Dear Friends,
As the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, it is reassuring at least to know that our Lord Jesus remained faithful to God’s bias for the poor. In the Old Testament, God encouraged kindness towards strangers and widows in the land (e.g. Ruth’s story). And this theme is continued in the New Testament from Mary, the mother of Jesus in the words of the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) and then throughout Jesus’ ministry beginning with His reading and preaching His first sermon in the synagogue in Nazareth. Perhaps the shortest sermon He ever preached.
Luke 4:14-22 records the occasion. It immediately follows His temptation in the desert and begins by telling us that He is led by the Spirit. And Luke tells us, Jesus reads from the prophet Isaiah,
18 “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,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”[f]
The year of the Lord’s favor is another way of describing the Year of Jubilee. God’s design for Israel’s economy that every fifty years, debts are forgiven, lands and property are returned to their original owners.
I wonder if we were to implement a year of Jubilee, how would it be applied ?Would there be a restoration of land to its rightful owners, such as a return of land to indigenous peoples? Could debts be forgiven? And would that include all debts including student debts? Would there be reparations for the descendants of slaves? Is that what God meant when He told Isaiah to write what he did?
There is no doubt that if God’s bias to the poor was implemented today, and debts were forgiven we all might witness a liberation of the oppressed, and a lifting up of the downtrodden. Of course, those gifted with the ability to make and create wealth would soon rise again, but the rest of us who are more moderately gifted would appreciate a second chance, another bite at the cherry and a new beginning.
Pastor Cliff