#Occupy the Bible by Rev. Dr. Susan B. Thistlethwaite

Author:Rev. Dr. Susan B. Thistlethwaite
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: #OccupytheBible: What Jesus Really Said (and Did) About Money and Power
Publisher: Astor + Blue Editions Llc
Published: 2012-11-10T16:00:00+00:00

6

The Jubilee, or, Jesus Had an Economic Plan

When Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight for the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:16–19, New Revised Standard Version)

Jesus started his ministry by standing up in the synagogue and starting to read. He chose verses from the prophet Isaiah announcing “good news to the poor.” This is a reading from that biblical prophet’s accounting of the biblical Jubilee, a fifty-year cycle of debt forgiveness, land redistribution, and a cancellation of indentured servitude caused by debt. It’s a pretty radical plan for economic equality in a community, not only in early Hebrew history, but also in Jesus’ time, and even today.

The text in Luke says that Jesus was given the scroll or book of Isaiah; it seems he chose the verses. After Jesus read the text about “good news to the poor,” he sat down, as would be the custom if he were about to preach on the text, interpreting it. Jesus said, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” The congregation of Jesus’ hometown folks was, so far, favorably impressed, remarking on how “Joseph’s son” spoke very well.

But after that, things didn’t go so well. Jesus goes on. He brings the text a little too close to home for his audience. It’s all very well to talk vaguely about forgiving debts in the time of the prophet Isaiah, but gradually it starts to dawn on the people in the congregation that Jesus is saying that this biblical practice, in which you were actually supposed to forgive debt, free slaves, and redistribute land, was what he was calling for here and now.

All of a sudden, it wasn’t “hometown boy makes good in synagogue” anymore, but “throw the bum out.”

When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way. (Luke 4:24–30)

This is, by any account, a very dramatic start to a ministry. From the very beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, he didn’t just mean to talk about the regular practices of charity; he meant that the Jews should make concrete changes about issues such as debt, land, and slaves. The people grew so enraged by the idea that they should actually have to do what Isaiah called for in terms of the Jubilee that they tried to kill Jesus.

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