Sound the Trumpet of Jubilee
A sermon based on Leviticus 25:8-10
Wednesday, December 3, 2008 – Midweek Advent
In one short year Yeshi went from living the dream as a wealthy land owner to becoming slave. That year, an economic crisis of astronomical proportions hit his operations. The rains didn't come. The crop failed. He had nothing to sell. He had nothing to eat. Worse yet—his wife and small children had nothing to eat. It pained him to see them hungry, to see them grow weak and tired. He no longer heard the playful sounds of laughing and singing in his home. The hunger pains drove those sounds away. He wanted to provide for his family, but nothing would grow in the dry ground that was his. He would not steal and so dishonor the Lord, but he didn't know what to do.
Then he heard that on the other side of town a wealthy man had storage bins. He had food. And though Yeshi had nothing to offer in exchange for that food except his small plot of land and himself, he was already ruined. His family had to eat. So he went to the wealthy man and pleaded with him for food. The man was kind and offered a fair price of food and shelter in exchange for Yeshi's land and for his servitude. Yeshi took the offer with abundant thanks. His pride, his land and his freedom were all gone, but his children wouldn't die.
Then, 38 long, hard, laborious years later, Yeshi heard the ram's horn—the shofar—sound. And what joy filled his heart! He knew what that sound meant! Today was Yom Kippur—the Day of Atonement. But this particular year it was special. This year was the fiftieth. This year was the Year of Jubilee! Today, Yeshi and his (now fully grown) children gained their freedom! Today, Yeshi got his land back! Today, Yeshi had a brand new start! No wonder he was in such high spirits to hear the trumpet of Jubilee!
Listen now to the institution of the Year of Jubilee recorded for us in Leviticus 25…
8 " 'Count off seven sabbaths of years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbaths of years amount to a period of forty-nine years. 9 Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. 10 Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan.
I. Rejoice in Your Freedom!
In Old Testament law every seven days was a Sabbath. No work was to be done for that day. It was a day of rest. Every seven years then was a Sabbath year where the land got a rest. Nothing was to be sown or harvested or pruned in the fields. But after every seven Sabbaths years, there was a special Sabbath year. A Year of Jubilee—a Super-Sabbath, if you will—every fifty years. Then, on the Super-Sabbath, land that had been sold (or really leased) would return to its original owner. Men and women who'd sold themselves into slavery would be released, regaining their freedom and liberty once more.
But what's the point? What's the significance? Was the Year of Jubilee just about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Or was there some underlying spiritual lesson to be learned? Well, to answer that, take note of the day on which the Year of Jubilee started: the tenth day of the seventh month (the month of Tishri)! Now that might not seem like a significant date to you, but to our Jewish neighbors at the synagogue down the street, that's a big day. That's Yom Kippur—the Day of Atonement.
The Day of Atonement was the day on which the priests offered sacrifices that gave perfect release from all sins, both known and unknown, for the priest and all the people. Through the sacrifices of a bull and a goat they were atoned (at one) with God again. In other words, on that annual celebration the people were set free from their sin and guilt and were restored to God's good graces.
Do you see the symbolism of the Year of Jubilee—slaves set free, land restored, all things reset to the way they should be? But what's the big deal for us? We don't slaughter a goat or a bull. We don't give land away every half-century. And we're not slaves, so we don't need to be set free…
Or are we? The Pharisees didn't think they were slaves either. They said to Jesus, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?" But Jesus straightened them out in the next verse: "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin." The apostle Paul put it this way: "Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?" (Romans 6:16) By nature you and I were hostile to God. We did not submit to his will, nor were we even able to. (Romans 8:7) We were slaves to sin, dead in sin, controlled by our sinful natures. And as slaves to sin, we were held by Satan, bound in his damnable chains as he dragged us toward him in hell. We desperately needed to be set free from that slavery.
So why don't we celebrate Yom Kippur today? Why don't we sacrifice in animal that our sins might be atoned for? Because the Day of Atonement and its sacrifices were only a shadow of what was to come. Jesus pointed that out when he read Isaiah 61:1-2, "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor…" Then he rolled up the scroll, sat down, and said. "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." (Luke 4:17-20)
At Jesus' advent, through his work on the cross, we have been set free. By paying the penalty of hell that we deserve, Jesus has completely paid for our sin! Our debt has been cancelled and erased without a trace! And we have been set free from Satan's grasp and set free from hell since we've been set free from sin. Paul continues on the topic of slavery in Romans 6(:17-18) "Thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18 You have been set free from sin…!"
This is the freedom we enjoy in the fulfillment of the Year of Jubilee! And while we don't have physical land restored to our name, we do have paradise restored. Jesus said in John 14:3 that he has gone ahead to heaven to "prepare a place for you… that you may be where I am." Right now we're not at the fiftieth year yet. It's not quite time for that final Jubilee. We're maybe in year 40 or 30 or even in year 2. We don't know when that Jubilee will come. But we do know without a doubt that that day will come when we are set free from all our suffering, when we're set free from our sinful natures, when the paradise that was lost in the Garden of Eden is restored to you and me.
What freedom we have! Rejoice, dear friends, in this freedom that rings out to you! And in thanks to him and with an excitement that simply cannot be contained, now proclaim that freedom to all who will listen!
II. Proclaim that Freedom!
We've been set free from the most horrible slavery. We've been set free from the control of our sinful natures. Sin can't master us anymore! And we've been set free from the demands of the law since they've all been kept perfectly in our place by Jesus.
So, now what? You've been set free from sin, death and hell! What are you going to do now? I'm going to Disneyland! No… Now we use that freedom, not to indulge in the desires of our sinful nature, but in thanks to God and for the benefit of others. We make the apostle Paul's attitude our own: "Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible." (1 Corinthians 9:19) Free from the debt of sin, Paul tells us in Romans 13:8 to "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another…"
And what's the best way to love others? Certainly provide for their physical needs. Befriend them and take care of their emotional needs. But the best way to love others it to provide for their spiritual needs and share the good news with them.
One of the great documents of our nation's history is the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. Can you imagine what excitement—what jubilee—the freed slaves must have felt when it was proclaimed through the plantations and the homes, "You're not a slave anymore! President Lincoln says you're free!" It must have seemed too good to be true. But can you imagine if no one ever told them they were free? They would continue in their slavery, held captive to another person, though they had already been set free, because they wouldn't know the wonderful truth.
Now this freedom of slavery, as wonderful as it is, is nothing compared to the freedom found in Christ. Jesus has freed all people from their sin and guilt. He has freed them from hell. He has freed them from Satan's grasp and he's freed them from the obligation of keeping the law to get to heaven. But what will happen if they're never told of this wonderful freedom? They'll remain in their slavery for eternity.
So, dear friends, let's get the Word out! Let's proclaim God's "Emancipation Proclamation." Let's sound that shofar—that Trumpet of Jubille—and proclaim the liberty and freedom from sin, death and hell that Christ won for all people. That's the bottom line why our synod is trying to reduce our debt—to free up dollars (currently paid to banks in the form interest) to be used for ministry. That's why we make sacrifices in our own budgets. Let's face it. You could have more and nicer things if you didn't give a dime to church. But you do give generously and gladly in order that we might sound that trumpet here in Raleigh and through our synod throughout the world.
Have any of you ever seen the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia? Tradition tells of a chime that changed the world on July 8, 1776, with the Liberty Bell ringing out from the tower of Independence Hall summoning the citizens of Philadelphia to hear the first public reading of the Declaration of. Do you know what words are inscribed on that famous Liberty Bell? The words of Leviticus 25:10: "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof " (KJV) Let's act like that Liberty Bell, dear friends, and rejoicing in the freedom from sin, death, Satan hell that we enjoy through Christ, let's go "and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof…" Amen.
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