Jubilee and the Year of the Lord's Favor

In a time when honing in on the "servant leadership principles" from Paul's epistles or using the teachings of Jesus as a means of "self-improvement" have become normative in our Sunday morning sermon, I believe a more relevant question for the church today is - how can we gain a more holistic understanding of God's workings throughout biblical history (or as Paul would call it in Acts 20:27, "the whole counsel of God")? For example, what do we make of the celebrations observed by the Israelites in the Old Testament?  In an article about preaching Christ from the Old Testament, David Murray describes the purposes of what happens typologically in the OT in this way:

The coming of the Messiah was delayed for many centuries after the Fall so that God could prepare and train His “infant” church for Christ’s coming. And the method of instruction best suited to their state of childhood was teaching through pictures of who and what was to come. By proceeding from the known to the unknown, from the familiar to the unfamiliar, the future was brought into their present. Through the types’ resemblances to the higher future things, the realities of Christ’s kingdom were made present to their faith, acting as very natural and easy stepping-stones.

One such example is the correlation between the Old Testament celebration of the year of Jubilee and what Jesus referred to as the year of the Lord's favor. Look in Luke 4, after his temptation in the desert, Jesus walks into the synagogue on the Sabbath, opens the scroll to quote a series of Messianic passages from Isaiah, and declares that "today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:21). See what Jesus says in vv. 18-19a,

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has annointed 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.

Here the Lord establishes his presence and the treasures he brings with his atoning sacrifce as the fulfillment of the Old Testament regime of the year of Jubilee - the fiftieth year when the trumpet is blown and proclamation is made throughout the whole land of the liberty of slaves, of the recession of debts, and the restoration of possessions to the original families (see Leviticus 25:8-13). But as wonderful as the year of Jubilee was to the Hebrew people, there was a sense that there was something greater to come in the future. A true feeling of relief and rest only comes with Christ - the year of the Lord's favor when the One annointed with God's Spirit would proclaim the infinitely better gospel message of liberty to the slaves of sin and death.

SDG

Something Greater Than...

I was reading through Matthew 12 last night and came across a phrase repeated three times - "something greater than...", uttered from the mouth of Jesus to his disbelieving audience. Maybe upon a cursory read, this might not mean much, but upon closer examination, looking through the lens of the Hebrew mind that was steeped in OT language, these statements must have been shocking.

First, Jesus says to the Pharisees, "something greater than the temple is here" (Matt. 12:6), in reference to the priests' ministry in the temple on the Sabbath. He also says that he is "the lord of the Sabbath" (v. 8). A couple things must have come to the Pharisees' mind when he said this -

1. The temple is a symbol of God's indwelling presence with Israel - nothing greater than this exists.
2. The Sabbath is declared holy by the Law, and we are all subservient to the Law.

But Jesus says it. The mystery hidden for ages was being revealed right before their eyes. The "true form" (Hebrews 10:1) that Moses saw upon the mountain was the reality standing before the Pharisees that day. The tent that Moses erected served only as a shadow of what he saw on the mount (Heb. 8:5-6). With reference to the Sabbath, Jesus says that the priests themselves were profaning the temple in their service on the Sabbath, and yet, they were still counted guiltless. What the Pharisees did not see was that Jesus was the true form Moses looked upon - the "reality of the good things to come." As "lord of the Sabbath," he then authoritatively interprets the meaning of the Law concerning the Sabbath to them - to bring about abiding rest. But more particularly, the Sabbath is so associated with Jesus' presence that a chapter earlier, he could tell the crowds, "Come to me...and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28). So really, the OT institution of the Sabbath merely anticipated the rest we would experience in repenting and believing in Christ.

Second, Jesus tells some of the scribes and Pharisees that "something greater than Jonah is here" (Matt. 12:41), when asked to provide a sign to them. Jesus retells the high points of Jonah's ministry - three days and nights in the belly of the fish and then, the preaching of repentance to the people of Ninevah. The words of Jesus invoked a feeling that he was similar to the prophet in both the message he preached and the fate he would suffer, but on a much greater magnitude. Jonah served merely as a type - both the message Jesus preached and the death he would die would accomplish more than anyone could ever imagine.

Finally, Jesus says that "something greater than Solomon is here" (Matt. 12:42), in reference to the wisdom with which he claimed to speak. The renowned queen of Sheba journeyed all the way to Jerusalem to hear the legendary wisdom of King Solomon - Jesus says that this queen, having heard the wisdom of Solomon, would rise up to condemn the Pharisees for rejecting someone distinctly greater than Solomon. Maybe when Jesus said this, they might have recalled Proverbs 8:22-31 concerning Lady Wisdom (probably written by Solomon himself). Wisdom is personified by the author, saying, "the LORD possessed me at the beginning of his work...when he established the heavens, I was there...when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him....and I was daily his delight." Yes, someone greater than Solomon is here - Wisdom Incarnate. He was with the Father before the creation of all things, and the Pharisees were confronted with him that day - Jesus Christ, our Lord.

SDG