The Year of the Lord’s Favor

June 30, 2020

By Chaz Umamoto, Coordinator of Worship Ministry Support

This past week during The Other Six days small group meeting I was really impacted by Tim Keller’s video about biblical rest. How we as believers work for God, and how He created the Sabbath. Now this epiphany comes as a great challenge to me and my household as COVID-19 and quarantine. While for some in our community this has been a season of forced rest, both my wife and I have continued to work. We are so thankful that we have been employed during this time, and we get to work together from home. As challenging as it has been, it has also been a huge blessing. For example, we got to work together on the music video “The Hawaii Blessing” together (no pun intended).

During my times of reflection and private worship, I keep coming back to Luke 4:14-19:

14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15 He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. 16 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, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: 18 “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 freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

I’ve always read this as the moment Jesus began his public ministry by proclaiming the “Year of the Lord’s favor,” followed by His community chasing Him out of the church while threatening to throw Him off of a cliff. The “Year of the Lord’s favor/Jubilee” references Isaiah 61:1-3, which is a shout-out to its original declaration in the Law given to Moses by God as recorded in the book of Leviticus. This theme is undeniably near and dear to God’s heart as it’s weaved throughout scripture.

Jubilee was meant to be a time when ...

·       Resources were redistributed

·       Grace was given to those imprisoned for financial debt

·       Massive parties were thrown

·       Where families were reunited

·       Where the land was given time to heal

·       And God’s people were to rest.

I see great unrest in the world today, and it’s clear things aren’t as they should be. I think God is using this time for us to seek Him.

As long as I’ve been a Christ-follower, I’ve heard the church pray for revival in all of its shapes and forms. I can’t really say if I’ve ever truly seen a huge spiritual movement in my lifetime, but I think we’re in the midst of it. Now I could be wrong, but I think God is answering those prayers. And despite all else I’m hopeful that as we are all getting ready to celebrate to reunite with one another in person, God is also getting ready to celebrate with us as we unite in our worship to Him.

Prayer: Lord, I pray that you help us to see beyond our nature and to see with Your eyes, feel with Your heart, and move with Your Spirit’s guidance. Help us to embody Your character and seek Your will in all things big and small. I accept that You are using this time to heal our land, and our hearts before You open the doors and let the party in. I am so excited and cannot wait to see how You will move in the season to come. Thank You for creating rest so that we too can enjoy all that You’ve done, and all that You continue to do through us Your people.

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