Have you ever got stuck in a lift? Or been taken hostage? Or been arrested and put in a police cell? Or have you ever, in any way, had an overwhelming desire to get out of somewhere suffocating and claustrophobic? Let me tell you about what happened to Kathie about 11 years ago. When Benjamin was still a baby, Kathie was took him shopping with her to a local supermarket. And, all of a sudden, there was a commotion over by the checkouts. It was a hold up – a real, live armed robbery. Masked men with guns were shouting and telling everyone to get down with their faces to the ground. They threw tear gas which made it very difficult to breathe. You can imagine what Kathie must have been feeling. What would she give to be free - with her baby safe and well, breathing in fresh air again?
Freedom is a central value of the country we live in. We treasure and defend freedom of expression, freedom of movement, freedom of worship, freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of peaceful demonstration and so on. Ours is a land of hope and glory, the mother of the… free.
The reason Jesus came was to give us back our freedom. That might sound a bit of an overstatement, but it’s Jesus himself who said it. “The Spirit of the Lord has anointed me… to proclaim freedom for the prisoners…, to set the oppressed free.” That sounds to us like a kind of Robin Hood figure, storming the nation’s jails and letting all the inmates out under a kind of general amnesty. But in saying those words, everybody who heard him knew exactly what he was saying. They knew he was announcing to the world that, in him, the Year of Jubilee had finally arrived.
1) The Jubilee in the Old Testament
The word “Jubilee” might conjure up images of kitsch commemorative plates marking the 25 or 50 year reign of Queen Elizabeth. But the Year of Jubilee is very important in Jewish thinking. If you’re going to understand the Bible you have to understand, amongst other things, what the Jubilee is. And to find that out, you need to read Leviticus 25 and Isaiah 61. Let me see if I can sum it up in two or three minutes.
Just as the seventh day was a Sabbath day, every seventh year there was a sabbatical year. In that year, for twelve months, there was no sowing and no harvest; it was a year of rest for the earth. Question; how did the people survive for a year without food? Answer; God sent, every sixth year, a harvest so abundant that there were enough reserves to go round for two years.
So there was a special day of rest and a special year of rest. But in Leviticus 25 God says there’s going to be a year that is even more special; it will take place after seven sabbatical years – that is to say after every 49 years. The 50th year is called the Jubilee. In Leviticus 25.9-10 God says that at the sound of the trumpet on the Day of Atonement, freedom will be proclaimed throughout the land to everyone. There were, in theory, no freehold properties, only leaseholds. And in the year of Jubilee each house, without exception, had to go back to whoever owned it 49 years earlier.
Every 50 years, in theory, all the slaves went free. They were no longer anyone’s possession. They could go. The people also had to cancel all debts and banks had to write off all outstanding loans. Sounds good doesn’t it? How about God tears up your credit card bill and sets everything back to zero?
God was reminding his people that the earth belonged, not to them, but to him; they were just temporary custodians of it. With these Sabbaths and Jubilees no one had any reason to buy up huge parcels of land to get rich. There were no privileged fat cats on the one hand, and no family was caught in a perpetual cycle of poverty on the other. The Jubilee was everyone’s hope of a better life and a fairer future.
What do you think of that system? Ingenious? Utopian? Too good to be true? Unworkable? It seems that the Hebrews thought it was. In all the literary and archaeological research that has ever been done, nobody has found any trace whatsoever of even the most half-hearted or symbolic Jubilee; not even once. For the Hebrews, actually having a Year of Jubilee was living in La La land. No farm land was ever laid fallow. No debt was ever cancelled. No property was ever returned to its prior owner. And no slave was ever released as God had so plainly commanded.
What part of “all slaves must go free” didn’t they understand? Isn’t it funny how, whenever people come across a bit in the Bible they don’t like they say, “Oh, it shouldn’t be taken too literally, it must be figurative”? Watch those who tend to say that sort of thing too easily and too often.
Hang on with me just a minute or two longer; it’s important for us to understand this background if we’re going to appreciate where Jesus is coming from in Luke’s Gospel. From Leviticus 25 we’re going to wind the tape forward about 800 years to the Golden Age of prophecy. This is the time when Micah, Hosea, Amos and, most important of all, Isaiah heard from God and spoke out to their generation.
If you’ve ever read Isaiah through you must have been struck by the contrast between the beginning and end. Chapters 1-39 are a long and almost uninterrupted series of doom-and-gloom predictions of God’s coming judgement. It’s no page turner. It’s hard going.
But as soon as you reach chapter 40 the tone completely changes. Isaiah starts to talk about consolation and hope. He introduces a Servant who will be revealed and who will save his people by suffering, dying and rising again. Those Scriptures, Isaiah 40-66, were first written for a broken and humiliated nation in exile. In chapter 61 Isaiah speaks about deliverance for this people. God is going to send a liberator, a saviour, a rescuer.
“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim (the Jubilee) the year of the Lord’s favour.”
This Saviour is going to release captives. His coming will be good news for the… poor. This is the Jubilee that had never been celebrated. It’s the cancelling of debts and the giving back of freedom to slaves. And this Jubilee will be centred, says Isaiah, not upon a calendar that everybody merrily ignores, but on the authority of a decisive leader whose kingdom will come and turn everything upside down and bring justice and equity to the earth at last.
2) Fulfilment in the New Testament
Now, let’s wind the tape forward again to Luke chapter 4. Here’s Jesus, right at the beginning of his ministry; freshly commissioned at his baptism, he spends 40 days being tested by the devil and he’s come out on top. Here he is now, back in his home town, walking in the power of the Spirit.
By the way, just a passing comment in v16, where Luke says Jesus went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up and went to the synagogue, on the Sabbath, as was his custom. It was a discipline he had been taught when he was young and he stuck to it. Of all the people who have ever lived on earth, Jesus is the one who least needed to go to church regularly. I bet he found the Rabbis’ teaching wearisome and beside the point. Remember he wrote this stuff! But the first thing that went into Jesus of Nazareth’s diary was public worship -every Saturday, without fail. Since the day I became a Christian at the age of 17 it’s been the first thing in my diary too. I reckon I need to worship God and find fellowship with fellow believers and hear the Word of God more than Jesus needed to and being in God’s house Sunday by Sunday is a basic investment into my spiritual health and strength.
Anyway, picture the scene here. Let’s imagine we are there in that Nazareth synagogue round about the year 28 A.D. It’s a Sabbath of course, the day of rest that is set apart for God. In this room, as you look around, are the village elders who have taken their usual seats and everyone else is there, everyone is ready to sing the psalms and read the sacred scriptures on rolled up manuscripts. It’s a Saturday like any other except this time someone says, “Oh look, Jesus Bar Joseph is here.” And since he has just begun an itinerant preaching ministry, the synagogue leader, as a courtesy, invites him to take the scroll and read it. Jesus covers his head with his prayer shall, opens the scroll and reads out Isaiah 61 – the verses we have just read. Then he rolls it up, gives it back to the man who looks after the parchments and sits down to speak. The eyes of the whole synagogue are on him.
What did they think when he said “Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing”? In other words, the Jubilee is not just dates on a calendar. It’s the promise of a great liberator. Jesus is saying, “This is all about me.” Some said, “Wow! Amazing! What a speaker! He’s good isn’t he?” Others said, “Hang on! This is just the lad who makes furniture in his dad’s workshop. Everybody knows his brothers and sisters. We went to school with them. This is just the bloke from down the road.”
You know, everyone in the end has to have this debate with themselves and decide if Jesus is just an ordinary man who spoke well but who basically lived and died deluded that he was the Son of God – or if he really is the King of kings, alive today setting the oppressed free and opening the eyes of the blind.
Jesus was in no doubt about who he claimed to be:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.”
When you think about it, Jesus was really walking a tightrope by saying these things. He was setting himself up to be shot down. What if the people said back to him, “What good news for the poor? What is this some kind of lottery jackpot? What freedom for prisoners? Are you the Home Secretary or someone? How many blind people have you cured to date? Can you give us some documented evidence, independently corroborated, of oppressed people actually being delivered?”
And if Jesus had replied, “Err well, at the moment it’s still very much in the design stage. To be honest this is more about goals and aspirations than actual track record,” they would have told him to sit down and be quiet. Remember, this is right at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. He hasn’t gone anywhere. He hasn’t preached anything. He hasn’t healed anyone. But Jesus could say what he did and people would hang on his words because he was anointed – there was something about him, an authority in the Holy Spirit, that people recognised as being authentic. Judge for yourself; is this just spin?
First, Jesus says he is proclaiming good news to the poor. It’s good news. It’s for the poor – Jesus had a heart for the poor and he was poor himself. “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” he said, “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” I’ve looked that word “poor” up and it means “having nothing at all.” In its verb form it has the sense “to crouch down and beg.” It’s being destitute. You put your hands in your last pocket and it’s empty - there’s nothing. You will never live the life of blessing God has for you unless you reckon yourself spiritually wretched and absolutely needing God’s daily mercy and sustaining grace to get through.
Secondly, Jesus said he came to bind up the broken hearted. That expression “broken hearted” in Isaiah is really strong – it means literally “to have all your strength crushed out of you.” These are people who are broken by endless pain, cheated, abused and abandoned. These are people who weep over a thousand unbearable memories, who are hopeless, who carry heavy burdens every day, and who are at the end of their rope. Jesus came to bind up the broken hearted.
Psalm 34 says, “The Lord is close to the broken hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
Thirdly, Jesus says he has come to proclaim freedom for the prisoners. In this verse, the word “freedom” is wider in scope than being released from slavery. It’s the promise of a total deliverance from the worst form of servitude; Jesus is talking about being freed from the slavery to sin. “Everyone who sins,” he said, “is a slave to sin.” The Bible says you work hard for sin all your life and all you get for your pension is death.
Many people today are prisoners of alcohol, escapist drugs, pornography, gambling, food, fear and anger. They’re in a cycle of compulsive behaviour. They’re tied up. They’re not free because Satan has shut them up in a cell of addiction and indignity. But Jesus says I have come to smash down walls, throw iron gates to the floor, break your chains and get you out.”
Fourthly, Jesus opens the eyes of the blind (both physically and spiritually).
And fifthly, Jesus brings deliverance to the oppressed by proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favour. This Jubilee is our Jubilee! There is only one ultimate source of oppression; the enemy of your soul, Satan the accuser, who hates you, who never stops looking for a chance to discourage you and grind you down, who assaults your faith with doubts and anxieties, who wants to steal your inheritance and pour condemnation on you, leaving you feeling dejected, defeated and disheartened. He is an enemy to be taken seriously, because he never gives up, but he is so under the feet of Jesus Christ!
3) Our Own Mission
“Christ” means “The One who is anointed.” Jesus Christ; Jesus, the Anointed One. If that’s true then the word “Christian” means we share in his unique anointing, and we impart it to the world. Oh, that God would pour out in much greater measure that same anointing on us!
In less than three weeks Christians from churches all over Stockton on Tees will be gathering in Stockton parish gardens to pray for healing for anyone who asks. They’ve been doing something similar in many cities all over our land including Newcastle for months now and God has done some amazing things. Why not here? God has already given us occasional, small scale glimpses of what could be. There’s more!
Let me remind you what happened when Julia did an assembly last year. Sensing the Holy Spirit was there in power, she offered to pray for kids at the end of her assembly. Two children asked for prayer, and both were healed instantly; one from eczema and molluscum contagiosum (which are little pimple spots that bleed and take 3 - 5 years to go unless surgically removed). The other, who was disabled from birth (she had a shrivelled arm and hand and so couldn’t stretch out her arm) was suddenly freed to do so. It’s the anointing of the Holy Spirit – and it’s for us. Lord, give us more!
Let me remind you what happened when the team at Big Ted prayed for baby Thomas, who had a serious, life threatening illness. Thomas was healed – and such was the extraordinary nature of the healing that her mother (an experienced sick children’s nurse) came to Jesus and the Consultant paediatrician checked out the Alpha Course to find out more. It’s the anointing of the Holy Spirit – and it’s for us. Lord, pour it out in greater measure!
Let me remind you what happened when we prayed for the youth who smashed our Centre windows a couple of months ago. Sola led us in prayer in the power of the Holy Spirit. Two hours later he went and confessed to the police and we dropped the charges on condition that we could tell him the good news about Jesus. This is good news for the poor and freedom for prisoners - isn’t it?
We need to talk about what God is doing – not about what God is not doing.
Those are three stories from this church. Yes, Jesus does amazing things in China and Argentina and Korea – but Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever in Preston-on-Tees as well. And, yes, all this is just a trickle of Jesus’ anointing. O God, pour out upon us a spirit of prayer and expectation; release your anointing and authority to us like a sudden and overwhelming flood! We know there’s more!
Ending
“Today”, said Jesus “this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
I want to invite you to stand with me and welcome the Holy Spirit anew, that our tongues would speak out good news, that we will heal the sick, bind up the broken hearted and free the captives in Jesus’ name.
Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 28th June 2009
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