Leviticus 25:10

And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan.

We stopped adhering to Levitical law many years ago. I am not even sure when Hebrews stop celebrating the Year of Jubilee. It was certainly not an option during the Babylonian Exile nor in the time of Jesus’  lifetime, the Roman occupation. In some ways it now makes more sense than ever to look at the practice.

International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia 

 There are three distinct factors constituting the essential features of the Jubilee Year: personal liberty, restitution of property, and what we might call the simple life.

The associated rules governing restoration of civil society are very complicated because they involve foreign debt, personal property debt, and indentured servitude. The intention was that every fifty years there was an end to generational debts. It was the return to a simpler life.

The world is complicated and with all that is going on in it many of us yearn for a simple life, debt free and having personal liberty. Here in America we are a republic, we have no King. There is no way to restore the simple life. Everyone is a debtor of some sort. 

Jesus died to set us free from our debt to sin, we now have eternal life and yet we act as if we are not living in that freedom. We owe Him more than a thank you. We go about each day without giving much consideration to our Lord about how we should navigate our lives in this world.

We cannot restore the Year of Jubilee in this republic, but since we are Kingdom dwellers we can restore the institution of forgiveness. Forgiveness after all is at the core of Jubilee.

1 Corinthians 12:6

and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.

Jesus is God, teacher, Lord, King, Savior, friend, great physician and our big brother in the family of God. As humans it seems that we can only identify with one aspect of His character at a time. In human terms He is what we need at any particular moment, quite possibly Savior more than the others. In truth He never gives up being all that He is just because we need Him to be that identity in the moment.

We might pray to the great physician only to discover the teacher shows up. That is not a denial of our prayer but indicates what our Lord needs us to understand the deeper meaning of this life in Christ. He gives us what we need even if we do not know what it is we need at the moment.

The title of chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians is “Spiritual Gifts”. Since the same spirit abides in each of us, allow me to remind us all that the Holy Spirit is the power of God to act in any manner, with any spiritual gift, according to the will of the Father.

My youngest daughter was reluctant to go on a missionary trip to Jamaica and called me from  the Miami airport begging to come home. I denied her and told her to follow through on her commitment. When I hung up I prayed to God, “Show yourself strong in her.” During that trip she laid hands on a cripple and the woman was healed. If God can do that with the reluctant, imagine what He can do with a faithful and obedient servant.

The larger picture here is not about how we see Jesus but rather how we see ourselves. How we feel about ourselves often limits our ability to live. Now it becomes what we can and cannot do and not so much about what God can do through us. For some of us we are having an identity crisis because we think we need to be something to be useful to God. Once again I am reminded of a blessed elder from my past that said, “Let go and let God.”

That sentiment was voiced by those who made excuses why they could not follow Jesus in the moment they were called. They had more pressing matters in their lives.

Numbers 18:29

Out of all the gifts to you, you shall present every contribution due to the Lord; from each its best part is to be dedicated.’

We owe Him our best.