!). It’s my favorite because it alludes to the year of Jubilee, to the year of Yahweh’s favor. You’ve already read through my long explanation of what this year was to be, but what I haven’t mentioned yet is that theres not actually any proof in the Bible that Israel ever upheld it. God gave a beautiful gift that His people didn’t receive by their own choice. In Isaiah’s prophecy, he proclaims that the year of the Lord’s favor is coming – Yahweh Himself will proclaim this year because His priests and people have neglected to. This scripture paints the most beautiful picture of restoration and healing for God’s entire creation.
In Luke 4 the Lord’s anointed, precious precious Jesus, picks up the scroll of Isaiah and reads the beginning of this prophecy;
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,” (4:18)
In the presence of His family and friends He asserts that the all-powerful Holy Spirit has rested on Him, and that He has come to bring the restoration and healing promised.
What does He do next? He calls to sinful men, makes them clean, and with them at His side He turns the perception fo God’s Kingdom upside down. He cleanses the leper. He calls the dead out of their tombs. The smallest touch of His simple robe heals and restores the sick and broken hearted. He proves that in the presence of the Lord no darkness or sickness or death or shame can stand. But that’s just the beginning! When Jesus came to this world He limited the power He had as God and chose to live as a human, and He did incredible wonders, but He was still just a man and His desire was that as simple mankind we could also live in freedom and authority and intimacy with Abba. In this broken human state the Creator of the universe chose to perform His long-awaited victory so that the wonders wouldn’t end. To do that He died.
The Lord’s anointed, the one filled with the full power of God, the one who boldly proclaimed the Spirit of Yahweh was upon Him to bring in liberation, was beaten almost to death, humiliated at the feet of His people, and pinned to the cross to suffer and die. He hung there in pain – not just the physical pain of the torture He endured, but in deep spiritual anguish over the world and all of His people held in captivity to sin and death. And then He gave over His spirit – HE GAVE IT. As the spotless lamb and only truly innocent one in this earth, death had no power to even touch Him! Jesus didn’t die because the Romans and Jewish authorities killed Him, He didn’t die because He consented to be killed on the cross; Jesus died because He handed over His spirit to death. In the gospel of John, Jesus in His last breath cries out “Tetelestai” which means “It is finished”. On this day of atonement Jesus as our High Priest atoned for our sin with His own innocent blood. Just as the priests of Israel did, He entered the Holy of Holies to minister to God, and as He did He tore the veil that kept us from the presence of God. With His last breath He blew the horn that signals to the people that Jubilee, the Year of God’s favor, is upon us. At that sound the slaves and captives were released and sent into their freedom. At that sound debts were forgiven and the land was restored to its owners – to us. At that sound we are called to rejoicing and celebration. At that sound we are called into rest from our toiling and trust in God’s provision. Jesus hung on that tree and used every piece of strength in His broken body and sounded the horn in the earth. “It is finished!” The separation from God is finished. The time of captivity and slavery to sin and death is finished. The life stuck under the enemy and his evil is finished. Jubilee extends an invitation to come into God and inherit our freedom and blessing. Today as we stand in remembrance of our King dying on the cross I’m held in this mixture of emotions. My spirit rejoices at the restoration of Jubilee that Jesus’ final cry brought, and my spirit also mourns the cruelty and evil my Savior took on for my sake, took on for your sake. I believe both of these emotions are important and essential to hold so that my praise and gratitude can honor and glorify God more fully. Yahweh loves to turn our mourning into rejoicing, He loves to be our comforter and provider. So today I will receive that gift – I will mourn the death of my King and sit with Him learning and meditating on all He endured so that He could declare the year of the Lord’s favor. And on Sunday I will step into full rejoicing as we celebrate God’s promise to restore us as He did Jesus, and look forward to what Christ offers me in this life and the next. I will celebrate the coming completion of all things when Jesus comes back to fulfill the end of the prophecy from Isaiah, the pieces that come after where He finished reading in Luke. I can only truly rejoice in what that means for my life if I first meditate on all it required today. I can only fully enjoy the beauty of the promises in Isaiah 61 if I first dwell in the cost of my freedom and liberation.
