John 17:20-26 English Standard Version

20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

When I woke up the television was playing the gospel of John. The narrator was doing a dry emotionless reading and all the words were there but all the passion was drained out of it. I got up, made coffee, kissed my wife and turned on my bible app and read chapters 15, 16 and 17 of the gospel of John.

The above prayer was the conclusion of those sections before John begins chapter 18 with Jesus’ betrayal. I am always stirred up to read His Word here and this section begins with a reminder that Jesus is praying for all of us who believe because of the Word.

Doing a cold reading, without emotion, flat, meaningless, the Word does not touch us. It is the abiding presence in which we know Him and the Father who sent Him. This is not hyperbole, it is the experience of being One with God and with one another. Only those of us that believe are included in this experience.

We might want to say that He did not know us when He prayed this to the Father but now that we believe we cannot say that is true. He did now and cared enough to leave His Word that shows us He is God and as God knows all things. In this way we can take His Word as a personal prayer and that it was not given to anyone but to you and me alike. That is being One.

His Word is not cold and passionless. It is love personified.

Leviticus 25:10

And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan.

We stopped adhering to Levitical law many years ago. I am not even sure when Hebrews stop celebrating the Year of Jubilee. It was certainly not an option during the Babylonian Exile nor in the time of Jesus’  lifetime, the Roman occupation. In some ways it now makes more sense than ever to look at the practice.

International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia 

 There are three distinct factors constituting the essential features of the Jubilee Year: personal liberty, restitution of property, and what we might call the simple life.

The associated rules governing restoration of civil society are very complicated because they involve foreign debt, personal property debt, and indentured servitude. The intention was that every fifty years there was an end to generational debts. It was the return to a simpler life.

The world is complicated and with all that is going on in it many of us yearn for a simple life, debt free and having personal liberty. Here in America we are a republic, we have no King. There is no way to restore the simple life. Everyone is a debtor of some sort. 

Jesus died to set us free from our debt to sin, we now have eternal life and yet we act as if we are not living in that freedom. We owe Him more than a thank you. We go about each day without giving much consideration to our Lord about how we should navigate our lives in this world.

We cannot restore the Year of Jubilee in this republic, but since we are Kingdom dwellers we can restore the institution of forgiveness. Forgiveness after all is at the core of Jubilee.