Jubilee

A sermon preached on Sunday, January 23rd, based on Nehemiah 8:1-12 and Luke 4:14-21

Would you pray with me?

God of Ezra, God of Nehemiah, God who lives among us, thank you for bringing us to this time and this place. By your Spirit, make your presence known to us here and now. And may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable to you, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Our sermon this morning is titled, “Jubilee,” because when I saw the lectionary texts for this week, I was very, very excited to talk about what Jesus means when he says that he has been anointed to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. This passage from Luke, chapter 4, has become a touchstone to me as I seek to follow Jesus ever more closely, and gives me hope and courage. I jumped at the chance to share with y’all today about this gospel passage.

But the more I thought about it, the more I’ve come to think that, though we’ll end with Jesus, we need to begin with Ezra, Nehemiah, and the celebration at the Water Gate in 6th century BCE Jerusalem, the passage we read at the beginning of the service. If you have your bibles, I invite you to turn to Nehemiah (right before Esther and Job), chapter 8, starting at verse 1, as we read the passage again, through verse 12 without any omissions:

“When the seventh month came—the people of Israel being settled in their towns— 8 1 all the people gathered together into the square before the Water Gate. They told the scribe Ezra to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had given to Israel. 2 Accordingly, the priest Ezra brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could hear with understanding. This was on the first day of the seventh month. 3 He read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. 4 The scribe Ezra stood on a wooden platform that had been made for the purpose; and beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right hand; and Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hash-baddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam on his left hand. 5 And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. 6 Then Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. Then they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. 7 Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, helped the people to understand the law, while the people remained in their places. 8 So they read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.

9 And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. 10 Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to our Lord; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” 11 So the Levites stilled all the people, saying, “Be quiet, for this day is holy; do not be grieved.” 12 And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.”

Now, this passage is a bear to understand, not because it’s theologically dense or the story is too complex, but because we NEVER read from Nehemiah. We at least know the story of the gospels well enough to understand what’s happening in Luke, but here? We’re lost at sea. Who is Nehemiah? Who is Ezra? Why are the people gathered together? Why are they crying? What’s happening? I don’t remember this from Sunday School!

Well, let’s start from the top. Nehemiah is a cup bearer to King Artaxerxes of Persia, who’s been sent with a royal guard to complete the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Ezra is a priest and scribe who has also sent by Artaxerxes to begin teaching the Torah again in Judah. And the people are gathered together because they just finished rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.

Still clear as mud?

Let’s back up a little more. Who has heard of the Babylonian Exile before? (You can raise your hands, I promise I won’t call on you.)

[Inset joke about Ethan either teaching or not teaching about BE]

As a quick refresher for people like me, who haven’t thought about this in a couple of months, or maybe ever, in 586 or so BCE, the Babylonians, who were the big empire in western Afro-Eurasia at the time, conquered Judah, what was left of the kingdom that David ruled, and sent all of the elites into exile.

And this is the key event for understanding most of the Old Testament. When we forget about it, or when we’re not taught about it at all, we miss most of the context of most of the Old Testament and have to go about guessing what’s going on in story after story. Not knowing about the Babylonian Exile and trying to understand the Old Testament is like someone from the future trying to understand life right now and not knowing about COVID. You’re missing a big piece of the puzzle.

Ezra and Nehemiah are sent back to Jerusalem more than half a century after the Babylonian Exile, after King Cyrus of Persia, the newest big empire on the scene, defeats Babylon. And they come back to an abandoned pile of rubble. Babylon had razed Jerusalem to the ground. The people who had gone into exile come back to see their home ruined and they’re devastated all over again.

The books of Ezra and Nehemiah tell the story of rebuilding Jerusalem after the Babylonian Exile has ended. It takes more than a century, a good reminder to us all that even if the destruction only lasts a few days, recovery can take a lifetime. And the full rebuilding and restoration of Jerusalem isn’t even done at this point in Nehemiah—they’ve just set up an altar, finished the walls, and started to settle back into the homes they had before the world ended.

But still, the walls are done and the people have begun to return, and this is a cause for celebration. Our story this morning actually starts the longest celebration in the Bible, nearly a whole month. The people gather together in a square by a pool, build a stage, and ask Ezra to read to them from the book of the words that God gave to Moses.

And they wept.

Maybe it’s clearer now, why they would cry? Maybe we can understand why they would be torn up inside, why they would need to be reminded of joy? Because these are people who had everything, their homes, their families, the place where they worship, everything taken from them. All they had was each other and the memory of who they had been, and now, standing back in the city they’re rebuilding, they see how much they’ve lost. Their scripture, these sacred verses and stories that marked them as foreigners and outsiders in Babylon and Persia, suddenly their scriptures are being read to them, and explained to them, by people who know them. That’s why it’s so important that Nehemiah records the names of everyone on stage with Ezra as he reads. These are the ones who remain. They know each other. And for the first time in a long time, they are here, together, hearing these precious scriptures once again.

It's a powerful moment.

I imagine that some of us identify with the people in this story this morning.

This story from Nehemiah, from a far-away place twenty-six hundred years ago, shows why it matters so much that we keep our lists of prayer concerns, that we pay attention to who’s in church on Sunday, that we keep old directories and talk about how things used to be. Because those of us who gather on Sundays now, in this building that we’ve fought so hard to maintain and rebuild when we needed to? We’re the ones who are left. We’re the ones who remember what it used to be like, when there wasn’t an empty seat in the pews and this place was bursting with joy and music and life. And this, too, is why scripture and worship can be so precious to us. Outside of these four walls and each other, they’re all we’ve got left.

But then, in comes Jesus.

Now, especially after the hostage situation at Congregation Beth Israel, the synagogue in the Dallas-Fort Worth area last weekend, I want to be clear that Jesus is not the solution for the people in Ezra and Nehemiah’s time. The Jewish people have always had, and continue to have, a beautiful living, growing faith, full and complete apart from Jesus, and we as Christians have much that we can learn from them, and honestly, a lot to apologize for. But when we read this story from Nehemiah, as Christians who are always trying our best to follow Jesus, it’s in these moments, when we are overcome with all we have lost, that Jesus speaks to us mostly clearly. We are, after all, people whose hope lies in resurrection, in restoration of life after life has been lost.

Jesus, in our gospel passage this morning, comes back to his home in Nazareth, after getting baptized in the Jordan and doing some teaching around Galilee. He goes to synagogue on the Sabbath, as he always does when he’s at home, and he’s given a scroll to read from. It’s Isaiah, and so he scrolls down to a beautiful passage: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because God has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. God has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”

When we feel lost, when we look around and only see the faces that are missing from our sanctuaries and the things that are wrong with our world, Jesus calls us back to these words. Because we follow Jesus, we too have been anointed to bring good news to the poor, the poor of every kind: the poor in wealth, the poor in housing, the poor in spirit, the poor in fellowship, the poor in health. We too have been sent to proclaim release to captives, recovery of understanding to those who have been blinded by brokenness of this world, and to let the oppressed to go free. Jesus has proclaimed the year of the Lord’s favor, a jubilee. In a jubilee year, everyone is set free. The land is given a rest from constant tilling and the people are released from all debts. It’s a reset, an equalization, a loosening of what binds us. Just as Lazarus is freed from his graveclothes after Jesus calls for him to come out, in a year of jubilee, we are freed from all that has held us in death.

So when we are trapped by sadness for a past that is gone and will never come back, Jesus declares a jubilee. We are freed to imagine what might come next.

When we are caught in worry over what comes next or what the world may be, Jesus declares a jubilee. We are freed to rest in his arms and be empowered to face whatever may come our way.

When we are exhausted by the weight of decisions and the pace of the world around us, Jesus declares a jubilee, and we are free to lay it all upon Jesus, for he knows our every care.

And when we are caught up in fear of any kind, Jesus declares a jubilee. Because we know, friends, that we have been given a spirit of power and love and that is enough to face everything that lies ahead.

There is so much more to uncover here, so many more parallels that we could dig into between these two stories about reading scripture in public, but I think that that’s more than enough for one Sunday morning. I want to leave y’all with this: nothing in your heart is too big for God to understand and nothing in your path is too big for God to move. God saw the depth of sorrow amongst the people gathered by the Water Gate so long ago and God moved them to a month’s worth of celebration. God has seen the obstacles in our lives and God has sent us these words from Jesus for encouragement. Now, we may not always like everything Jesus has to say-a few verses later, they ran him out of town- but God has already given us everything we need to follow him faithfully.

All we have to do is be bold enough to accept it.

Amen.