Day 31 of Lent: April 9, 2025

Leviticus 25:1–19 NRSVUE

The Sabbatical Year

25 The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, 2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land shall observe a Sabbath for the Lord. 3 Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in their yield, 4 but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land, a Sabbath for the Lord: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. 5 You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your unpruned vine: it shall be a year of complete rest for the land. 6 You may eat what the land yields during its Sabbath—you, your male and female slaves, your hired and your bound laborers who live with you, 7 for your livestock also, and for the wild animals in your land all its yield shall be for food.

The Year of Jubilee

8 “You shall count off seven weeks[a] of years, seven times seven years, so that the period of seven weeks of years gives forty-nine years. 9 Then you shall have the trumpet sounded loud; on the tenth day of the seventh month—on the Day of Atonement—you shall have the trumpet sounded throughout all your land. 10 And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you: you shall return, every one of you, to your property and every one of you to your family. 11 That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee for you: you shall not sow or reap the aftergrowth or harvest the unpruned vines. 12 For it is a Jubilee; it shall be holy to you: you shall eat only what the field itself produces.

13 “In this year of Jubilee you shall return, every one of you, to your property. 14 When you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not cheat one another. 15 When you buy from your neighbor, you shall pay only for the number of years until the Jubilee; the seller shall charge you only for the remaining crop years. 16 If the years are more, you shall increase the price, and if the years are fewer, you shall diminish the price, for it is a certain number of harvests that are being sold to you. 17 You shall not cheat one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am the Lord your God.

18 “You shall observe my statutes and faithfully keep my ordinances, so that you may live on the land securely. 19 The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live on it securely. 

If we’re honest reading through Leviticus can feel plodding through a muddy field in the rain. It’s full of information and stories that seem far removed from our lives today. But every once in a while, a passage shines with such beauty and hope that we catch a glimpse of what God was up to all along. Leviticus 25 is one of those passages. And while I only included 19 verses, I’d encourage you to read the entire chapter.

In this text, God speaks to Moses from Mount Sinai, laying out a radical idea: the land itself should rest. Every seventh year, a Sabbath year. And then, after seven cycles of Sabbath years—forty-nine years—there’s to be a Year of Jubilee. The fiftieth year. A year unlike any other. ALL debts forgiven. Slaves set free. Land returned to its original family. A reset button. A holy do-over.

It sounds incredible, doesn’t it? A year where no one hoards, and no one is left behind. Where people live not by production but by trust in God’s provision. Where rest isn’t earned—it’s given.

In fact, if I understand at least part of the text why would you hoard at all if every 50 years it all gets returned to the original owner?

But here’s the sad truth. As far as we can tell, Israel never actually practiced the Jubilee. Not once. The idea was too risky. Too upside-down. Too much trust required. Jubilee never happened.

And yet, the idea remained. Buried like a seed. Waiting.

Then Jesus came along.

When he stepped into the synagogue in Luke 4 and unrolled the scroll of Isaiah, he declared something astonishing:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me… to proclaim liberty to the captives… to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”That is powerful Jubilee language.

Jesus was saying, “I am your Jubilee.”Not a calendar year, not a once-in-a-lifetime event—but a person. A Savior who sets us free. Who brings good news to the poor. Who restores what’s been broken and returns us to the arms of grace.

We may not live in a culture that celebrates Sabbath years or Jubilee resets, but that doesn’t mean the promise is gone. In Christ, the deeper truth of Jubilee is alive and well. He brings rest to the weary. He wipes out debt we could never repay. He gives us back our identity when we feel lost or enslaved to the world’s demands. He invites us to live—not by scarcity or fear—but by the abundant grace of God.

And here's the wonder of it all:Wherever we feel ashes—burnout, regret, loss, shame—Jesus meets us there. And from those ashes, he raises up an alleluia.

So maybe today, we pause. We let the land of our hearts lie fallow for a moment. We trust that even in the resting, God is still providing. Maybe today, we hear Jubilee’s song whisper through the noise:You are not forgotten.

You are not enslaved.

You are not alone.

You are beloved.

You are free.

Thanks be to God!

Blessings to all!