Ascension Lutheran Church

In our text Jesus speaks of “the acceptable year of the Lord.” The idea is that it was ‘the year of
the Lord’s acceptance of His people’ – ‘the year of the Lord’s favor upon His people.’ August
Pieper refers to it as “the Year of Grace of the Lord” (Isaiah II, p. 601). “The acceptable year of
the Lord” is an expression God used in the Old Testament to refer to the “Jubilee” year. In the
twenty-fifth chapter of Leviticus we learn that the Jubilee was to be observed by God’s people
once every fifty years. During the fiftieth “Jubilee” year, people who owed money had their
debts cancelled, anyone who had sold land had his land returned to him, and all Jews who had
become slaves were set free. For that whole year none of the land was to be planted and
harvested. The people were freed from having to work the land, and so given rest. God intended
it to be a time of great joy for His people. “The acceptable year of the Lord,” or “Jubilee” was,
in God’s own words, a celebration of “liberty” and “rest” for His people (Lev. 25:10). Jesus
makes it clear in our text that the “Jubilee” was a type, or picture of the way He sets us free and
gives us rest!