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I'm fascinated by the fact that God instituted the Jubilee as a key element of His covenant with the Israelites. Even if the practice may no longer be required in the New Covenant, it is the job of a responsible student of the Bible to ask what it shows about God's heart.
God sets a "sabbath of sabbaths" to be a regular part of His covenant people's liturgical calendar. This sabbath to the nth degree was a sabbath of liberation, redistribution, and equity.
God's heart was that His people would be able to come back to a clean slate of equity and
God's heart was that His people would be able to come back to a clean slate of equity and
brotherhood in the midst of a sin-filled and fallen world. The land and its resources ultimately belonged to God, so God may redistribute it as He wishes. God wanted His people to have their land returned to them and cycles of poverty eliminated.
God is not pleased with seeing
God is not pleased with seeing
those with too much and others with too little. He is not pleased when people are so desperate that they have to give their homes and their selves in order to survive. He wanted His people to see that He was a God who redistributes and brings down the high and lifts up the low.
In Christ in the New Covenant is the fulfillment of both the Day of Atonement and the Jubilee. He not only atones for our sins once and for all, but He brings about a new reality of equity and brotherhood/sisterhood in His body, the church. This is why the early church had a
practice of sharing their belongings with one another (cf. Acts 2). Their relationship with their "stuff" was radically altered by their encounter with Jesus, such that anyone who is united to Jesus should have a share in the communal belongings.
This Jubilee ethic shaped
This Jubilee ethic shaped
the way the early church understood their relationship to the world around them. Pagans saw them as completely out of their minds for wasting their time, treasure, and talent on widows, the poor, strangers, and the outcast. The unwanted and undesirables were cared for by
Christians who gave generously and showed divine hospitality. Their "economics" changed because of their encounter with Jesus.
In places and times throughout history, Christians have tried to revive this ethic of Jubilee in the church and beyond its walls. In the best
In places and times throughout history, Christians have tried to revive this ethic of Jubilee in the church and beyond its walls. In the best
examples, Christians saw the ethic of Jubilee in the church as something that should be at least somewhat consistent with their ethic outside of the church with the unbelieving world. If God wishes for equity and redistribution of money and power within the church, the church had
a calling to make this Jubilee burst onto the scene of a weary world, at least as a glimpse and a foretaste. If the ultimate "good life" is of equity and peace, the church should be at work creating little glimpses of this "good life" in the world if they truly want to love
their neighbors.
Does this mean that the Bible recommends a socialist-leaning economy? That's an anachronistic question and also requires a deeper set of specific questions about specific policies.
However, at the very least, the Bible's Jubilee ethic should deeply challenge
Does this mean that the Bible recommends a socialist-leaning economy? That's an anachronistic question and also requires a deeper set of specific questions about specific policies.
However, at the very least, the Bible's Jubilee ethic should deeply challenge
our assumptions that capitalism and Christianity fit like a hand in a custom made glove. The ethic of Jubilee at many points stands cross-wise with an absolute free market, lassaiz-faire capitalism as well as an economic ideal based on the primary benefit of the uber rich
with an altruistic assumption that it would trickle down to those at the bottom of the socioeconomic spectrum. It also challenges views of poverty that assume that the poor have done it all to themselves. It challenges *ultimate* private property rights because ultimately,
everything belongs to Jesus and we're called to be His servants and stewards of what belongs to Him, and that may mean at times to give what is His to those who need it more than we do.
Jubilee challenges our American capitalistic assumptions, and if we don't let it do some
Jubilee challenges our American capitalistic assumptions, and if we don't let it do some
deep soul-searching and reorient our ideas and ideals, we're missing out on opportunities for God to grow us and stretch us in ways that He wishes for us.
