What do you do with the year of Jubilee?

“But the field, when it is released in the jubilee, shall be a holy gift to the LORD, like a field that has been devoted. The priest shall be in possession of it.” (Leviticus 27:21 ESV)

““The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”” (Luke 4:18–19 ESV)


When Jesus quoted Isaiah 61 in the synagogue that day, He was proclaiming the year of jubilee. The year of jubilee would have been good news to the poor because they would have land returned to them that they had lost. It was a proclamation of liberty: “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.” (Leviticus 25:10 ESV)

The year of the Lord's favor was the year of Jubilee. Kay Arthur says, "The Jubilee of Israel only lasted one year. After this, it was possible to begin to buy and sell property again. 'Buyer beware' had to be the motto of the day after the year of Jubilee was completed. If you were foolish enough to be taken the first time, you would probably be taken again. Then you would have to wait forty-nine more years for this celebration to come around again!"

But the Jubilee Jesus announced, "the acceptable year of the Lord," was different. Like the Jubilee of old, this event would be announced by the Day of Atonement, the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus. But, unlike the Jubilee of the Old Testament, this celebration would be eternal. Because of our faith in the Lord Jesus and the new birth, the Church has entered into a perpetual Jubilee. The only way you can fail to claim your original blessings is to be ignorant of your rights, refuse to accept what is legally yours, or be talked out of them by Satan.

Are you living in Jubilee? Bob Goff, in his excellent book, Love Does says this: "Love doesn’t try to be efficient; when it’s most extravagant, it’s least wasted”. Let's at least be as extravagant  in our love as God was when he laid out the Year of Jubilee.