The word ‘Jubilee’ brings to our mind celebrations of past glory, seasons of festivity, extravagance, joyous expressions and similar activities and feelings. There is a tendency to forget the past and indulge in the present luxurious expressions. Many use such occasions to hide or forget the present pain or sorrow or failures under well camouflaged events. We see such celebrations everywhere and many of us are moving from one celebration to another daily, even comparing one celebration with the other. However, ‘Jubilee’ in the Bible addresses the realities surrounding the community. It focuses on specific interventions where wholesome restoration is envisioned and the poor and marginalised are cared for, protected and empowered.
Jubilee is celebrated by bringing all sabbaths together. The seventh day of the week was set apart as sabbath beginning in Genesis 2: 2-3. The first sabbath immediately after the creation was a perfect and restful experience. The earth and all in it and the work of human beings, to take care of God’s creation, were in perfect rhythm and harmony. However, the sabbaths after the fall were addressing all deteriorated conditions and the jubilee addresses all possible exploitative and oppressive situations.
God gave the sabbath as a commandment to keep it as holy and for complete rest for all, especially for those who worked. This can be seen in Exodus 20: 8-11. In Exodus 23: 12, we can see the idea of everyone and everything to become refreshed by practicing the sabbath. “Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and so that the slave born in your household and the foreigner living among you may be refreshed” Exodus 23:12. Apart from this weekly sabbath, it was observed on days of different festivals even by denying oneself (Leviticus. 23). Therefore, Sabbath was integral in the routine life of the Israelites where they were continually refreshed and renewed.
The sabbath year was also observed every seventh year. “For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, but during the seventh year let the land lie unploughed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what is left. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.” Exodus 23:10-11. In Leviticus 25:1-7, though the rest for the Land is emphasized here, may be for better production, we see the workload is reduced for all workers, servants and slaves. The poor among them is a new category introduced here and the whole idea of freedom for them to enter the land to get food is good news for them.
The seven sabbath years together is celebrated in the fiftieth year as Jubilee. “Count off seven sabbath years —seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbath years amount to a period of forty-nine years. Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan” Leviticus 25:8,10. The returning of them to their family property is a new issue which is raised here. It shows that their land might be sold due to various needs in their life. “The Land must not be sold permanently because the land is mine and you reside in my land as foreigners and strangers. Throughout the land that you hold as possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land.” Leviticus 25:23,24. If one becomes poor and is unable to redeem, a relative is to come and redeem the property and everyone needs to return to their property during Jubilee. People who sold themselves are also to be redeemed and if not are to be released in the year of Jubilee. The chapter explains how the value/price must be calculated, how they need to help one another to support even without interest and how they need to rebuild a community with enough resources without exploitation. A restored and reconciled community is the vision of Jubilee.
The sabbath as a commandment envisions freedom to all human beings and the whole creation. Rest as the rule and as a holy exercise in sabbath is contrary to the worldly work culture of competition, exploitation and restlessness. The sabbaths during festivals are the message to the people to repent and renew even by denying themselves and remain as a community of hope. The sabbath year exposes their sin of the exploitation of the land and a social structure where people become poor. But Jubilee gives a hope and good news to the poor to enter the land and get their food. The Jubilee exposes the structural sin of exploitation where the whole economy of the community was disturbed and shattered yet the redemption of the people and land were envisioned. It also challenges the exploitation of land even by the state saying that the land belongs to God (not to Pharaoh) and it has to go back to the people.
The pain of the slaves, labourers and workers with lots of burden on them are being addressed in Sabbaths and Jubilee. The groaning of the land and the rest of the creation are being heard through the sabbaths and Jubilee. The roaring of the powerful to grab the land, the devastating agony of people because of debt, homelessness, landlessness and displacement are also shown as a reality through Jubilee. Jubilee opens the window of restoration to people beyond Israelites by including foreigners and pointing towards the whole world because the Lord is the Lord of all. As Sabbaths and Jubilee are addressing and challenging these issues with adequate warning and provisions from God, let us look at the reality around and be true representatives of God to address them and to redeem and liberate by experiencing the pain and agony of the people. Therefore, let our Jubilee celebration be a time of confession of our failures, rather than bragging about the past achievements. It should be a time when we undo many things which we shouldn’t have done, restore all relationships and be a redemptive voice of the people around.
JUBILEE (A Series on Jubilee as TRACI Celebrates 50 years, 1975-2025)
Mathew Varughese serves as consultant in TRACI.
Having served as Director of TRACI, he continues to guide TRACI through theological reflections and critical discussions.