Sermon on the Sabbath - A Forecast of God's Empire

Details: Category: Jesus and the Sabbath

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus commences his public ministry of announcing the Kingdom of God on a Sabbath day. Luke narrates the incident as follows -

He went to the synagogue on the sabbath day. 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 (Yahweh) is upon 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 to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s (Yahweh’s) favor.”

And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Luke 4:16-21

Jesus’s inaugural sermon quotes from the scroll of one of Yahweh’s most famous prophets Isaiah (61:1-2; 58:6). And this opening speech sets the tone for his teachings about the Kingdom which are intricately linked to the spirit of the Sabbath laws.

The Sabbath year announces a “release to the captives” – no matter whether someone is a captive of debt or bonded labor. It’s even a release to the land held captive by agriculture (Deut 15:1-15). It’s a return to the original Eden economy (Lev 25:6-7), where food is a right for everyone on Earth, as it used to be during the times in Genesis (Genesis 1:29-31).
The Sabbath day rest itself is observed as a sign of Yahweh letting “the oppressed go free” (Deut 5:15). It is a harbinger of equality irrespective of one’s class, gender or ethnicity. It even proclaims freedom for the farm animals to rest (Exodus 23:12).
“The year of Yahweh’s favor” is the Jubilee year, a time of liberty and restoration for the Earth and the humans (Lev 25:8–13, 39-42) that prevents concentration of wealth in the hands of a few and ensures the Earth and its riches are for everyone to enjoy.

Jesus’ opening sermon on the Kingdom of God continues Yahweh’s “good news to the poor” – a message of hope, rest from labor, equality in human dignity, liberty from oppression and poverty, and restoration of things lost. And it is apt that he delivers this kingdom message on a Sabbath, as all those themes foreshadowed in Yahweh’s Sabbath laws are to come to full reality in his Kingdom that is to come, which would be an era of economic freedom and social solidarity for all people.