Jubilee
Last Monday would have been my dad’s one-hundredth birthday. It was also my mom’s 97th. As a kid, I thought marriage meant the girl took the guy’s last name, and the guy took the girl’s birthday!
Dad’s stated goal was to “crack a hundred.” He often said he was “Doing a Hundred,” but also insisted on reaching that milestone, even though he died just shy of eighty-eight. For years, I have thought about celebrating Dad’s one hundredth. He wouldn’t be here, but we could have a party, so we invited some family to Dad’s big party. On Friday night, we had an event at our house, and then on Saturday, I rented out the Delta King, a paddlewheel riverboat converted into a boutique hotel in Old Sacramento, for a luncheon.
Eighty-four family members showed up. It cost a small fortune, but I wanted to honor my dad. I wanted us to get together at something other than a funeral, and I wanted to express the importance of family.
In addition, I gave a short talk on family forgiveness.
There are no new family disputes that I am aware of, but the family has our share of issues, and if we are to move ahead and thrive as a unit, we need to let go of past hurts.
And if those of us in ministry want to move ahead and thrive, we need to let go of past hurts too.
Family issues and spiritual family issues happen.
Jesus said:
“If your brother or sister sins go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. –Matthew 18:15 (NIV)
This is a passage about forgiveness. The goal is to win over or win back your brother or sister.
As the chapter unfolds, Peter is the first to respond. He doesn’t say, “Jesus, my brother is great; my sisters are awesome, they would never hurt me!”
Instead, he asks:
“Lord, how many times should I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me?—Matthew 18:21 (NIV)
How many times?
Problems in the family are certain to happen. Early and often, over and over.
We all could spend hours talking about some of the antics our siblings have pulled.
Yet we know this passage isn’t just about biological brothers and sisters. It can be extrapolated to the church, to ministry. I suspect we could get in our table groups and spend our entire time talking about how we have been burned by so-called Christian brothers and sisters. I was burned pretty badly a few months ago, and many of you were singed or scorched in the process.
Yet Jesus says we need to forgive seventy times seven times.
So what if we don’t? What if we cling onto those past hurts, what if we hold our grudges, what if we stay angry and bitter?
Jesus tells us: You know the scenario he shared. A king was owed “10,000 bags of gold.” Wow! But he forgave the debtor and let him go. This servant ran into someone who owed him “100 silver coins.” He then refused to forgive his fellow servant.
News reached the king:
In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”—Matthew 18:24-23 (NIV)
What happens if we don’t forgive:
We end up in a jail, a prison of our own making.
We are tortured
We are not sure that we are truly believers
Those three things happen in families, and those three things happen in ministries.
How do we forgive?
The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. –Matthew 18:27 (NIV)
We have to have some sense of sympathy for the other person
The amplified version says the king was moved with compassion. The Contemporary English Version has it as, “felt sorry for him.” The message says he was, “touched.”
At some point, forgiveness means we step out of our own hurt long enough to try to at least glimpse the other person’s perspective.
We have to cancel the debt.
They don’t have to pay anymore. We picked up the tab.
We have to let it go.
Corrie Ten Boom says forgiveness is like letting go of the rope of a bell you’ve been ringing. When you let go, you will still hear the bell—less over time. It will still hurt. But you have let go.
When I was thinking about talking about forgiveness at Dad’s 100th party, something popped into my head. I wasn’t studying it, I’ve never preached on it, but it hit me—The Year of Jubilee.
In Leviticus 25 God instructed Moses to have the Jewish people observe a Sabbath year every seventh year, and at the end of the seventh cycle, the 50th year was to be a year of Jubilee. The Year of Jubilee was a year full of releasing people from their debts, releasing all slaves, and returning property to who owned it.
Depending on when you were born you only saw one, maybe two of these Jubilee years. It was a year of reset, renew and release of debts—a year of forgiveness.
It wasn’t just for the Jews. Our Catholic friends observed Jubilee, or Holy Year as well. They did it every hundred years. Pope Boniface VIII established the Holy Year in 1300 as a centenary observance. In 1342 Clement VI reduced the interval to 50 years, and in 1470 Paul II further reduced it to 25 years. Since at least 1560, special jubilees have been declared. As a Pope, you could set your own Jubilee. Guess when the last one was set? 2000 by Pope John Paul II.
I have decided to set my own Jubilee starting September 18, 2023—Dad’s 100th. I’m forgiving all debts, taking some time to make sure I’ve worked through forgiveness, and doing a reset and release. If you owe me money, you are forgiven. My son said, “This is great Dad, can I borrow some money?”
I’ve invited my family members to join me in a year of release, to let go of whatever happened in the family. Several have decided to enter in with me.
And I’m inviting you to join me as well. If Excel is going to truly excel in the future, we have to let go of the past. So start now, or at least consider your own Jubilee.
What does Jubilee look like?
Jubilee is constantly letting go.
Did you notice what often happens with forgiveness? We get forgiven by God, we get a reset, but just like the servant in Jesus’ story inevitably we run into someone who has burned us. We let it go, but then it happens again for the seventieth time. We are tempted to pick it back up again. Don’t. Let that go too.
What do we do with our forgiven brothers and sisters?
Some we will win over. But some will never apologize, never admit fault, never remotely understand the hurt they have caused.
If they still refuse to listen…treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector. –Matthew 18:17 (NIV)
We have taken this to mean that if those who hurt us do not repent or relent, we are to treat them like garbage, we are to treat them like scum, we are to treat them like crap.
But Jesus says forgiveness means letting go, and even if they disrespect, dishonor, and devalue you, treat them like you would a pagan or a tax collector.
What do pagans and tax collectors have in common? They are unbelievers, right?
He isn’t saying treat them like your worst enemy; he is saying treat them like an unbeliever, try to win them to Jesus.
What is the difference between a pagan and a tax collector?
A pagan doesn’t know any better. A pagan has no clue, no idea, no religion.
A tax collector just might know better. Tax collectors, or publicans, were greedy collaborators whose primary goal was to swindle people. They used the “system” to their advantage.
Again, what do pagans and tax collectors have in common?
We need to treat both with clear boundaries. We don’t want to get sucked into a pagan lifestyle. And we don’t want to get burned by a tax collector’s schemes.
But we do need to forgive.
On the first night of my “Jubilee”—September 18, I turned on the television and noticed my DVR had somehow recorded “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” season two on HBO. I don’t even get HBO. I wasn’t sure how this show ended up in my box but I started to watch.
Immediately, feeling of hurt and disgust flooded into me as the show depicted how the evil Boston Celtics cheated and schemed their way to a series win. (If you are a Celtics fan, may I suggest you turn your life over to Jesus!)
I couldn’t watch it, I had to turn it off. Then it hit me, I had never forgiven Larry Bird and the Boston team and the referees for how they sinned against the Lakers and me! I sensed that God was taking my year of Jubilee seriously! I paused to let it go. It’s forgiveness time.