Monday • 5/23/2022

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 80; Leviticus 25:35-55; Colossians 1:9-14; Matthew 13:1-16

This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Pascha Nostrum (“Christ Our Passover,” BCP, p. 83); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 19 (“The Song of the Redeemed,” Revelation 15:3–4, BCP, p. 94)

An audio or video version of this devotional can be found here: Apple Podcast, Spotify Podcast, YouTube

Today is Monday of the 6th Week of Easter. Alleluia! The Lord is risen…!

Israel’s life was always supposed to be a symbol of hope for the world.

So, a few words about the first half of Leviticus 25 (which would have been yesterday’s reading). Every fifty years, Israel was to “proclaim liberty throughout the land … a jubilee for you” (Leviticus 25:10). At the end of last week’s readings in Leviticus, we saw how Israel was instructed to calculate seven weeks between the annual feast of the first fruits (Leviticus 23:9-14) and the annual feast marking the end of the year’s labors (Leviticus 23:15-21). Beyond that, Israel was to mark off, not just her weeks, but her years according to a similar pattern. Every seventh year was to be a sabbatical— (Leviticus 25:1-7). Then after seven cycles of seven years, at the fiftieth year, an additional sabbath year was to be observed. On the Day of Atonement in that fiftieth year, a shophar made from a ram’s horn was to sound, marking the Year of Jubilee. All land was to revert to its ancestral owners. It was to be a time of release for slaves, of the forgiveness of debts, and of additional rest for the land. Israel was to do a complete reset, under the banner of “liberty throughout the land” (Leviticus 25:2-34). It was a vision that never materialized in Israel’s history (see Leviticus 26:34-35; 2 Chronicles 36:21; Jeremiah 25:11-12; 29:10). It never actually controlled Israel’s social life, except around the margins.

The jubilee vision lived on in the prophets, however. Isaiah foresaw the coming of God’s Servant who would proclaim “release for the captive … the year of the Lord’s favor” (Isaiah 61:1-4). And Daniel laid out future history in terms of cycles of sevens that would ultimately lead to “one like a son of man” who would assume all dominion on earth (Daniel 7:9-17; 9:20-27), and who would “put an end to sin, … atone for iniquity, [and] … bring in everlasting righteousness” (Daniel 9:20-27). Accordingly, Jesus proclaims himself to be that very herald of “the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19). And John shapes his book of Revelation around seven cycles of seven, culminating in Jesus Christ’s final defeat of everything evil as he ushers in “a new heaven and a new earth” (Revelation 19-22).

Meanwhile, what takeaways could we possibly have from the Jubilee legislation?

The logic of redemption. A constant refrain in today’s verses from Leviticus 25 is this: “I brought you out of the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 25:38, 42, 55). People who know they have been bought with a price treat others differently: the mercy that has been extended to me—I extend that same mercy for you. The freedom I enjoy as a gift—I want it for you as well. Thus, Israelites were forbidden to charge usurious interest to impoverished fellow Israelites (Leviticus 25:35-38). Fellow Israelites who became reduced to such poverty that they had to sell themselves into slavery were to be given every opportunity to work their way out their indenture (Leviticus 25:39-43, 47-55). As to non-Israelite slaves (Leviticus 25:44-46), the Jubilee-release didn’t apply. God’s covenant was with the Israelites, not with pagans in the land. The dramatic scope of the new covenant is that its gospel extends beyond Israel, to include the nations. As Paul writes: “to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Romans 1;17). When God’s own Son assumed the role of slave (Philippians 2:1-12), he made us all into former-slaves who serve as if slaves, because we are in reality “friends” (John 15:15).

A lasting inheritance. The message of Leviticus 25 and its intended reset of property ownership every fifty years is that as a member of God’s family, I have been given a permanent inheritance—one I cannot sell or give away. In Moses’s day here’s what that sounded like: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, to be your God” (Leviticus 25:38). Since the coming of Christ, here’s what that promise of inheritance sounds like: “By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:3b-5).

One day, everything else I acquire in this life will go away, and I will discover that my Father’s inheritance is the one truly valuable thing I have. At the heart of that inheritance is this truth: “… to be your God” (Leviticus 25:38b).

Be blessed this day.

Reggie Kidd+

Image: "The antique inheritance tortures the overtone." by TheRealMichaelMoore is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.