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For at least 7 years, I have been drawn to the passage in Luke 4 where Jesus gives perhaps the earliest description of his public ministry. Jesus introduced his intentions by reading a select passage from the Isaiah scroll, rolled it up, sat down, and announced, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21) These were the words that he read:

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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.

Luke 4:18-19

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Immediately after this announcement, Jesus began demonstrating in Galilee what he came to do – teaching with authority (Luke 4:31-32); setting people free from demonic spirits (Luke 4:33-35); and healing the sick (Luke 4:36-40). At the end of this flurry of divine action, Jesus said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.” (Luke 4:43) In this statement, he clarified that the good news he came to proclaim is the coming of the “kingdom of God.”

This short passage from Isaiah 61 that recalls the Year of the Lord’s Favor (Jubilee) focuses our attention back on Leviticus 25, which is the framework for the communal life God desired His people to embrace when they settled into the land of God’s promise.

The context of these words in Isaiah 61 remind of us the significance of these words that defined the ministry of Jesus and the Jubilee principles that characterized his life and message. When Jesus quoted from Isaiah 61 in the synagogue, he was incorporating God’s great plan and purpose into the announcement of his ministry.

Isaiah 61 cannot be understood apart from Isaiah 59, which recalls the iniquities of the people that separated them from God and the blood that was on their hands. (Is. 59:1-2) They abandoned the way of peace and justice. (Is 59:8-9) They walked in darkness. (Is. 59:10) No one was available to intervene. (Is. 59:15-16), so God said He would step in (Is. 59:17) with a Redeemer for those who would repent. (Is. 59:20)

Isaiah 60 announces God’s plan of redemption: “arise, shine, for your light has come.” It presages that “nations will come to your light.” (Is 60:1:3) Isaiah 60:4-16 announces God’s intention that all the nations will come to Israel “bringing your [Israel’s] children from afar” (v.9), and “foreigners will rebuild your walls” (v.10) , and “you will drink the milk of nations and be nursed….” (v.16) Isaiah 60:17-22 promises peace, no more violence, everlasting light, and righteousness.

In that context, Jesus read the opening verses of Isaiah 61 – announcing that the time had come for proclaiming good news to the poor, binding up the brokenhearted, proclaiming freedom to captives and release from darkness for prisoners, and proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor.

Significantly, the Jesus left out the concluding words: “and the day of vengeance of our God….”

In doing that, Jesus signaled that he did not come for judgment. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:17) Jesus came to proclaim the good news of the coming of the kingdom of God predicted in Isaiah 61 – healing, freedom, release, and blessing – because God’s people had failed to live into and live up to the plan God had for them.

The words Jesus read culminate with a proclamation of the “year of the Lord’s favor” from Leviticus 25. This is where it gets interesting to me. I have not focused on this part of what Jesus said before, so let’s dive in.

In Leviticus 25, the LORD instructs the people how to live in the land God was going to give them. This instruction is given in advance of their arrival. They were instructed to sow the land for six years and give it a rest every seventh year. In the seventh year, they were told not to sow seed and were told only harvest “whatever the land yields.”

They were to do this for seven periods of seven years; the 50th year was to be a Year of Jubilee (the “year of the Lord’s favor”). In the 50th year, they were “to proclaim liberty” to all the inhabitants. (Lev. 25:8-11) The land was to be returned to the original owners, including to people who lost their land because they fell on hard times. These instructions are grounded in the principal of God’s divine ownership of the land and the relationship of the Israelites to God:

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“The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you reside in my land as foreigners [ger] and strangers [toshab].”

Leviticus 25:23

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God grounds these instructions in the peoples’ relationship to Him. He defines their identity in this instruction: the Israelites were to consider themselves foreign guests (ger – resident aliens) and sojourners (toshab – temporary dwellers) in God’s land.

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The support God commanded His people to provide for foreigners who lived in the land with them is the same support He instructed them to show for fellow Israelites who fell on hard times.

Over and over again the Lord connected their identity as former foreigners in Egypt to the instruction not to mistreat or oppress foreigners residing among them. (Exodus 22:21; 23:9; Lev. 19-34) They were to love the foreigners residing with them as themselves. (Lev. 19:34; Deut. 10:18-19) They were to include the foreigners residing with them in their festivals. (Deut. 16:12) They were told not to despise the foreigners.(Deut. 23:7) They were told not to deprive the foreigners of justice. (Deut. 24:17-18) They were to allow the foreigners to glean the fields for sustainence. (Deut. 24:19–22).

The infrastructure for this care was institutionalized throughout the Law:

• Exodus 22:21–24 — Do not mistreat or oppress foreigners and do not afflict widows or orphans
• Exodus 23:9 — Do not oppress foreigners
• Leviticus 19:9–10 — Leave gleanings of harvest for the poor and the foreigner
• Leviticus 19:33–34 — Do not mistreat foreigners; love them as yourself
• Leviticus 23:22 — Leave edges of fields and gleanings for the poor and the foreigner
• Leviticus 25:35 — Support a poor or destitute person, including a foreigner, so they can continue to live among you
• Deuteronomy 10:18–19 — God loves and provides for the foreigner; Israel must love and care for them
• Deuteronomy 14:28–29 — Store the tithe every third year for Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows to eat
• Deuteronomy 16:11 — Include foreigners, orphans, and widows in rejoicing at festivals
• Deuteronomy 16:14 — Ensure foreigners, orphans, and widows share in festival celebrations
• Deuteronomy 24:17–18 — Do not deprive foreigners or orphans of justice; protect widows from exploitation
• Deuteronomy 24:19–21 — Leave leftover harvest (grain, olives, grapes) for foreigners, orphans, and widows
• Deuteronomy 26:12–13 — Distribute the tithe to Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows so they may eat and be satisfied
• Deuteronomy 27:19 — Curse pronounced on anyone who denies justice to foreigners, orphans, or widows

Thus, the Israelites were commanded to provide support for and to incorporate foreigners into their community, and God commanded the same care. This institutionalized care for foreigners became the framework of support and community for fellow Israelites who fell on hard times. The infrastructure to welcome and support foreigners in their community became the infrastructure to provide support and sustain poor Israelites in their community.

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The ebed were servants. They were sometimes called slaves, but their relationship to the Israelites was not the kind of slavery we imagine from US history. This “slavery” or “servitude” was an economic relationship. Though foreign servants (ebed) could be bought and sold, people became servants as a way to support themselves or as a way to get out of debt, and there were rules prescribing how that relationship was to operate compassionately.

Hagar with whom Abram had a child (Ishmael) at Sarai’s suggestion was an ebed. She had a permanent place in their household. She was treated as “family” by Abram and Sarai. Abram offers himself as an ebed to the angels who visit him when he invites them in for a meal. (Gen. 18:3) Ruth offers herself as an ebed to Boaz. (Ruth 3:9) The ebed submitted themselves voluntarily for support, protection, and community.

The sakir was a different category of foreigner. A sakir was a hired worker, a hireling, a day worker – a less permanent relationship than an ebed. They were also protected by levitical law (Lev. 19:13), and those who oppressed them by withholding fair wages were subject to God’s judgment. (Malachi 3:5)

The toshab were temporary dwellers. They were often hired workers who remained for a period of time. They were not simply passing through. They were people who settled for a time with the Israelites. Leviticus calls the Israelites toshab and ger in the land of God’s promise because it was God’s land – not theirs.

Ger were foreign-born dwellers who resided permanently with and among the Israelites. They assimilated and subscribed to the laws and practices of the Israelites. “With the passage of time, the gerim were assimilated culturally and religiously” into Jewish community. They, in turn, they received the greatest protection of the laws, practices, and community of the Israelites.

God calls the Israelites both ger and toshab in Lev. 25:23 in God’s land. In later Jewish tradition, a ger could be either a toshab or a tzedek (a full convert to Judaism). Ger toshab did not participate in land ownership. Though they may have been long-standing residents, they did not have the heritage and legacy standing of the native-born. The words are used inconsistently in among different translations, which greatly confuses the distinctive meanings:

The Israelites were instructed to help/support their countrymen who fell on hard times “as you would a foreigner [ger] or a stranger [toshab]”, so they can continue to live among you.” (Lev. 25:35) They were allowed to remain in the land as a hired worker (sakir) or temporary resident (toshab).

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Finally, the Israelites who fell on hard times were allowed to be “redeemed” in the year of Jubilee, when all the land was given back to the original clans. (Leviticus 25:47-53) This is “the year of our Lord’s favor” Jesus came to proclaim when everything was to go back to the way it was each 50 years.

All of this reveals how central to God’s plans for His people are the protection, support, and welcome of foreigners into the community of God’s people. Their welfare is intertwined with and becomes the model for compassionate community living that ensured that vulnerable Israelites would be able to continue to live in community with them.

Many Americans might call these things “socialism” or being “woke” today. Providing for foreigners at the expense of the native-born and providing for people who lost their land and fell into debt seems anti-capitalist to us. Many of us recoil from similar institutionalized “social welfare” programs.

These are obviously anachronistic terms that shouldn’t be applied to the time of Moses. Our reactions to these ancient instructions, though, expose our American ideals to the same critique given by the prophet in Isaiah 59 that required God to intervene. The spirit of the Year of Jubilee is what Jesus came to proclaim.

Would you be surprised to learn that the Israelites failed to live in the land as God instructed them

The Bible contains no evidence that the Israelites followed the seven year pattern of Sabbath years and the 50th Jubilee Year in which the land was returned to its original owners and debts were wiped clean. If the Sabbath years and Year of Jubilee were observed, we should expect at least a mention somewhere, but not a hint of observance of these things is found.

Zedekiah’s Reform (Jeremiah 34:8–17) was an attempt to live out the Law that had been forgotten, but it was short-lived. Hebrew slaves were briefly released, but the people changed their minds, and they took their Hebrew slaves back. When God reminded them of the covenant in Leviticus 25, He said, “Your ancestors, however, did not listen to me or pay attention to me” either. (v.14)

Rather than listen to God (and do what He said), they lived in darkness, abandoned peace and justice, and were separated from God because of it according to Isaiah 59. When Jesus said he came to proclaim “the year of our LORD’s favor,” he was reintroducing the kind of compassionate community that God desired. Jesus was saying, “This is what the kingdom of God is like, and I have come to proclaim it.”

Like the ancient Israelites, though, we are strongly motivated not to listen. People who feel they have earned what they have don’t want to give it up. People don’t want the burden of caring and providing for other people less fortunate than ourselves – least of all foreigners. People still resist these things.

The Israelites didn’t like the these rules God imposed on them – His people who were about to enter His land. They wanted to treat it as their land and live by their own rules – and they did – to their eventual judgment and shame.

When we hear the words of Jesus, we need to understand that God is serious about compassionate community living and care for the vulnerable – like orphans, widows, and foreigners. He hasn’t forgotten these things. Jesus came to proclaim them. Jesus demonstrated that indiscriminate, compassionate care in his public ministry, and he bids us to pick out crosses and follow.

The Year of Jubilee was forgotten long ago by the Israelites who took control of the promised land, but God has not forgotten His plans. Jesus reminds of them. Jesus came to demonstrate the grace and favor described in Isaiah 60, to say that he is the one on whom the Spirit of the LORD rests to carry out the Jubilee instructions God gave Israel, and Jesus linked those instructions to the kingdom of God.

If we have a hard time with those instructions, we are in good company – the Israelites obviously did also. Yet, we dare not turn our back on God’s grace and favor. He continues to entreat us with the same message. Our eternal destinies are inextricably linked with the grand design of God, who is always calling His people out of the world and to into a radical, reciprocal inclusivity in Him.

We will never fully achieve God’s plan in this life, but we are called to follow Jesus in the way he demonstrated for us to live in this life. The kingdom of God is among us; it is in our midst – if indeed we take him seriously and embrace the life he calls us to live. The grace and favor he shows for us is the grace and favor we are called to show to others. Arise and shine! For the Light has come!