Jubilee: The Great Equalizer

Inspired by God’s command that Israel proclaim liberty every 50 years (Leviticus 25), we planned, prepared, and are now fully engaged in three months of gospel outreach to 20 types of Jewish audiences around the world. This all-out effort to reach so many diverse communities comes from a heart of thanks to God for bringing Jews for Jesus to our 50th year of ministry.

The more I focus on God’s gift of Jubilee to ancient Israel, the more excited I am to see how beautifully it parallels His gift of salvation in Jesus.

All-Encompassing Social and Spiritual Benefits

God designed the Jubilee to accomplish a grand sweep of dramatic changes—changes that would touch every heart and every aspect of life in Israel. Jubilee was to span all social levels reminding us that all we have and all we are comes from God and belongs to Him.

God was laying the foundation for a far-reaching renewal throughout the entire community of Israel. He designed the Jubilee to upend and dismantle the social hierarchies that create inequitable relationships. Every part of the Israelite economy would be deeply impacted as debts were forgiven, slaves set free, and land returned to original owners. Jubilee was to be the great equalizer in the best possible way, reminding us that as individuals and a nation, we were no more and no less than humble servants of the Most High God.

So why didn’t Israel fully and forever integrate the Jubilee into national life? Probably for the same reasons that most people today would balk at such a system. We can speculate that the Jubilee’s equalizing effect would have been far more appealing to some than to others, and that those with the power to carry out the requirements would have had the most to lose. Ultimately divisions, wars, and finally captivity prevented the Jewish people from receiving the great gift that the Jubilee was meant to be.

God’s gifts are not always easy to recognize at first, and He does not force them upon us. That was true of the Jubilee, and it is certainly true of the gospel.

Yet the gospel actually accomplished what the Jubilee could only point to: true freedom. And the freedom we have in our Messiah is the great equalizer because it reminds us of three truths that apply to every human being, regardless of our position in life.

We Are All Created in the Image of God

This amazing revelation in Genesis 1:26 establishes a uniqueness that sets us apart from the animals—but it also grants us equality with one another when it comes to the image of God that we share as human beings. This levels the playing field. Rather than being diminished by that leveling, we have all been raised up by it. Being created in God’s image is a gift, so we have no cause for boasting or pride. But it is also the basis for dignity, equality, and human rights for us all—regardless of social or political dictates.

We derive our highest joy and meaning from God, in whose image we are made. We also suffer our worst loss when we turn away from Him. In the Narnia series by C. S. Lewis, Aslan tells Prince Caspian, “You come of the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve, and that is both honor enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth.”1

We All Stand Equally Condemned Before a Holy God

To understand and enjoy our shared freedom in Messiah, we need to see and admit that we are all sinners in need of salvation. The implication of the Jubilee was that sinful human beings breed dysfunction through greed, pride, and other common failings that thwarted the kind of relationships God wanted His people to have with Him and with one another.

Even so, freedom in Jesus begins by recognizing that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Addressing sin is necessary because sin stands in the way of human flourishing—it alienates us first from God, and then from one another. When I admit that I am a sinner, I embrace the fact that I stand with my fellow human beings, equally guilty before the Lord and equally in need of His grace and forgiveness. When we see that all people, including ourselves, are tainted by original sin, the results, as G. K. Chesterton wrote, “are pathos and brotherhood and a thunder of laughter and pity; for only with original sin we can at once pity the beggar and distrust the king.”2

We All Stand Equally Redeemed if We Receive God’s Gracious Pardon through Faith in Jesus

No human status or resources can earn the redemption that is ours in Jesus. “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Isaiah 55:1). The riches of God’s salvation are freely available in the gospel. God tells us that He doesn’t want anyone to perish but desires that all should come to Him.

Liberty, equality, and fraternity are not merely the failed promises of the French Revolution or any other human endeavors to fix this broken world. True liberty, equality, and fraternity are the fruit of the ultimate revolution, anticipated by the Jubilee and fulfilled in Messiah Jesus. Through His death, burial, and resurrection, sin and its effects were upended, and true freedom and justice are available to Israel and all the nations: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:1–2). Hallelujah!

For 50 years, God has enabled Jews for Jesus to proclaim this good news to our Jewish people around the world. Tens of thousands of Jewish people have come to know Messiah, and you have been a partner with us in that great endeavor. Thank you for standing with us in this jubilee year as well. We long to see people all around the world find freedom in Jesus. What a privilege it is to be messengers of that good news!

Endnotes

1 C. S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (New York: Harper Collins, 2002), 232.

2 G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (Independently published: 2020), 362.