April 5, 2026 Holy God, Holy Lives: New Life! | Leviticus 25:8-22

Today is Easter Sunday! We will be reflecting on Leviticus 25:8-22, New Life! Jesus is risen and brings new life and hope into the world as death is defeated, sins are forgiven, and our relationship with God is healed. We will be reflecting on the Year of Jubilee, a year where people who are slaves are set free, people who have lost their land have it returned, and all debts are forgiven. The Year of Jubilee is a year of new starts and restoration, pointing ahead to the return of Jesus and the restoration and renewal of all creation that he will bring 

Transcript

New Life!

Leviticus 25:8–22

Theme: God requires that his people work toward the welfare of all people

Christ is risen! The grave is empty; death has been defeated. The Holy Spirit has been poured out into all the land; new life is available to all who choose to accept the living Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Our passage this morning points to new life, to new beginnings, to renewed hope. The Lord gives Israel a charge to do a massive reset for the people every 50th year, right after the 7th sabbath year, giving the land and its workers 2 years of rest, while restoring the people and families who have experienced big set backs in their circumstances over the past 49 years.  

The Lord institutes what is called the Year of Jubilee. On the 10th day of the 7th month, on the Day of Atonement when the sacrifices for the forgiveness of sins are offered; trumpets were to be sounded throughout the land to announce the Year of Jubilee. Immediately, the Year of Jubilee is connected to the forgiveness of sins, the washing away of sin, and the restoration of the peoples’ relationship with God so they can come close to him in his holiness. The year is celebrated by the freeing of all Jewish slaves, the forgiveness of all debt, the resting of the land and its workers, and the restoration of all property to its original family owners. 

Today, the idea of a Year of Jubilee would be rejected as being socialist or Marxist, as being unrealistic, unfair, and unwise. There was a movement leading up to the year 2000 that built on the idea of the Year of Jubilee, advocating for the forgiveness of the debts for the poorest countries in the world. There was even a discussion of this at Calvin Seminary and one professor was strongly against even the idea of such a thing. His reasoning was that it would impact pension funds and retirement savings plans for so many who have invested in the stock markets. This caused an uproar from many others who were angered that there was more concern for protecting the wealth and ease of the people of the richest nations in the world than for the people struggling in the poorest nations. A common attitude still.

Israel is given the Year of Jubilee at the foot of Mount Sinai, long before they enter the Promised Land, reminding the people that God is the giver of the land, the owner of the land, and that this year is a reflection of all the laws given to them on how they are to live with each other as a people. We see Israel practicing at least the Sabbath rest years in 2 Chronicles 36:21 where the writer is describing the years Israel spent in exile, “The land enjoyed its sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah.” Jeremiah 34:8–9 hints at the Year of Jubilee being practiced in part at least, “The word came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom for the slaves. Everyone was to free their Hebrew slaves, both male and female; no one was to hold a fellow Hebrew in bondage.” While Isaiah 5:8 warns the people of buying up the land of others for yourself, “Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land.”

Why does God command such a radical time like the Year of Jubilee? Restoration, renewal, and resurrection have always been part of God’s plan for his people and all creation. The Year of Jubilee gives us a glimpse of how the kingdom of God works. Due to the brokenness sin brings, over the years, some people and families prosper and do well, while others fall on hard times, into debt, loose their jobs or livelihood, homes, and sometimes even their freedom as they are forced into placing them selves and even their families into slavery or servanthood in order to pay their debts. Some would go into desperation mode and over work their land and themselves first, leading to lower crop yields in the long run. The Year of Jubilee is God’s way of offering his people a new start after hard times: Jewish slaves were set free, debts forgiven, the land and its workers were given rest, and the land that had been sold or taken to cover debt was restored to its previous owners. 

In this chapter, Moses refers to the Exodus 3 times, reminding the people of who God is and what he has done for them; this is to be reflected in how they live with each other. The concerns are with the Israelites’ loss of their land and livelihood, freedom, and the Year of Jubilee when they can return to their land as free persons. They’re reminded that the Israelites are God’s servants, they shall not rule over each other with harshness, and to fear the Lord. The Year of Jubilee is God’s law. The land of Canaan is God’s gift to the Israelites, and even though it was given to them and each clan by lot, it always remained God’s land as we read in verse 23, “The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants.” 

The principles we find in the Year of Jubilee is concern for each other, to care for each other, to treat each other with respect. There’s concern that opportunities are made for people to have new starts, that large gaps between rich and poor do not become institutionalized. There’s a lot of talk about our K-shaped economy right now where the rich are getting richer and the average person is falling further and further behind. It provides opportunities for those who have gone through hard times to begin over again, it repairs the inequalities that creep into societies over time, and prevents the division of people into classes of nobles and workers. These are some of the things the year of Jubilee is addressing. A big part of the jubilee was a concrete application of the love commandment found in Leviticus 19:18, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” Jesus himself quotes this commandment when a lawyer asks him, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest,” and Jesus tells him, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’” 

We see this lived out in the early church in Acts 4, “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.” In a culture like ours that emphasizes the individual over the community, these commandments are hard to swallow, but living for Jesus is always radical, and we should be challenging ourselves to embrace God’s principles more fully in our lives. Jesus lives this out in his life as John writes in his first letter, 1 John 3:16–18, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”

The Year of Jubilee also points ahead to Jesus’ return when the full impact of Good Friday and Easter will come into play, when sin is fully washed away and defeated; when Satan and evil is completely defeated and God’s people and creation will experience forgiveness and renewal, and full restoration with God. The Year of Jubilee is given to Israel as a sign of how God’s mercy and grace bring healing and rest to all parts of creation. 

Jesus gives us similar glimpses in his own ministry, beginning with his claim in Luke 4, “He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “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 favor.” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” 

Jesus brings in the Year of Jubilee, the messianic age, which, when he returns will result in the perfect kingdom of God in a new earth as John points to in Revelation 21-22.  Paul expands the Year of Jubilee to all of creation in Romans 8:19-21, “For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” By faith in Jesus, we are brought into Jesus’ mission and called to practice the jubilee life, restoring the world from the effects of sin in all areas of life. Living in God’s presence sends us into this world to bring the transformative Jesus to the whole world.