A Reflection for Tuesday, April 1 by Sarah Roquemore Day

Lectionary reading for 4/1/2025: Psalm 53; Leviticus 25:1-19; Revelation 19:9-10

Selected passage for reflection: Leviticus 25 1-19

Read

Leviticus 25:1-19 English Standard Version

The Sabbath Year

25 The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord. 3 For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, 4 but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. 5 You shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. 6 The Sabbath of the land shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves and for your hired worker and the sojourner who lives with you, 7 and for your cattle and for the wild animals that are in your land: all its yield shall be for food.

The Year of Jubilee

8 “You shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years. 9 Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. 10 And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan. 11 That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of itself nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines. 12 For it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to you. You may eat the produce of the field.

13 “In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his property. 14 And if you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another. 15 You shall pay your neighbor according to the number of years after the jubilee, and he shall sell to you according to the number of years for crops. 16 If the years are many, you shall increase the price, and if the years are few, you shall reduce the price, for it is the number of the crops that he is selling to you. 17 You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am the Lord your God.

18 “Therefore you shall do my statutes and keep my rules and perform them, and then you will dwell in the land securely. 19 The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and dwell in it securely.

Reflect

In this passage from Leviticus, God lays out some radical commands regarding Israel’s economy and social structure. Every seven years, the people are to take a year-long sabbatical, forgoing productivity and profit in favor of rest for both the land and the workers. Then, after 49 years, the people are called to extend the sabbatical for a second year of agricultural rest. This 50th year, the Jubilee year, was to be a year of release, in which property lines were reset and those who had amassed additional land were expected to return it to its original owners. In addition, anyone who had been enslaved because of a debt (a common practice in ancient times) was to be released from captivity.

In an agrarian society, where wealth was gained by owning and cultivating land, these regulations would have ensured that resources were evenly distributed and that no one family or tribe could amass too much. Reflecting God’s care for all humanity, these laws protected the poor and disempowered and provided hope for those who had lost property or become enslaved due to hard times or bad deals. Furthermore, the ideals of Sabbath and Jubilee served as a reminder of God’s provision of the promised land and reinforced the hope of a return to Eden, where people lived in community with one another and God, eating freely from the land.

Looking at these passages in the context of our current world, where 1% of the population owns over 50% of global wealth, and 50% of the population owns less than 1%, I grieve how far we have strayed from God’s vision of Jubilee. As I was preparing to write this devotional, my 7th-grade students were learning about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and discussing ways to advocate for human rights worldwide. I couldn’t help but wonder how many violations against humanity would not exist if the world lived according to God’s commands to observe Sabbatical and Jubilee years. Sadly, greed and sin continually keep us from flourishing equitably as God intended.

Even the ancient Israelites, who first received these commands directly from God on Mount Sinai, failed to meet the standard. While the instructions for Sabbatical and Jubilee years are codified multiple times in the Torah (See Exodus 20-21 and Deuteronomy 15), there is no historical record that these laws were ever fully observed by the people of Israel. God even predicts the people’s negligence in the next chapter of Leviticus (Lev. 26: 34-35, 43), where it is implied that the failure to uphold this command will cause Israel’s eventual exile.

So how should we, as contemporary Christians, engage with these seemingly impossible commands? We can start by remembering that Jesus declared himself to be the fulfillment of the law. In Luke 4, Jesus returns to his hometown in Nazareth and reads from Isaiah, proclaiming “the year of the Lord’s favor” and heralding “good news for the poor and oppressed.” In Luke’s narrative, this declaration comes right after Jesus’ temptation in the desert, where he resists the lure of worldly power, status, and wealth. Jesus was not interested in the ruling powers of earth, where empires expand through violence and power grows through oppression. Rather, Jesus lived an upside-down life of outrageous generosity, hospitality, liberation, and release, uplifting the marginalized and challenging those whose instinct was to hoard wealth and exclude the poor.

Embodied in Jesus, Jubilee becomes more than just a set of commands for an ancient agrarian nation. Jesus's life is the paragon for living counter-culturally in a world inclined to commodify and exploit human life. As followers of Jesus, we are called to be people of Jubilee, committed to living lives marked by rest, generosity, and care for the earth and its people.

Respond

Inherent in the call of Jubilee, is the idea of rest and release. In order to fully rest in God’s grace, we must be willing to let go of our power, our wealth, even our independence.

Questions to consider:

Where do you find yourself wrestling with the instinct to choose self-preservation and control over generosity and trust in God’s provision?

What abundance is God calling you to release? How can giving back your wealth contribute to the liberation and flourishing of those trapped in cycles of poverty, injustice, and oppression?

In what ways do you participate in or uphold inequitable systems? What power do you have to make changes and advocate for policies and practices that uphold God’s upside-down values? How can you commit to advocating for jubilee practices within your spheres of influence?

The practice of Sabbatical and Jubilee years provided rest and release not only for humans, but to the earth as well. What are ways you can work towards the restoration and healing of our physical world?

Rest

God of Jubilee,

We long for your vision of Eden on earth. A place where all are invited to rest, where slaves are liberated, and food is available to all.

We were created for goodness, for community, for trust, and yet we fall short. Forgive us of the ways we have not trusted in your provision. For the ways we have failed to release the abundance you have given us, hoarding our wealth and choosing self-protection over generosity towards those less fortunate than us.

Empower us to fight for liberation and the release of debt, and grant us your mercy and rest as we seek to enlarge your kingdom and reject the oppressive systems of this world.

Transform our hearts and habits, so that we may reflect your vision of Jubilee for the world.

Amen

About the Author

Sarah Roquemore Day is a middle school drama teacher who sometimes writes, too. Growing up, she drove Sunday school teachers and youth pastors crazy with her constant questions and need for further information. Today, she continues to be curious about the complex nuances of scripture and theology, reading the Bible critically while staying open to the mystery and wonder of the Holy Spirit. Sarah lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband Bob. She has recently entered her auntie era and loves doting on her precious nieces, Kellyn and Kai-Ling.

We are Called to be People of Jubilee