Theology in the Public Sphere by Sebastian Kim

Author:Sebastian Kim
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd
Published: 2011-11-09T05:00:00+00:00

The jubilee is most clearly presented in Leviticus 25.8–55 (see also Lev. 27.16–25; Num. 36.4), which has a close textual relationship to the declaration of the sabbatical year in Exodus 21 and 23. Although there is no evidence whether the jubilee principle was practised in the history of Israel, the idea has been a challenge to the people of Israel and to Christians. This idea of jubilee and sabbatical year was picked up by Jesus’ proclamation of the ‘year of the Lord’ (Isaiah 61.1–2) in Luke 4.21. The jubilee principle has several dimensions: sabbatical year, restoration of land to the original owners and liberation of slaves. When the KNCC declared 1995 as the Year of Jubilee, it focused on the third aspect of liberation, and also more on the proclamation than the actualization of unification in any particular year. Though many sincerely expected and wished that it could be achieved, the important point was that the jubilee was proclaimed. It is the proclamation of the liberation of the Korean people from the bondage of ideological hegemony and from political systems that hinder the formation of a common community.342 This theme is also related to the remembering of God’s grace in spite of the present situation, so that Christians are called to hold faith in confidence.

Kim Chang-Rak, in his support of the employment of jubilee law in the unification of the Korean peninsula, argues that the difference between the jubilee year and the ‘year of the Lord’ is that the Sitz im Leben of the jubilee principle relies on and affirms the present system, whereas the year of the Lord requires God’s immediate intervention in a situation where there is no hope. The belief in God’s immediate intervention was why the author of the Gospel of Luke recorded that Jesus read the passage and declared that the passage was fulfilled today (Luke 4.21).343 Though there are problems in applying the jubilee law directly to the situation of the Korean peninsula and also in setting the year 1995 as a jubilee year, the declaration exhibits the Korean Christians’ insistence on the agenda of the reunification of two Koreas as they trust God’s sovereign power over the problem of division, the slavery of hatred and the bondage of ideological conflict. Indeed, it was argued that the jubilee movement should be carried out in the form of creating a ‘people community’ of justice, restoring a common identity of Koreans sharing common struggle and pain.344 The purpose of jubilee is bringing God’s justice into the Korean context.345 This is not only a religious notion but is manifested in socio-political reality, which requires participating in the justice and peace of God’s kingdom in Korea and together celebrating God’s works of liberation.346

The jubilee principle is also useful for Koreans in encouraging the search for a restored sharing community, employing the concepts of koinonia (community, sharing) and oikoumene (household of God). The separation of the people in the North and South over 60 years into two very different socio-economic and political systems means that there are very few shared identities.

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