THE RETURN OF JESUS AND THE YEAR OF
JUBILEE
“The
world will endure not less than 85 Jubilees, and on the last Jubilee the Son
of David will come” (Sanh. 97b)[1]
According to the Talmud, the
return of the Messiah is expected to coincide with the Year of Jubilee. The Kabbalah sees a parallel between the 50th
day (Shavuot/Pentecost) that follows the seven weeks after Passover and the 50th
year (Jubilee) following the seven Sabbatical year cycles. The Feast of Pentecost brought forth the Law
and the Spirit. Jubilee will bring forth
the Jesus the Messiah, the Son of David.
Why is Jubilee a likely time for the return
of the Messiah? First, the Year of
Jubilee begins with the Jewish New Year, the Feast of Rosh Hashanah (Feast of
Trumpets), announced with the blowing of trumpets. Believers who have studied the Feasts
generally hold the Feast of Trumpets as the likely date for the return of Jesus
“For the LORD Himself will descend from
heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God”
(1 Thess 4:16), “For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable,
and we will be changed,” (1 Cor
15:52). Rosh Hashanah is also the next
feast in keeping with the pattern of Jesus’ fulfillment of the earlier springs
feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits and Pentecost.
Further, the Year of Jubilee proclaims a
gathering of the nation to Israel, “It shall be a
jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his own property, and
each of you shall return to his family,” (Lev
25:11).
This gathering of Israelites reflects one of the greatest promises
in the Hebrew text given by Moses before the nation entered the land, (Deut 30:2-5). An allusion to the fulfillment of this promise
is seen in the words Jesus proclaimed before His crucifixion, “And then He will send forth the angels, and
will gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest end of
the earth to the farthest end of heaven,” (Mark 13:27). Jesus' words imply the close proximity of Jubilee in the days of His ministry.
The Levitical passage describing the Year of
Jubilee continues with the phrase “proclaim
liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants,” (Lev 25:10, NIV). This phrase is later referenced in the
prophecy of Isaiah, “The Spirit of the
Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the
afflicted…to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners,”
(Isa 61:1, NASB). These words of Isaiah have Messianic implications, especially for
the believer since Jesus read the same passage in His hometown synagogue, concluding
with the words, “Today this Scripture has
been fulfilled in your hearing,” (Luke
4:18-21).
When John asked Jesus “Are you the Expected One?” (Matt 11:3), some think John was alluding to the prophecy of Isaiah
(Isa 61:1) and asking if Jesus was the "anointed" one who was
going to set John free. The response of
Jesus to John was filled with attributes of the Kingdom, “the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and
the deaf hear, the dead are raise up, and the poor have the gospel preached to
them” (Matt 11:5), but concludes
with the cautionary words, “blessed is he who does not take
offense at Me.” Noticeably absent
from Jesus’ words is the release of the captives, which would have occurred in
the Year of Jubilee.
It was not preordained that the nation of
Israel would reject the Messiah. For freewill
to function, the offer of national restoration through repentance had to be legitimate. Even though God’s foreknowledge understood
that the nation would reject the Messiah, this does not mean that the outcome was
predestined. In other words, Jesus was
not just going through the motions, but must have been calling the nation to
repentance around the time of Jubilee, A.D. 30 plus or minus a few years. Had the nation repented and believed, the
fullness of the Kingdom would have been revealed.
Although no man knows the exact day Jesus will return, we can speculate that every 50 years the opportunity arrives with the coming of the Year of Jubilee. Following a fifty-year sequence, the 40th Jubilee after the crucifixion will arrive sometime between 2027 to 2033 A.D. No one knows if Jesus will return on this Jubilee, but it’s difficult to conceive that the world can last another 65 years to the Jubilee that follows. All this is subject to at least the following qualifications:
(1)
The accuracy of the dating of Jesus’ ministry and the
crucifixion by historians,
(2)
The assumption that the Year of Jubilee occurred sometime during
the ministry of Jesus or in the year of His crucifixion, and
(3)
The understood fifty-year cycle of Jubilee. Judah haNasi contended that the Year of
Jubilee coincided with the Sabbatical 49th year. He argued this position to prevent the burden
of having two consecutive Sabbath years for the land. However, the majority of the Talmudic rabbis
believed that the biblical phrase “hallow
the fiftieth year” along with the promise of three years worth of fruit indicates
that the Jubilee year was the 50th year. If the Jubilee cycle was only a 49-cycle, then
the next Year of Jubilee would arrive by 2039 A.D.
We live in
interesting and prophetic times.
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