What is the jubilee? Why do we pretend it is impossible? And why are we afraid of it? Because it is true freedom.
Episode 28 of the Make Saints podcast: “Jubilee”
the episode script
With all the talk of the Queen’s Jubilee in England, it seems like a good time to think about what the jubilee is in the Bible.
Which, ironically, looks more like a people’s revolution than a monarch’s celebration.
The Overview
The Jubilee is described in Leviticus as a kind of intentional resorting of the world that restores and reclaims. It is very intentionally a thing about property and resources. So, in that way, it is specifically economic in scope.
But notice also how deeply theological it is. When we talk about restoration, we aren’t merely talking about, say, a simple, single transaction. We are talking about God’s commitment to Shalom: peace, justice, health, wholeness. God’s order is toward restoration.
In a sense, the concept behind the Jubilee is to bring wholeness and life to people whose lives have been destroyed and preyed upon.
It is the original call to overturn the tables of the moneychangers.
That’s the overview.
Let’s look at what the Bible says.
The Jubilee is described in the Hebrew book of Leviticus, the third book of the Pentateuch. We generally know of Leviticus as the book with all the rules and the one people use to condemn people. So, you might be under the impression that Leviticus is not a “good vibes” book. But dismissing Leviticus means missing incredible stuff like this:
Leviticus 25 begins with the description of the Sabbatical year:
“The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying: Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land shall observe a sabbath for the Lord. For six years you shall sow your field, and for 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: 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 labourers who live with you; for your livestock also, and for the wild animals in your land all its yield shall be for food.”
Leviticus 25.1-7
Then it goes into the Jubilee:
“You shall count off seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the period of seven weeks of years gives forty-nine years. Then you shall have the trumpet sounded loud; on the tenth day of the seventh month—on the day of atonement—you shall have the trumpet sounded throughout all your land. 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 25:8–13
So if we’re following along:
Every person gets time off every week. No excuses. Bosses don’t get to make you come in on Saturday or stay late. Nobody “grinds” or does a “side hustle” to get a leg up. Because rest is that essential.
But rest doesn’t just go to citizens. It goes to everybody. And everything. So all people get sabbath. All livestock and fields get sabbath.
That’s one day each week. Then after six years, all of creation gets a sabbath year. So all that is good gets rest and restoration. To heal. And grow.
Then after seven sabbath years, we get a special year: the Jubilee. And in this everything gets reset.
You bought some land? It goes back. You went broke? Not anymore. But the point is that everyone gets to go home. Everyone. No matter what.
For many, this is a scary proposition. It doesn’t seem fair.
The bold impact of the Jubilee is obviously economic.
But it remains theologically grounded.
The jubilee is an economic revolution that specifically relates to the material interests of the people. So of course it will be economic. Because the mass of people’s struggle stems from their economic conditions. Throughout the vast expanse of history, the poor suffered in their poverty!
This is precisely because the economic conditions of populations will go toward exploitation. The landed few will collect from the many. Wealth will stream upward.
The promise of restoration in the Jubilee is not that half of the people won’t like the Jubilee. It’s that about 10% won’t like the Jubilee. And of that 10%, the top 0.1% won’t like it because they will lose lots of property. And the next 9.9% won’t like it because they will no longer be special.
But as for everyone else? We would get what is ours. And we would get to go home again.
The Jubilee is a community reset.
It is cause for celebration because the Jubilee is about rest and restoration. It is about restoring justice and equity to our community. And as much as it may sound a lot like social engineering or wealth distribution (which it totally is), it actually has the long view in mind.
Our problem with fully understanding the Jubilee is that we think about it as a singular moment. We’re probably wondering how it would work and what would happen if this coming fall, we had to prepare for the big reset. Who are the winners and who are the losers? How does it play out? What are the politics? How do we get rich people to go along with it?
This view is so devoid of context, it is criminal. Because we aren’t thinking about this as natural or how things work or even what God commands. We’re treating it like a pipe dream that would just be too disruptive rather than normal. As the thing we’re supposed to do. As the way God intends it.
It’s like being told you need to get an oil change every 5,000 miles, then getting to 4,998 and going “why didn’t anyone tell me?” Our existential fear of the Jubilee is unreasonable. Because it isn’t based in a sense of commitment to the restoring love of God.
God wants equity.
So God came up with a scheme that would let the poor get their property back. Rather than let all of the wealth flow up forever, the plan is to bring it back down. Not in a trickle, but a flood.
To free us. Free us from poverty. From servitude and work that prevents our flourishing. Giving us more than opportunity: but genuine peace.
For Jubilee is Sabbath. It is the ultimate Sabbath. It is restoring all things. Bringing justice, peace, wholeness to all of creation.
A promise that if anything gets out of whack and the wealthy and powerful get out of hand again, all that exploitation will end. Freedom will be restored. And all of God’s people can live in peace.
This is the foundation of what Jesus called the Kingdom of God. What we might now call Sabbath for All.