The Jubilee Mission of Jesus

A reflection on Camp Jubilee and the Jubilee and the mission of Jesus.

By: Jesse Zandee

Gen. 2:2-3

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

Interpreters have been puzzled by a missing link in the creation story. The 7th day breaks a repeated pattern. The first six days end with “and there was evening and there was morning...” But the 7th day lacks this concluding formula. That’s because the 7th day has no end. It’s as if the sabbath rest God designed was intended to go on into eternity.

In a culture addicted to work, we need (pardon my alliteration) regular rhythms of rest that release us from our burdens and point us to the eternal rest Jesus inaugurated upon his arrival. This is what camp can offer young people. Summer camp was my first ministry job. It was a wild, emotional, and fruitful time God used to set me on a path to vocational ministry. Ever since that eventful summer in 2017, I’ve pondered how camp fits within the mission of the Church.

Before even moving to Visalia I got to know my good friend, Tim Wolff. Anyone who’s knows Tim knows he has a vision for camp. This is Camp Jubilee. Jubilee is a camp for the Church, the people of God, grounded in the rhythms of ancient Israel. After all, as Tim reminded me, Israel was given various feasts, festivals, and sabbaths that broke into the toil of daily work to remind them of their story. Perhaps radical was the year of Jubilee—the super sabbath. In light of this, Tim rightly identifies the pillars of Camp Jubilee as Rest, Restore, and Rejoice—the trifold aims of the biblical Jubilee. Before we get back to camp, let’s look at where the idea of Jubilee comes from and what it meant for Jesus.

Lev. 25:8–10

Count off seven sabbath years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbath years amount to a period of forty-nine years. Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim release throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan.

The Year of Jubilee is the ultimate sabbath in which everything, including the land, is released from their burdens. In this way, the Year of Jubilee points forward to an ultimate release (yes, an ultimate year of Jubilee) in “the last days” when creation itself is released from the dominion of sin, the very reason we work the ground with toil. Like the 7th day, this ultimate Jubilee has no end.

This is what the mission of Jesus is all about. Pay attention to how Jesus announces the beginning of his ministry in his hometown.

Luke. 4:14-21

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release for the prisoners

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

In making Isaiah 61 a reality, Jesus is announcing the arrival of the ultimate year of Jubilee. The mission of Jesus is a Jubilee mission. Think about the wording of the Lord’s prayer, (lit.) “Release our debts as we release our debtors” (Matt. 6:12). The kingdom of God means release from all that enslaves us, all that piles up debt in our lives, namely the power of sin. But the release Jesus proclaims is not cyclical. Like the 7th day, it has no end.

Camp was an opportunity to live out the Jubilee we have in Jesus. To understand this, let’s return to the trifold realities of Jubilee: Rest, Restore, Rejoice. Through games and play, we rejoiced (as messy as we were), through morning meditation and quiet time in the beauty of creation, we were restored, through worship and hearing God’s Word, we learned how following Jesus frees us from the burdens of life so that we can find rest in him.

Matthew 11:28

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

On Thursday night, we heard this message from Austin, who joined as our camp speaker. He talked about how Jesus gives us true rest, unlike the many different “yokes” that burden us with a false good news that work will set us free.

 All in all, Camp Jubilee was marked by unspeakable joy, God-honoring worship, and watching campers and staff realize the mountain of joy that Hebrews 12:22 talks about (our theme verse). The discomfort of those first 24 hours can be a lot. But as the fun and fellowship continued, we discovered joy like no other. Although tired, we left ready to face the troubles of life rested, restored, and rejoicing in the Jubilee mission of Jesus.