Have any of you ever met a warrior?
There are many men and woman who really do have the “blood of justice on their garments,” soldiers, police officers, guards … warriors. Have you ever had an opportunity to listen to their stories, what it took to fulfill their mission, the heartache, the strength and courage, to be the ones in front, protecting all the rest of us from evil? For the love of justice, for the love of family and country, they are willing to be our protectors.
This is the picture of God’s Anointed One that Isaiah sought to convey in this chapter.
The Lord’s Favor
At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus went to visit his hometown, and stayed a few days in order to celebrate the Sabbath, preparing to worship at the synagogue where he had grown up. A typical synagogue service began with the Shema:
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
Deuteronomy 6:4 (NRSVUE)
Next would come a set of long prayers. After this the synagogue leader would approach the Ark (a special container in the manner of the Ark in the temple) and bring out a scroll from the sacred writings. All present would kiss the scroll as it was unwrapped before the hearing of God’s word.
Seven people (often men, but sometimes women) would then be selected to read from the Law and the Prophets. First a portion from the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, would be read, and then a section from the Prophets. After the reading of the scriptures someone would be invited to teach on the passages. The ancient Jews highly valued good preaching, so this was always considered an honor. It was at this point that Jesus picked up the scroll and read words from this chapter of the book of Isaiah.
“The spirit of the Lord God is upon me
Isaiah 61:1-2 (NRSVUE)
because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives
and release to the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
As Luke described the scene,
“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 4:20-21 (NRSVUE)
It was an amazingly short, but stunningly powerful sermon.
John the Baptist had confirmed that Jesus was anointed by the Spirit at Jesus’ baptism, as the Gospels relate,
“And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw God’s Spirit descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from the heavens said, “’This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’”
Matthew 3:17 (NRSVUE)
The line that comes next in Isaiah 61:2 is and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn. Jesus stopped on purpose before announcing the day of God’s vengeance, because he had come to proclaim the year of God’s favor, a reference to the Jubilee. As the apostle John said,
“God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
John 3:17 (NRSVUE)
Jubilee began at the cross, when Jesus’s death and resurrection wiped out all debts, set every slave and prisoner free, and returned to people their inheritance as God’s own.
Jubilee
The Year of Jubilee is described in the book of Leviticus.
When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land shall observe a Sabbath for the Lord.
Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in their yield, but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land, a Sabbath for the Lord:
Leviticus 25:2-7 (NRSVUE)
- you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard.
- You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your unpruned vine:
- it shall be a year of complete rest for the land.
- You may eat what the land yields during its Sabbath—you, your male and female slaves, your hired and your bound laborers who live with you, for your livestock also, and for the wild animals in your land all its yield shall be for food.
Crop rotation was an unknown concept in ancient times, but when God instituted the Sabbath Year, God did it so that the land could benefit from resting, and the soil would be replenished. People were not to work the fields or have organized harvests, but whatever the land produced naturally, anyone could come and get enough to have a meal from it. The idea was that every person living in Israel would be God’s guest at God’s table, the poor, the sojourner, everybody.
Not only did the land rest, but so did the people and farm animals. The normal activities that go with farming and animal husbandry, besides just taking care of their animals’ basic needs, were prohibited—animals were not to be worked and servants were not to be worked.
Deuteronomy 15 gives some added thoughts on the Sabbath Year: all debts were to be canceled, all Israelite slaves were to be freed. Every Sabbath year, during the Feast of Tabernacles, when all the Israelites came in to Jerusalem to celebrate the final harvest and give thanks for God’s provision in the desert, they would also have a Bible conference. The people would receive special instruction from the priests, teaching them God’s word in an organized way and the whole rest of the year would be holy, dedicated to the Lord.
The Jubilee year was the Sabbath of Sabbaths.
In the Jubilee Year the ram’s horn would announce the Day of Atonement, then on the Day of Atonement the ram’s horn would announce the Year of Jubilee.
“And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you:
“you shall return, every one of you, to your property and every one of you to your family.
“That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee for you: you shall not sow or reap the aftergrowth or harvest the unpruned vines. For it is a Jubilee; it shall be holy to you: you shall eat only what the field itself produces.
“In this year of Jubilee you shall return, every one of you, to your property.”
Leviticus 25:10-13 (NRSV, emphases added)
There is a long period of time between God’s favor and the day of judgment yet to come, and you and I are living in this interval right now.
