The Messiah of the Jubilee
This is the sixth in a series on the Jubilee Year of 2025.
As mentioned last week, the people of Israel were expecting the Jewish Messiah to come during their lifetime. Out in the desert of Judea, celibate Jewish monks called the Essenes awaited, not a political or military Messiah to liberate them from Rome (like the Zealots), but a figure like Melchizedek (Gen. 14:18-20), the Priest-King of Jerusalem. This Melchizedek Messiah, described in divine terms, would come at the end of the tenth jubilee to redeem the people from their sins and release them from Satan’s power. The Essene’s spiritual reinterpretation of the jubilee and the Messiah readied many people to receive the true Messiah when he came, none more so than the most famous (probable) disciple of the Essenes, John the Baptist!
The Baptist, whose dress and manner mirrored Essene practices, went out to the Jordan River to prepare the people for when the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” would come (Jn. 1:29). After his baptism and temptation in the desert, Jesus of Nazareth returns to his hometown to read the scroll of Isaiah we looked at last week in the Gospel (Is. 61:1-2). He announces the jubilee, this time of God’s redemption, release, return, and rest. But words are cheap. “Are you the one who is to come, or should we wait for another?” the Baptist’s disciples ask. Jesus replies, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them” (Mt. 11:4-5). The miracles that Christ performs are not random manifestations of divine power, but signs of the jubilee: those who are blind recover their sight through healings, those bound by the Devil are released through exorcisms, those dead in their sins are brought back to life through resurrection, and those who are poor in spirit have the good news preached to them. Everything Jesus did was a sign of God’s saving jubilee, but those in power who felt threatened by his popularity and radical message sought a way to cut short this blasphemy.
Yet even in his darkest moments, Jesus was fulfilling the jubilee promised by God. In his Passion, the Son of God become Son of Man took our sins upon himself and bore them on the Cross to free us from Satan’s dominion as Isaiah foretold. He was cut off from the people to atone for wickedness as Daniel prophesied. His Body, pierced by a lance, flowed out blood and water like the New Temple to bring redemption of spiritual debt and return to God’s favor as Ezekiel predicted. Christ’s death perfectly accomplished the reconciliation of humanity back to God, and his resurrection heralded a new humanity destined for eternal rest in God’s eternal jubilee. But before he died, Christ ensured a succession plan would be in place to perpetuate this jubilee for all generations. We’ll learn more about that next week!
