Jesus had returned. As was His custom from His youth, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath. The synagogue official brought the sacred scroll parchment of the prophet Isaiah and handed it to the acting attendant, who handed it to Jesus.

All stood for the reading as He carefully unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lᴏʀᴅ is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lᴏʀᴅ” (Luke 4:18, 19). 

Silence followed, as Jesus handed the scroll back to the attendant and sat down. With all eyes intently fixed on Him, He announced, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (v. 21). 

With Jesus’ proclamation that Isaiah spoke of Him, what perhaps startled the assembly most was His purpose in coming: “To proclaim [preach] the acceptable year of the Lᴏʀᴅ.” Jesus mentioned the Year of Jubilee, which to some was a type of the Messianic Kingdom to come. The phrase the acceptable year meant the season of Messiah’s true Jubilee of redemption, refreshment and rest. 

Redemption

The Year of Jubilee was a time of release of property and person throughout Israel. “And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family” (Leviticus 25:10). This extraordinary observance highlighted the truth that God is the owner of His land, and His people are His custodians. 

The Israelites understood the Hebrew word yovel (Jubilee) differently. Some defined it as “sending away,” while others interpreted it as “freedom.” The popular meaning was “ram’s horn,” or shofar. 

Connected with Jubilee was the blowing of the trumpet or shofar on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur): “Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land” (v. 9). On Yom Kippur, the high priest alone entered the holy of holies to offer the sacrificial blood. This act paid the penalty for sin and restored the people’s relationship with God (16:8–34). 

The Feast of Trumpets came 10 days before Yom Kippur. On this day the shofar was blown as a call not only to stop work and remember the Lord, but also to recall the binding of Isaac. Abraham had prepared to sacrifice his beloved son as God commanded until the Angel of the Lord stopped Abraham, and a curled-horn ram suddenly appeared to be offered in Isaac’s place (Genesis 22:1–15). God spared Issac by providing a substitute. As the ram rescued Isaac from physical death, so God will provide the coming Messiah, who will rescue believers from spiritual death. 

Blowing the shofar marks the beginning and end of God’s redeeming work that Messiah would complete.

While blowing the shofar occurs at the start of the Feast of Trumpets, it is blown at the end of Yom Kippur. Thus, blowing the shofar marks the beginning and end of God’s redeeming work that Messiah would complete. 

All blood sacrifices throughout the Old Testament were shadows of the true, once-for-all sacrifice to come. “Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:12). 

Refreshment

Another expectancy of the Jubilee is refreshment. In the rabbinic Jewish work Pirkei Avot, Rabbi Yaakov wrote, “Better is one hour of refreshment in the world to come, than the whole life of this world.” Refreshment, like restoration, is a resetting by the sovereign God. One day, a time of refreshment of all things will come: “And it will come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drip with new wine, the hills shall flow with milk, and all the brooks of Judah shall be flooded with water; a fountain shall flow from the house of the Lᴏʀᴅ and water the Valley of Acacias” (Joel 3:18). 

Isaiah also compared God’s refreshment to a return to the Garden of Eden (Isaiah 51:3). As surely as those days will come, God will keep His promises. “In that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness” (Zechariah 13:1). 

Rest

During the Jubilee, God called His people to stop sowing and reaping and to rest in Him. Just as the weekly Sabbath was a day of rest (cf. Genesis 2:2–3), the Jubilee Sabbatical Year was to be a time of solemn rest. Jesus proclaimed the fulfillment of the ultimate “Sabbath of Sabbaths” with a new age of peace and rest. The evangelist George Whitefield (1714–1770) once declared, “How sweet is rest after fatigue! How sweet will heaven be when our journey is ended.”

Amidst all of our burdens and trials, the same God of Israel speaks today of rest and refreshment.

Amidst all of our burdens and trials, the same God of Israel speaks today of rest and refreshment. Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:28–29). Theologian John Gill (1697–1771) offered this perspective on Jesus’ comforting teaching on rest: 

Spiritual rest here, peace of conscience, ease of mind, tranquility of soul, through an application of pardoning grace, a view of free justification by the righteousness of Christ, and full atonement of sin by his sacrifice; and eternal rest hereafter, in Abraham’s bosom, in the arms of Jesus, in perfect and uninterrupted communion with Father, Son, and Spirit.

Jesus’ listeners were amazed (Luke 4:22). He symbolically linked the celebration of the Year of Jubilee with His earthly ministry. His Jubilee of redemption, restoration, and rest could only be found and fulfilled in Him. 

But some couldn’t bring themselves to believe. “So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff” (vv. 28–29). 

Jesus’ Year of Jubilee is an opportunity to make a fresh start. What will be your response?

About the Author

Peter Colón

Peter served as a Church Ministries Representative, Creative Resource Coordinator and a contributing editor for Israel My Glory magazine for The Friends of Israel. He is now retired and resides in Deerfield Beach, Florida.